Korea to set up two visa application centers in China

By Yi Whan-woo

Korea will open visa application centers in the Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Qingdao on Sept. 14, the government said Sunday.

It said the centers will be additional to existing Korean consulates which have been offering visa-related services in the two Chinese cities.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice said in a joint statement that the measure is expected to provide convenience to the increasing numbers of Chinese people who have applied for Korean visas and have visited here recently.

Korea issued 332,000 visas in China last year alone. This figure accounted for 84 percent of visas issued globally in the same time period, according to the foreign ministry.

“Visa-related work at the Korean consulates in China has steadily increased while they had limited space and human resources, the statement read. “Such problems have led to delays in taking applications as well as in processing visas. We anticipate the visa application centers will ease the government’s work.”

Anyone can apply for visas there unless they plan to visit Korea on government business, diplomatic missions, or for group travel, the foreign ministry said.

The government will outsource the work at the visa application centers to Hana Tour, Korea’s largest travel agency.

The Seoul-based company will hire some 20 employees at each visa application center. The employees will exclusively receive applications and have passports with visas ready for pick-up, said a foreign ministry official.

“Such jobs have been most time-consuming steps when issuing a visa,” she said on condition of anonymity. “The officials at the consulates will be responsible for making sure that those jobs are carried out in a timely manner. At the same time, they still will be in charge of reviewing applications and deciding whether to issue a visa for an applicant.”