Tuesday, August 4, 2009

F-4 Visa or U.S. passport

Apparently, in Korea the governement considers me a Korean with a foreign passport. This could all be salami for all I know but... somewhere on the great multi-web it stated that an F-4 visa holder as somebody who is Korean with a foreign passport. This is really funny and strange to me considering the fact that I'm born and have been raised most of my life in America. Hell, I don't even look Korean, possibly asian sure but this boils down to something fundementally different about how Korean people consider nationality. They trace your blood line.

Let me explain. Although I am American born as is my father and his father (my grandfather), my mother is originally from Korea. In Korea, there is a national family tree center or something of that sort that keeps track of family ancestry. All Koreans can trace their family tree's back hundreds of years. (I know, crazy eh... and no I'm not Canadian).

This is quite different in North America atleast in the United States. If your born here on American soil, as we say... then you are American. You can be visiting the United States from some random island in the Indian Ocean... like Maldives and have a child on United States soil and your child is now American... or specifically a citizen of the United States of America.

As an American living in Korea I've always considered myself a foreigner living in Korea. Today, I read that according to my visa status. I am Korean with a foreign passport.

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