A term commonly used by Westerners
teaching English abroad, although not used exclusively by them (workers in
USA/
Canada typically have to make a visa run back to their home country when switching work visas). Most English teaching jobs in Asian nations like
Korea,
Japan,
Taiwan, and
Thailand are for one year contracts and consequently the work
visa is valid for a year. Despite the
plethora of horror stories one hears about teaching abroad, many "
re-up". Their reasons are their own. The problem is the visa cannot be applied for/granted while
in country. It can only be granted at a foreign
embassy/
consulate. So this entails a visa run, usually to a neighboring nation. Korean English teachers typically go to Japan. Japanese English teachers go to Korea. The more adventurous take a mini vacation and hit places like Thailand or
Malaysia.
A visa run is usually a minimum of 24 hours, although
SNAFUs can extend the period and provide the SNAFUFuckedOver a tale to tell the
hapa grand kiddies. Given most English teachers are working abroad to pack away as much money into their banks as possible (usually to help pay down
student loans), the key to the visa run is finding a cheap flight a short hop away to a cheap destination. In other words, few make visa run all the way back to
North America. Workers in Japan who make a run to Korea are generally in the most favorable position. Korea seems like a bargain compared to Japan. Everything seems to cost only half as much. Korean workers making a visa run to Japan are at something of a disadvantage, given the high price of hotels. To cut costs,
Osaka (comedy capital of Japan) tends to be the favored destination over Tokyo.