‘Crime Certificate’ required for changing C-3-8 visa to H-2 work visa, can be easily issued through an agency.

As of the end of October 2016, according to the statistics of foreigners staying in Korea, the number of Chinese nationals living in Korea is about 630,000, which is 31% of the total number of foreigners staying in Korea. When the number of Chinese-Korean entering the country is on the rise, it is estimated that from July 2017 to about 680,000 to 700,000.

Recently, each local government has been planning and implementing various educational systems and regional events for Chinese-Koreans adapting to Korea. Not only local governments but also central departments offer various ways to support them, and one of the most favorable systems is the “C-3-8 visa holder's H-2 employment visa system,” which the Ministry of Justice has implemented since mid of 2014.

According to the system, Chinese nationals with a “C-3-8 visa for visiting Chinese-Koreans” who received technical training can apply for a conversion to an “H-2 work visa” through a computerized lottery. For changing the visa, there are lots of documents required especially many Chinese-Korean are struggling to issue "crime certificate" among the documents.

Chinese-Korean who wants to issue the documents have to visit China. Unlike in Korea, the document can only be issued at a local police station in China that are recorded on their background record. Therefore, Chinese-Korean should submit their application to police station in person and get the document. To use documents in Korea, the documents must be notarized by the notary agency and certified by the Foreign Affairs and finally notarized by Korean Embassy. If a person receives a notice of rejection, he or she cannot retrieve the submitted documents so he or she must prepare the documents from the beginning. In other words, without perfect preparation it takes lots of time and costs.

KICPC said, “In China, the procedures and requirements are more demanding than in other countries, so many people have trouble issuing the documents. That’s why KICPC started to provide related service.” “Issuance, notarization, embassy certification processes are often complicated for individuals, and the requirements and procedures may change depending on the type of visa and the time of application.” according to KICPC, “please use a reliable agency office to issue the documents.’

Lee Young-woo, CEO of KICPC said “We have recently established a branch office in Argentina and are expanding to China, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and South America. In the future, we are planning to provide faster and more reliable services through expanding our branch offices around the world.”

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