Bermuda
Suji had long since guessed that James would hate the military.
“Then I’ll move on to the long-term stay visa options.”
“Anything else?”
“There are a ridiculous number of them. Luckily, a few of them apply to you. For now, you’re staying under a visa-exempt American B-1 visa, which only allows you to remain for up to ninety days. So you’d have to leave the United States once every three months.”
“Hmm…”
It didn’t sound like much of a problem, but it did seem terribly annoying.
“If you want a long-term stay visa here, first option: get a job. Even an English academy instructor gets you two years…”
“Pass on the job. I don’t need to make any more money.”
He already had more than two billion dollars in assets. There was no reason to earn money by doing what someone else told him to do.
“…Right. If we exclude employment, the options narrow down fast. There’s only one left.”
“What is it?”
“…Ahem.”
Suji cleared her throat, trying to overcome her embarrassment.
“The last remaining route is… being the spouse of a Korean national.”
“…Spouse?”
“If you marry a Korean, you can get a long-term visa.”
Suji pointed at herself, twirling her finger in a little circle as if to say, There I am. The one who can marry you.
“Is that really the only way?”
“If you were even willing to work, you could get an H-2 visa as an overseas Korean, but you said you weren’t taking a job.”
“What about studying abroad or something?”
There was, of course, also a long-term stay visa for study. If you were admitted to a college-level institution or above, you could stay for up to two years.
“…I’m against that.”
“Why?”
“You want me to let you loose among bright, fresh young women who just graduated high school? I can’t do that.”
“Pfft.”
Since James didn’t choose it, Suji brought up another, rather slim possibility.
“Well… setting up a company and staying for management, cultural, artistic, or athletic activities gets you two years too, but…”
“Oh. That sounds good.”
“…Huh?”
“If I set up a company and run it, I can stay for two years, right? I’ll just put in a bit of capital and start one.”
“…Do you actually mean that? You’re not starting a company just for the visa, are you? You’d probably run it into the ground in no time.”
“I was thinking it might be worth starting a company when I factor in Colt’s visa too. Colt needs a long-term visa as well.”
“Ah… so you weren’t just thinking about James.”
“If I were alone, there wouldn’t even be anything to think about, would there?”
James pointed at himself the same way Suji had a moment ago.
“Hehe.”
Think whatever you like, Suji.
James still wasn’t dreaming about marriage.
Like you said, I’m still young.
“Hehe. Still, no company. Think of something else.”
“…Fine. First, show me what you found. I need to know all the options before I choose.”
Suji handed over the paper she’d been peeking at and studying from the corner of her eye.
“Here. No matter how you look at it, employment’s the answer, right? Or else you should hurry up and get married…”
“Let me read through it first…”
James quickly scanned down the list of visas, starting with the A-1 diplomatic visa and moving onward.
There really are a lot of them…
But like Suji said, a long-term visa through employment looked like the easiest route.
“Oh?”
Then he found another visa Suji hadn’t expected him to notice.
“There’s one more here.”
“There shouldn’t be…”
James set the paper down and tapped the relevant visa with a finger.
“This one would guarantee two years.”
“Eeh? How would you qualify?”
“…I’m a Vatican City citizen.”
“Aren’t you an American citizen?”
“I have dual citizenship. I told you I acquired it after going to the Vatican recently.”
“…Fine, whatever. But being a Vatican citizen doesn’t automatically make you someone dispatched by a religious organization, you know.”
The visa James had chosen was D-6, religious activities, and the residence status was for people dispatched by a religious organization. Its stay period was two years, similar to the other long-term visas.
“You’d need documentation issued by the religious organization in question.”
Suji had a point. No matter that he held Vatican citizenship, it would be difficult to get that visa without the proper paperwork.
“Then I’ll just ask for it.”
“…Why would they just issue something like that because you ask?”
“……”
James held a ministerial rank as the Vatican’s magic chief.
Granted, it’s not an official title…
Still, if it was Joseph, the Vatican chamberlain, he probably would take care of it somehow.
But if I do that, I might get tangled up with the Vatican again.
James kept looking.
“There was another option besides that one.”
“Another one?”
“D-7. Working on dispatch from a Korean headquarters or branch office.”
