In the last 2 to 3 years Korea has changed their immigration process for those who want to make the Japanese visa run. If you are applying for your E-2 visa in Canada this step is not necessary. If however, you are applying for your visa while inside Korea and intend to visit the Korean Consulate in Japan you must have an additional piece of paper. You need a background check done by Korean Education. These normally take 2-3 weeks to process.
When you are applying for your issuance number from Korean immigration if they know you are inside the country it is possible that they will flag the application. If they assume you are still in your home country you won’t find this out until you get to the Korean Consulate in Japan and they reject your visa.
I have never seen this on any of the websites that I’ve looked at. It was not on the Korean consulate website, nor did immigration offer up the information when we were getting the issuance number. Your school may or may not know about this detail, depends on how proactive they are.
Brynn
Jacob
Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids 
[…] I only had to spend one night to renew my tourist visa so I didn’t plan on too much. If you are going to Fukuoka for a South Korean E2 visa you should probably plan on spending at least two days. Your school will give you all the information you need to get to the consulate. They will also help you prepare your documents. *Check this out if you are planning on doing an E2 visa run* […]
You’ve done it once more. Superb post.
You’ve done it once more! Incredible read!
If only more people would read this!
Incredibly great article! Really..
If only I had a dollar for every time I came here! Great article!
Brynn…
I found your entry interesting thus I’ve added a Trackback to it on my weblog :)…
Hello,
I actually was here (SK) on a tourist visa, waiting for my US FBI to come through. Unfortunately it took 6 MONTHS instead of the told 12 weeks. That means I am over the 90-day limit of my tourist visa by about 1 month.
When my FBI finallly came through, I gave it to my prospective employer, to applied to immigration for E-2, and they told him I was illegal.
My question, do you happen to know the fines for overstaying your tourist visa? If I can just pay the fine and take a quick trip to Japan, it would be a God-send!
If you happen to know, please let me in on the info!!