Anyway
I want to keep these entries public for as long as I can, meaning I want to avoid topics that certain people, should they have an interest in searching for my content, might come across.
So how about my visa.
From 2007 until 2014, I had an E-7 work visa, and it was sponsored by the one company I had worked for up until that point. I was lucky to get it when I first got it, as the visa requirements changed at the beginning of 2008. Before 2008, I needed to demonstrate two years of experience in the field related to the job I was applying for. After that, it got bumped up to five years of experience. I was only out of university for a year by that point. At the time I'd applied, I'd just gotten my first actual paying job in the field of publishing - specifically, as a part-time proofreader at a local newspaper. I lasted three weeks at that job, not because it was at all bad, but because that's when my E-7 visa to Korea was approved.
How did I make up the remaining year and 49 weeks of relevant experience? I don't think I lied, I just prioritized relevant writing activities, such as proofreading during my one semester at Yonsei University, writing graphic novel reviews for a website, and majoring in creative writing.
Anyway.
By 2013 . . . well, I'd had enough of a lot of things, and one of those things was my legal status in Korea. I wanted something a bit longer-lasting and flexible. So I applied for the F-2-99 resident visa.
Eight years later, I'm still at a bit of a loss to explain what this visa is. At the time I had applied for it, I believe 95% of its recipients were Taiwanese in Korea.
There were three major requirements, out of nearly a dozen. The first is that I'd needed five consecutive years working in Korea. I had that, more or less (sort of less, to be honest, but that's a whole other story). The second is that I needed a certain amount of money in my bank savings. I'd accumulated that. The third was that I needed to pass level 2 on the Korean language proficiency test, a relatively easy task. I did that.
So I got the visa.
And then not much changed.
Unlike other types of resident visas, this one had a sort of proviso that I was to continue working in my chosen E-7 field. I couldn't just go off and work on a farm, or open a cafe. I mean maybe I could, but probably not, given the reminders from immigration each time I renewed. Since I was starting to despair that I'd ever find a better job related to writing in Korea, this did not present much of a visa issue. It also mean that by staying at my one job, I wasn't doing anything with the visa, other than continuing to reside in Korea.
I found a better job last year. It is possible that as of this year, when I renewed my visa again, if my renewal had been rejected, my new job could have sponsored me on another work visa, but at the time I had signed on, that wouldn't have been possible. There's a law that has to do with the number of employees at a company and whether a company is big enough to sponsor foreign workers.
Anyway.
The point is, I've done ALMOST nothing with the visa, but it finally served a purpose last year, in June 2021. I am not working in the same field, but I am doing work related to writing, and that was good enough for immigration.
On a related note, sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't botched an application for a technical writing position at Yonsei University's hospital back in 2007. Well, everything would have been different. I didn't and still don't know much about medical writing, and I wonder how well I would have adapted. It's weird to think about.
Anyway.
That's become my less-interesting Vonnegut tic of late. Whenever I reach the end of a line or thought, or accept that the line of thought can no longer lead anywhere productive, ANYWAY comes along and wipes the slate clean.