Foreign celebrities busted for visa violation
Tyler Rasch
Two ‘Abnormal Summit’ guests had brush with visa rule
By Park Si-soo
Two guests on the popular cable talk show, “Abnormal Summit,” were busted for violating visa regulations, sources said Tuesday.
JTBC, the channel where the program is aired, also knew about their visa status but hired them anyway for pilot programs before the show was segued into regular programming.
They said that the “problem” had been worked out and the Ministry of Justice granted them conditional approval for working on the show.
Tyler Rasch, 26, an American doing a master’s degree at Seoul National University, entered the country on a D-2 student visa, while Zhang Yuan, 30, a former Chinese news anchor, had an E-2 visa for foreign language teachers. Both needed E-6 status for the show.
“They were caught in August,” a ministry official said. “Rasch was slapped with a fine of 500,000 won, while Zhang was spared the fine.”
An E-6 is granted to those who want to work in the fields of culture and entertainment. The two were allowed to work on the show without E-6 at the broadcaster’s request. The ministry limited their commercial activities to appearing on the show.
That raised eyebrows when Zhang promoted China’s Tsingtao beer at the Bitplex Mall, central Seoul, last week, signing autographs for his fans. If he was paid, it would be a violation of the ministry’s order.
“Tyler and Zhang appeared on the first few episodes without the ministry’s approval because it was then a pilot program. As it was added to the regular lineup, we sought the ministry’s approval to ensure their legitimate appearance,” said Kim Hee-jung, a director of Abnormal Summit that first went on the air in July. “We are doing our best to prevent similar mistakes from happening again.”