F-6: Requirements for a Marriage Visa in Korea | KoreabyMe (2024)

Getting married to a Korean doesn’t always guarantee that you can get a visa to live in Korea. In order to get an F-6 visa, you need to go through a review process and submit all kinds of documents. As of November 2022, these are the F-6 visa requirements.

Basic Required Items

1. Passport and ARC (ARC is needed if applying from Korea, if applying overseas you won’t need an ARC)
2. F-6 Application Form: It is around 18-20 pages. You should call 1345 to make sure you have all of the necessary documents.
3. A photo (3.5 x 4.5) taken within 6 months
4. Processing Fee: 130,000 KRW
5. Form number 34 (the basic form you fill out every time you visit the Immigration Office)
6. Housing contract (Must be certified by a real-estate agency)

Local Citizen Center Forms

You must ask your Korean spouse to get the following from your local Citizen Center (주민센터).

1. A Family relation certificate (가족관계증명서)

2. Proof of marriage (혼인관계증명서)

3. Basic certificate (기본증명서)

4. A residency certificate (주민등록등본) / Your Korean spouse’s name must be on the document.

F-6 Visa Forms & Certificates

Letter of Guarantee (신원보증서)

The form has to be filled in by your Korean spouse. It is a legal agreement that they will take legal and financial responsibility for you while you are in Korea.

Invitation Form

This is a 9-page form that you must fill out with your Korean spouse. It includes the details of your relationship.

Personal Details for a Marriage Migrant Visa (외국인 배우자의 결혼배경 진술서

You must fill out this form yourself. It includes information on past marriages, children, and your parents and siblings’ basic information. Your Korean spouse will also need to print out a copy and fill out the same form separately.

Proof of Income

In 2022, you must prove that your income is over 19,000,000 Korean won per year. However, in 2023, with the rise of minimum wage, the figure is expected to jump.

If you are more than 22 weeks pregnant or have children with a Korean spouse, you will not have to meet the income requirement. In addition, if your Korean spouse has lived abroad for over a year prior to your application, they do not need to prove their income.

Language Documents

You must provide one of the following:

• TOPIK Certificate with Level 1 or higher
• Completion of KIIP Level 1
• Korean-language related university degree
• Documents proving you are an ethnic Korean of foreign nationality
• Immigration records proving at least 1 year of residency in Korea (외국인 등록 사실증면서 from the 주민센터)

Family Income and Property Form

I wasn’t able to find this form online. Instead, we had to call 1345 and they sent it to us directly. Your home is required to be inspected based on size, the number of rooms, and the number of people living in that space other than the Korean spouse. In this form, you will need to write the type of building, size, rooms, etc. My recommendation is to take photos of the entire place and print them out as proof. Otherwise, they will likely send an officer for an in-person visit.

Medical Certificate

This should be issued within 6 months of the application date. The hospital name, hospital address, hospital contact number, and physician’s signature need to be included. Other than the tests included in the sample for a medical certificate, a tuberculosis(TB) test result should be included.

*If the Korean spouse is exempted from the certificate for marriage guidance program, the medical certificate of the foreign spouse is also waived. However, you will still need a tuberculosis test.

International Marriage Guidance Program

Korean spouses who intend to marry foreign spouses from the following countries must attend courses and obtain a certificate:
Ghana, Nigeria, Nepal, Mongolia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Iran, Egypt, India, Indonesia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines

Exceptions:
1. The Korean spouse stayed in the spouse’s country for at least 6 months
2. Both spouses lived in a third country on a long-term visa
3. Spouse legally resided in Korea for at least 91 days

Photo Proof of Relationship

You must make a collage of 30 photos that include the date and place. They told me that I could also include video calls/ phone calls or chats showing the date.

Personal Experience

I got married in 2021 and i showed the immigration office all the documents mentioned in this post. After presenting my documents, they told me that my husband has to come in for an interview. The interview was short and the agent ask similar questions to what we provided on the form to see that our marriage was real. My in laws also came to the interview, which I think helped my case.

After the interviews, the process was so fast. They told me that my aliem card will be given a month after the approval. After only two weeks, I recieved a message telling me that I could come pick up my card.

Applying While Pregnant

I was pregnant at that time so they told me that I could visit the immigration office and apply for a visa without a reservation. I brought my pregnancy certificate and they were able to get me into a visa appointment right away.

In addition, my husband did not have to meet the minimum income requirement due to my pregnancy. Instead, we had to provide a certificate of no income (소득없음 사실증명원) that my husband got from the local 주민센터.

Due to the lack of income, I was given 6 months on my first F-6 visa. It was enough to get me through my pregnancy and recovery. They told me that as soon as my baby born I would have to make an appointment and ask for visa extension while providing the following two documents:

1. DNA 유전자 검사 (Paternity Test)
2. 출생증명서 (Birth Certificate)

After I was able to prove my child was born and that my husband was, in fact, the father, then I was given an F-6 visa that lasts 2-3 years.

Thank you for readinf this long post. I hope that it can be useful during your application process.