Visas hard to get for venture businessmen

Recently, several representatives and executives of venture companies failing to obtain U.S. visas have had to delay their business expansion plans abroad.

One 40-year-old venture businessman with annual sales of 4 billion won for a new product developed by his company had to abandon his plans to attend a meeting with investors in Los Angeles. The U.S. Embassy in Korea denied his visa application stating that there was a possibility of him residing in the United States illegally in consideration of his background information such as family ties, and social and financial standings.

As a father of two and president of a company with 50 employees, he could not fully understand the cause and resubmitted the application with additional documents. Once again, the visa was denied.

A director of the same company, a 33-year-old woman with two apartments to her name in Seoul, also failed to obtain a visa due to her financial standing being uncertain.

In response to a detailed explanation on the matter by this vernacular, the U.S. Embassy stated that there were no exceptions to the visa standards throughout the world.

iam@donga.com