“Eh? You got a job in the U.S.?”
It was a way of getting covert employment through a Korean branch of one of the companies tied to the Las Vegas VIP Club members he’d gotten familiar with. But the word covert was just another way of saying false, so he kept searching for something else on the list.
“And here, E-1 might work too.”
“That’s for university professors, isn’t it?”
E-1, professor, was a visa for foreign professors working at educational institutions of junior-college level or higher, and it had the longest stay period of all at five years.
“I’m a world-class magician, remember? If I say I’m going to lecture in a magic-related department, wouldn’t the university welcome me with open arms?”
“Ah… yeah, that would work. A world-class magician who’s fluent in Korean too… I’d hire you myself.”
“And then…”
As he reviewed the options, James realized that the surest first route was still the best one to pursue.
“No matter how you look at it, there’s nothing better than an F-5 visa.”
The F-5 permanent residency visa, renewed only once every ten years, was the most efficient. The state treated holders almost the same as its own citizens.
“You said you weren’t going to the military, right?”
“If permanent residency is the end of it, then that’s enough. I don’t plan on taking Korean nationality later, so the military has nothing to do with me. I count as an overseas Korean too. Of course, because I don’t meet the residency period yet, I’ll still have to pass the comprehensive evaluation Suji mentioned earlier.”
“That one requires at least two years of residence first. Read the fine print.”
“……”
In tiny letters at the corner of the page, it said that once two years had passed since the date a domestic residence address was registered, meeting the income requirements would make him eligible for F-5 permanent residency.
“Then I’ll need to get the F-4 visa for overseas Koreans first.”
“…Fine, but what about the income proof you’ll need later?”
“I’m going to figure that out now.”
“You think some neat little trick like that is just going to appear? You’ll have to keep it up until the day they review you, you know.”
Even the income certificate could be covered without magic, using only a fraction of James’s current assets.
“If I deposit about ten billion won in Korea and buy stocks, I’ll get dividends at the end of the year. Even if I park the money in a bank and take the interest, it’ll easily exceed two hundred million won.”
“…Ah, interest and dividend income… Yeah, that would definitely prove your income.”
For someone planning to buy a house worth twenty-six billion won, getting a job just to prove income was ridiculous.
“This method should work for Colt too…”
“But Uncle Colt can’t get an F-4 visa.”
Only James could be recognized as an overseas Korean. Colt was a pure American, born on the mainland United States.
“Tch. Then should the two of us open an English academy or something?”
“If Uncle Colt works as an English academy instructor…”
Suji imagined Colt standing in front of a class and immediately understood how that would end.
Hojung would be stressed out.
He wasn’t just any foreigner. Colt had a face like a sculpture, so he would clearly draw even more attention than James.
“Hojung would probably have to watch him every day, wouldn’t she?”
“Pfft. I’m thinking the same thing.”
There was no doubt that young female students would be asking him out every single day.
“Oh, right. James.”
After the visa discussion wrapped up, Suji remembered something she’d meant to ask.
“What happened with the house you were looking into?”
“Ah, that?”
James remembered the text message he’d recently gotten from the broker.
“I decided to sign for the house we heard about together.”
After James and Suji had visited, the broker had run himself ragged chasing down options and lined up plenty of candidates. But from James’s point of view, none of them were better than the first listing. So, after going in circles, he ended up choosing the house they’d first seen in the paperwork.
“Wow! Nice. How much?”
“Twenty-four billion won. They knocked off two billion.”
“Ohhh!”
“They said ownership would transfer as soon as I paid. I also heard the place had been vacated recently and that it was tied up as collateral with the bank.”
The property had originally been listed at twenty-six billion won, but the owner had never expected to get the full amount, and he was eager to clear the mortgage burden hanging over the house as quickly as possible. So while James hesitated, the broker stepped in to persuade him, and the result was a two-billion-won discount.
“Vacated? Why?”
“Ah. They were older folks, and it sounds like all their children got married, leaving just the couple in the house.”
When the family had all lived together, it had been a large, comfortable home, but then everyone moved out and only the elderly couple remained. Family still came by sometimes, but hiring people to clean and maintain the garden had become too expensive.
