I spent a whole afternoon at an immigration expo and felt more confused than before

Getting lost in the crowd at the COEX fair

I ended up going to one of those massive immigration and overseas study fairs in Gangnam last month, mostly because I was just tired of my routine. I kept seeing advertisements for programs about Australian pharmacy schools and various pathways for professional immigration. Honestly, the brochures were so glossy and colorful that they made the whole process look like booking a vacation package. But standing there in the middle of that humid room, shoulder-to-shoulder with people who looked just as anxious as I felt, the reality of it started to sink in. Everyone was carrying these heavy bags full of pamphlets about non-destructive testing certificates, intern programs in the U.S., and language school brochures for Japan. I picked up a few, but I couldn’t tell if the people behind the booths were consultants or just really efficient salespeople.

The gap between brochures and my actual bank account

One booth was highlighting how certain jobs have a 98% employment rate, which sounds incredible until you look at the price tags. Some of these transition programs cost upwards of $20,000 for just the first year of preparation. I remember doing the math on my phone while leaning against a pillar, realizing that my savings wouldn’t even cover the initial language training, let alone the tuition for a degree in a place like Australia. It’s funny how they emphasize the ‘global talent’ aspect so much but rarely mention the sheer amount of time you have to spend just waiting for visa approvals. It felt like I was looking at a map of a place I couldn’t afford to visit.

Listening to people talk about long-term visas

I overheard a group discussing the difference between working in Malaysia versus taking a chance on a new recruitment process in Japan. It’s strange, the way we talk about moving abroad like we’re just trading one office desk for another, but the underlying anxiety about residency and legal status is always there. One consultant kept mentioning how local universities are now partnering with global institutions to bridge this gap, talking about ‘local settlement’ and ‘human resource circulation.’ It sounds like a great strategy on a university website, but for someone like me, it just sounded like more hurdles. Am I supposed to start a whole new degree? Do I really want to be a student again at this age just to get a foot in the door?

The feeling of wanting to leave versus the reality of starting over

I think I went there hoping for a clear sign, or maybe a shortcut that didn’t involve three years of additional schooling or thousands of dollars in fees. Instead, I left with a headache and a plastic bag full of papers I’ll probably throw away by the weekend. I looked at the stats they provided about job growth in technical fields, but the more I looked, the more it felt like I was chasing a moving target. I haven’t quite decided if I’m actually going to do anything, or if this was just a way to distract myself from feeling stuck at my current desk. There is this lingering uncertainty about whether moving is the fix I think it is, or if I’m just projecting my boredom onto a different country’s visa requirements. I walked out into the cool evening air of Gangnam and realized I was just as undecided as when I walked in.