Prior to coming to the land of Lace Lanterns and Ligers we had such huge missions when trying to organize our documents.
My biggest mission was trying to get my degree from the dreaded university. I technically graduated in December 2011 but the graduation ceremony would not take place until the following April so they refused to give me my certificate of qualification. I got letters from faculty officers and head of the examination board but that just wasn't good enough for the Korean government, they needed the actual degree. After much begging and negotiation, as well as knowing people in the right places, I got a letter, which was close to looking like a degree, with the correct wording, and I was in. Finally I had everything I needed to ship off to Korea, until we realized we had to have everything appostilled. The only place in the whole country that can appostille these documents is in Pretoria. So we sent off everything by courier. I needed my degree/letter to be certified by the Education Department and then sent to the International Relations and Immegration Department to be appostilled. This was too much for the courier to fathom and I ended up having to pay more money for them to collect the documents from the Education department the following day and take it to the International department. When all they had to do was wait 5 minutes and it would have been ready to go. The frustration was unbearable. I just wanted to break down in tears.
Once the couriers failed to succeed in this task, we opted for asking some friends to attempt it. Shame, it was such a mission for them but eventually we had success.
Much to our dismay, we needed the same process done on additional documents a few days later so we decided to just go there and do it ourselves. We packed all of our bags, not knowing if we were leaving South Africa or just having a stressful trip to Johannesburg. We went to stay with M's aunt and uncle. We saw a few friends and attempted to sort out our documents. Which turned out being a mission to even find the right buildings but once we had, it was pretty easy and we should have just done it ourselves in the first place.
So documents all stamped and embellished with official seals and ribbons, we were ready to have our visas processed. We went into the Korean Embassy with all our documents, which they didn't ask to see. We applied for the visa in record time, and were told we could collect them within the next two days. Thank goodness.
With our bags packed and now proof of approval for our visas, we booked our flights for 2 March 2012.
From waiting to hear for months and months, and stressing about whether we had all the right documents and the process of organizing them being brutal everything happened so quickly and we were going to Korea. Leaving in two days. All the stress and worry was worth it.
My biggest mission was trying to get my degree from the dreaded university. I technically graduated in December 2011 but the graduation ceremony would not take place until the following April so they refused to give me my certificate of qualification. I got letters from faculty officers and head of the examination board but that just wasn't good enough for the Korean government, they needed the actual degree. After much begging and negotiation, as well as knowing people in the right places, I got a letter, which was close to looking like a degree, with the correct wording, and I was in. Finally I had everything I needed to ship off to Korea, until we realized we had to have everything appostilled. The only place in the whole country that can appostille these documents is in Pretoria. So we sent off everything by courier. I needed my degree/letter to be certified by the Education Department and then sent to the International Relations and Immegration Department to be appostilled. This was too much for the courier to fathom and I ended up having to pay more money for them to collect the documents from the Education department the following day and take it to the International department. When all they had to do was wait 5 minutes and it would have been ready to go. The frustration was unbearable. I just wanted to break down in tears.
Once the couriers failed to succeed in this task, we opted for asking some friends to attempt it. Shame, it was such a mission for them but eventually we had success.
Much to our dismay, we needed the same process done on additional documents a few days later so we decided to just go there and do it ourselves. We packed all of our bags, not knowing if we were leaving South Africa or just having a stressful trip to Johannesburg. We went to stay with M's aunt and uncle. We saw a few friends and attempted to sort out our documents. Which turned out being a mission to even find the right buildings but once we had, it was pretty easy and we should have just done it ourselves in the first place.
So documents all stamped and embellished with official seals and ribbons, we were ready to have our visas processed. We went into the Korean Embassy with all our documents, which they didn't ask to see. We applied for the visa in record time, and were told we could collect them within the next two days. Thank goodness.
With our bags packed and now proof of approval for our visas, we booked our flights for 2 March 2012.
From waiting to hear for months and months, and stressing about whether we had all the right documents and the process of organizing them being brutal everything happened so quickly and we were going to Korea. Leaving in two days. All the stress and worry was worth it.
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