“If a house is big, it’s not easy to take care of. They were probably having a hard time because they were older.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m going to close the deal as soon as the foreigner registration card comes through.”
“Ohhh. Congratulations, congratulations!”
“Once the interior’s done, let’s all have a party there.”
“I’ll bring something delicious.”
After that, James was recognized smoothly as an overseas Korean and received his foreigner registration card and long-term visa.
What’s more, unlike the long-term overseas Korean visa he’d looked into, a stay status could also be granted simply by depositing more than three hundred million won in investment funds.
I was worrying for nothing.
James opened an account at Citibank’s Korean branch, then deposited the money he planned to use for the house and transferred ownership in one clean sweep. Citibank handled most of the work for him, since he was one of their VIP customers.
Easy. Too easy.
The only problem was that word of everything James had done was destined to reach someone’s ears.
* * *
Bang!
“What the hell kind of bullshit is this!”
“……”
Flap.
Once again, the approval folder and the papers went flying through the air. The documents that fluttered to the floor contained the information that James Kane had received a long-term visa and even registered a residence in Seoul.
Damn it. Why the hell did that bastard apply for a long-term visa?
They had not expected him to obtain the visa that allowed the longest possible stay.
“What are we supposed to do now, Park, huh?”
“……”
Since going abroad had become uncertain, the only thing left was the car accident they had discussed before.
“I’ll prepare the cleanup.”
“……”
Even after Park Jin-tae said he would take care of it, the expression on Choi Jeong-san’s face did not ease.
What now…?
“Park.”
“…Yes, sir.”
“Do you know how much that bastard’s house cost?”
“If he had been saving money in the U.S. all this time, he would have had enough to buy a house. Maybe around two billion won…”
That was a fairly normal price for a private residence. But a house in Hannam-dong, especially one with enormous space and a view of the Han River, was on another level entirely.
“Didn’t you know that the person who lived there used to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs? He was a three-term National Assembly member and held all kinds of top posts!”
“……”
“Hah. Fine, say you didn’t know. Even so, you should have checked the price in advance!”
“No matter how expensive it was…”
“No matter how expensive? Hah! Can you spend twenty billion won on a house overseas, Park?”
“!”
“The minimum price in that neighborhood starts at twenty billion won. And the place that minister lived in is even more expensive!”
He quickly picked up the document from the floor and checked the address.
Hannam-dong… owner-occupied, not rented.
Only then did Park Jin-tae understand why Choi Jeong-san had not nodded even when he said he would handle the cleanup.
It was the bastard’s money that was the problem.
Though he refused to recognize James as his son, he was still greedy for the money James had. Choi Jeong-san was a chaebol with plenty of money, and yet he was always hungry for more; his attempt to swallow up TY Group was only the latest expression of that endless greed.
“Besides, that bastard just got his foreigner registration card. He probably couldn’t even get a loan. And yet he landed a house worth well over two hundred billion won?”
“…I’ll look into it.”
“Look into everything. His assets, his connections, and even what he did to earn the money in the first place. Everything!”
“Then should we delay the cleanup a little? If we’re going to prepare the drunk-driving accident in advance, we’ll need time…”
“He doesn’t even know we’re watching him anyway! A little delay doesn’t matter!”
“…And once we know everything, what should we do?”
“Do I have to tell you every little thing? Have you gone rusty, Park? Maybe it’s time you started resting.”
Park Jin-tae swallowed the anger surging up inside him and changed his question again.
“…I was asking which account I should have the money deposited into, sir. I manage several accounts separately…”
“Oh. Right! That’s it. The deposit…”
Choi Jeong-san was already talking as if James’s money had fallen into his hands, searching through various accounts for the most suitable one.
“How about a Swiss account?”
“No. We already deposited there last time. There are too many accounts.”
“Then Hong Kong…”
“We’ve put enough there too. I want somewhere else. Ah! Didn’t we recently set up a corporation? There’s probably still room there.”
“Yes. We do have one. It’s the Bermuda corporation.”
“Use that.”
Choi Jeong-san was directing him to the destination of a shell company he’d recently created in Bermuda, on paper only.
“Take care of the cleanup and stash it there properly… okay?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll clear it all out and clean things up neatly.”