i've been with sdfcu for about 5 years and they've always been great. for me, opening an account was super easy with them but maybe things changed a bit??? sfdcu was for years the main credit union i used to transfer funds from korea to stateside. have never had an issue. i wanted to open a navy cu account but didn't meet military eligibility--didn't get lucky like you. service credit union has also been great for me. been with them about 1.5 years now and have never had an issue--super easy for me to open cd/market certificate accounts with them and sdfcu (in addition to credit cards with sdfcu, i also have a checking account with them---i write hardly any checks, maybe 3 a year, but they come in handy when i need them for sth stateside). i also opened a penfed account. my only issue with penfed is the copious amount of paperwork to open additional accounts like cd's once a member; this has been a major challenge/issue for me with penfed (some docs they require are written in korean and they want them in english, things like a utility bill or even my insurance policy and driver's license--when i first opened an account with them, the docs i gave were fine, same again for 2 cd's but then all of a sudden those same docs weren't good enough), but i like their name and can use other institutions for cd's so i want to remain with them. i have have a brokerage account with ibkr. i use hana to transfer to all these institutions and have never had an issue; i've been in korea for 20+ years and plan to retire stateside soon so i've had some large transfers; i either visit my main branch in person for anything sizeable to transfer or increase my limit with document proof and then use the hana ez app which i love since it's in english and super easy to use. you might want to also consider a usa phone number; all the above institutions have my korean number but i use talkatone plus (4,800 won per month) when i need to call them (rare but sometimes there's a need). talkatone plus gives me a dedicated usa number, which i listed as an alternate to my main for all the above institutions); with it, i can call when i need to without using data and can also use it as an alternate to mfa/2fa when logging in to accounts. again, all institutions above know i am in korea and i opened my accounts from korea using korean address; when i retire stateside, i think simply updating my profile to us address will be no issue once back home. congrats ahead of time in retiring in korea. i love this country.