hankyoreh

The hallway is packed with people. Strong anxiousness can be detected on the faces of a middle-aged husband and wife. A man clutching a handful of papers grabs another person in the search for an answer to his questions. The floor of the hallway is littered with leaflets saying, "You can go to South Korea and work!" Inside the office, the phones ring off the hook.

Suddenly, a group of police officers storm in. The previously bustling hallway has become as quiet as a funeral parlor.

This was a true-life scene shown on the Chinese TV program ‘Weekly Economy.’ Chinese police conducted the raid on the "Visitation and Work Visa Office" in Yenji, Yenbien Autonomous Zone, because the office was a hotbed of fraud, its "officers" swindling ethnic Koreans living in China out of thousands of dollars. Several of the office’s employees made a run for it when the officers arrived; in all, eight were arrested that day.

This was a true-life scene shown on the Chinese TV program ‘Weekly Economy.’ Chinese police conducted the raid at an office alleged to be a "Visitation and Work Visa Office" in Yenji, Yenbien Korean Autonomous District, Jilin Province.

The ‘Visitation and Work Visa,’ which the South Korean government is set to begin issuing from March 4, is causing a large commotion in the ethnic Korean community in China, largely concentrated in the Yenbien area along the North Korean border and recognized as a special zone because of its high population of ethnic Koreans. Large-scale scams are breaking out everywhere for this ‘ticket to South Korea.’ The visa program, which was supposed to open the doors for ethnic Koreans living in China and ex-Soviet Union countries, has also given way to a great deal of negative side effects, even before the program has started.

Some are concerned that this new program may become another part of the wave of visa and employment scams suffered by ethnic Koreans in China seeking to live the so-called ‘Korean dream.’

The Visitation and Work Visa program is an offer hard to resist for ethnic Koreans in China who wish to go to Korea. Unlike any other current visa programs, including the family visit visa, which requires a living relative in South Korea, this new visa program allows any ethnic Korean in China 25 years or older to come to South Korea to work. Also, this new multiple-visit visa allows holders to stay for three years per single visit, and remains valid for five years.

The problem stemmed from the quota the South Korean government placed on the number of visas to be issued under this program, a move to prevent a surge of ethnic Korean Chinese from entering the South Korean labor market. In addition to the annual quota, there is also a Korean language proficiency test. Those who pass are selected at random.

Scam artists started capitalizing on this newfound opportunity immediately. In addition, the South Korean government’s preliminary announcement of the program and the screening process, prior to its finalizing the details, further fueled the criminals’ ability to dupe would-be applicants.

Kim Min-baek, a 45 year-old ethnic Korean living in Yenji, paid a broker 6,000 yuan (US$771) after the broker guaranteed him a job in South Korea. The fee was a year’s salary for Kim. But by the time Kim found out that the broker was not licensed by the South Korean government, the broker was already long gone.

Another ethnic Korean Chinese, Choi Yong-woon, 35 years old and living in Lungjing, was convinced by another broker that he had to study for the Korean proficiency exam to qualify for the visa. He paid 2,000 yuan to get himself into a Korean class in Harbin, along with about 60 other such students. He then paid the broker an additional 28,000 yuan, allegedly for his visa fee, plane tickets, and other costs. But the broker turned out to be a fraud, as did his claims regarding the "requirement" of taking a course in Korean.

Many travel agencies have joined the bandwagon by pretending to be official agencies sponsored by the Korean government as visa issuing agents. Li Hong, a 28-year-old ethnic Korean in Tumen, paid 500 yuan to a tour agency who claimed it issued the new visa on behalf of the South Korean government. Her visa never surfaced.

The ’Weekly Economy’ news program reported that the other category of scammers, the tour agencies, are thriving in many Chinese cities and regions, including Yenji, Lungjing, Tumen, Helong, and Hunchun.

The Yenbien Korean Autonomous Government of Jilin Province finally took action. The Police Department and Policy Promotion Department of the Autonomous Government held a joint press conference on January 19 and warned about the new visa scam. They asked the public to report any illegal brokers to the authorities. The Korean General Consulate in Shenyang also made a public announcement on January 17, saying that the "South Korean government has never delegated the right to receive applications [for the new visa] or screen the applicants to any party, and has no plan to do so in the future."

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]