Why Korea Came Out with New Visa Requirements
Philippine Ambassador to South Korea Raul Hernandez
MANILA – The Philippine Embassy in Korea believes that the new tourist visa requirements imposed by Korea was implemented to ensure that only genuine visitors will visit the country.
“I think they are making sure that they have enough facilities and enough services that they could extend to tourists, to bonafide tourists in Korea,” said Ambassador Raul Hernandez on Thursday.
The announcement on the new tourist visa requirements was made through the website of the embassy of the Republic of Korea in the Philippines last week.
Effective March 1, Sunday, applicants needs to provide their Bank Statements on top of the standard requirements of Certificate of Employment, Bank Certificate and Income Tax Return copy.
Hernandez meanwhile urged Filipinos illegally staying in Korea to come home.
“That’s why it is also important that Filipinos who are in Korea, who are not bonafide tourists, or who are not legally working there to come home and make sure that their papers are sufficient and then they could go back as legal workers,” he said.
As of November 2014, there are 52,379 Filipinos living in South Korea. Roughly 45 percent or 23,778 are employed under the Employment Permit System (EPS), including the more than 6,000 undocumented workers; 4 percent are in the arts and performances or entertainers; 2 percent are in the professional and specially designated occupations and a little over 1 percent are household service workers. Marriage migrants represent around 50 percent, Hernandez said.