Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Documents Required to Apply for General Training Visa (D-4) for Malaysian

For Malaysian who wants to study Korean at university-run language school, they have two options for the visa.
(1) Study for one semester (less than 90 days) – no visa is required; as Malaysian can go to Korean without one if we stay less than 90 days.
(2) Study for two semester and more (more than 90days) – need to apply for General Training Visa (D-4) 

I sent an email to Korean Embassy in Malaysia for the checklist and received the checklist below:

MALAYSIAN NATIONALS - STUDENT VISA

For Malaysians, documents required for student visa application are:

1) Completed application form, 5 pages printed double-sided (attached)
2) One recent passport-sized color photo on white background
3) Original passport and its photocopy (main page only)
4) Admission documents from Korean university, including Certificate of Admission (original and photocopy)
5) Most recent graduation / school-leaving certificate (original and photocopy) OR Letter from home university to verify current student status if going for exchange program (original)
6) Certificate of Scholarship (original and photocopy) OR Personal bank statements for the latest 3 months, duly certified by bank in Malaysia, with balance not less than RM40,000 or the amount stated in the Certificate of Admission, whichever is higher
- if using parents' bank statements, please include copy of parents' IC and copy of student's birth certificate
7) Flight itinerary
8) Application fee, max. RM387, payable in cash

Additional documents may be requested upon assessment.
Application must be submitted over the counter at the Embassy between 8:30-11:30am Monday-Friday (except public holidays).
Processing takes at least 3 working days. No express service.

If applicant is unable to come personally, the representative should bring a copy of his/her own IC and an authorization letter from the applicant.

(Just for your easy reference, please refer to Korean Embassy for the latest documents and fees) 

P.s. I checked many website and other embassy website. Those websites stated that student need to provide 5,000 USD financial prove and 9,000 USD if study more than 6 months. However, I called to check with Korean Embassy in Malaysia, they said "the requirement of 10,000 USD has been there since FOREVER in Malaysia". I quoting what they say here word by word. 

The staff that I spoke with through the phone just reminded me why I hate to deal with Malaysia government staff :) 

Friday, 18 March 2016

How to Check Domestic & International Shipping Status When Buying from Gmarket




Firstly, to check how your order status, you need to click "My Gmarket" on the header of Gmarket page. It will bring you to the page where you can see all your orders and their status. 


To check domestic shipping status 
Domestic shipping refers to the shipping process from the seller to Gmarket warehouse. 
To check the domestic shipping status, you can click the "Tracking" button on the status column. 








In the Gmarket global version, there are basically three status for domestic shipping.



Preparing for shipment, Shipped to Warehouse, Arrival at Warehouse
































        If you are like me like to track and trace where is your parcel, even at the domestic delivery stage. You can check it on the Korean language page. Simple click on "Korean" on the header to change your Gmarket to Korean webpage. 


        After you reach the Korean, you need to click "나의쇼핑" or the little human icon there to access your Gmarket account. 


        As you can see, it basically same as the English page but if you click "배송추적", you can get the details for domestic shipping. 




        This window will pop up and it shows you where your parcel go from seller to warehouse. 

        However, what if you cannot understand Korean? No worries, if you use Google translate, it will direct translate the Korean words to English. 

        Tracking for International Shipping - EMS 
        If your parcel(s) has reach Gmarket warehouse, finish packaging and shipped out from warehouse, you can see the tracking number down there. For example, my shipping number was - EG165446355KR



        I tried to use the tracking details button, but it will bring you to this page where they need you to install something, just click "cancel". There will another pop up, click "cancel" again. 

         

        It will bring you to the EMS tracking page and you can see the shipment status.


        Alternately, you can go to http://www.track-trace.com/post
        Key in your EMS number, it will show the same result.
        (but you do not need to log in to Gmarket every time to check the status)


        You can also check from http://www.pos.com.my/ for your parcel status after your parcel reach Malaysia. As the shipping in Malaysia will be handle by POS Malaysia. 

        PROMOTION 

        Now, Gmarket is having shipping promotion for Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam. 
        So if you are from these three country and you buy something from them within the promotion period (16th Mar - 30th Apr), you will be charged 5,000won ONLY. That is around RM 17. 


        For those who have no idea how expensive is EMS. I brought some books just before the promotion. 
        It was 2.38 kg and it cost me 21,990won, that is around RM 80!
        I can save RM 63 if I buy it now... Imagine if I buy something heavier, how much more I can save.

        Now, no matter how heavy is your parcel, they will charge you only 5,000won. 
        So, go buy now! Especially if you want to buy something heavy (aka Korean books ;)), this is the time :) 

        Wednesday, 13 January 2016

        46th TOPIK in Malaysia


        The 46th TOPIK will be held at 17th April 2016 and the application information is already up at Korea UKM blog. Go check it out if you are thinking of taking TOPIK too. The registration will start from 1st Feb until 17th Feb. 

        Korea UKM blog - http://blog.naver.com/koreaukm 

        Good luck to everyone! I hope that we can all obtain the grade that we want ^^