If a foreigner living in Korea marries a Korean, you can change from an existing visa status to an F-6 marriage immigrant visa status.

However, this is only available to foreigners with long-term status of residence and legally staying. Therefore, foreigners, illegal immigrants, and criminals with short-term status of residence are not permitted to change their status in Korea.

In this case, especially foreigners with short-term status of residence are required to obtain an F6 visa for international marriage from abroad.

Foreigners with short-term status of residence or illegal immigrants who are eligible to stay in F6 after getting married in Korea are only eligible for special circumstances such as childbirth.

Recently, due to the situation in Corona 19, the system has been relaxed so that foreigners who have visited with short-term status of residence can apply for a change to marriage immigrant F-6 in Korea without going abroad.

Eligible applicants are Korean spouses who entered Korea before April 12, 2020 and are legally staying.

However, because it is a system easing due to the corona crisis, it is possible to apply only to those who have already married or who have been married and have been married for more than 90 days.

The important thing is that it is possible to apply for a change, not to give permission to change.

The permission to change is required to complete all existing F6 application requirements (income, Korean language skills, and completion of the International Marriage Education Program).

Please refer to the following manual for detailed requirements for obtaining an international marriage immigrant visa.

International Marriage income requirements to check / International Marriage Program and Korean requirements to ensure

Foreigners residing in Korea on a short-term stay will not suddenly marry a Korean to change to a marriage visa.

However, even if there was no intention to marry, we made it possible to apply only to foreigners who have passed 90 days after marriage in order to prevent the case of getting married simply to change their status of residence.

For reference, the period from the application for permission to change the status of residence to marriage immigrant F6 and the determination of permission is getting very long. In the past, it took about 3~6 months, but due to the recent corona situation, the screening period is infinitely longer.

The reason for writing this is also the reason I received a consultation call.

When I applied for a change to my marriage visa four months ago, and I asked the administrator that it was still not working, the question was whether the decision could be made quickly by shortening the screening period.

Of course, even an administrator cannot do that. In that case, the only way to do this is to visit the immigration office frequently and ask about the schedule. However, the decision period will be significantly faster or there will be no work to do, but it may affect some parts.