Travel Story pt 2
On January 6, 2021 by Keturah HaferkampImmigration 1
Directly following the uploading of the app we stopped at another immigration station where we were questioned again about symptoms and whether we were traveling together. The official examined our passports and K’s visa grant notice. He promptly noted that we must be separated in order to quarantine because only K had obtained the correct visa. The rest of the family was traveling on tourist visas. We tried to explain our intent to obtain family visas, but to no avail. We requested permission to call the Office of International Affairs (OIA) at the university. Thankfully they said yes and thankfully the officials there picked up the phone (even though it was after work hours). OIA explained that we were a family and should not be separated. Immigration explained that it was against the rules to permit our situation due to the different kinds of visas. OIA explained that they would be responsible for us as we quarantined together….
They discussed and discussed. We waited and waited, sat, ate snacks, and prayed for mercy. The officials eventually let us continue together. It might be that they were just tired of staring at us for so much time. It might just be God’s grace. We praise God either way.
Immigration 2
Our next stop in immigration was a window where we were required to prove our family relationship so that we could in fact enter the country together. This meant an uploading of passports, marriage certificate, birth certificates of each child. By this time we were exhausted and about another hour had passed. Once documents were uploaded and complete we were able to move to the next station.
Immigration 3
The final station of immigration was pretty standard. The official took our fingerprints, scanned/stamped our passports, verified that our faces matched our passport photos, asked for the reason for travel and then smiled and said, “Welcome to Korea.”
We entered the country, excited and grateful. We wanted to kiss the airport floor!
InCOVID: traveling to our destination
Still in the airport, we headed to baggage claim. Our bags were some of the last ones on the carousel. Eight pieces of very large luggage collected, a bathroom break and a walk through customs (nothing to declare) posited us out into the Incheon Airport space where taxi drivers awaited to cart new arrivals to the express KTX quarantine train or express quarantine bus terminals designated specifically for anyone entering the country. We asked for a LARGE taxi and were disappointed that our driver got lost looking for the proper entrance to the train station. Remember we needed the station entrance designated for quarantiners. Finally we found the proper train entrance and were led to the ticket purchase counter. We boarded our train to Pohang several minutes later.
At each transition we were tracked, which makes the contact tracing process (if it is needed later) much easier. The taxi driver tracked us. The train ticket counter tracked us. And as we did not yet have phones, we had to use the phone number of the university sponsor that offered to be responsible for us.
The train ride took about 3.5 hours. We relaxed, dozed, tried to access the ubiquitous WiFi, and realized we were hungry.
We arrived in Pohang at about 11:30pm. A designated bus from the Pohang City Health Dept came to drive us to our place of quarantine. It was so nice to open the door to our new apartment and find welcome notes from other International Faculty members, food, snacks, all manner of baked goods, bottled waters, and BEDS.
We slept and slept and slept.