Today, I applied for an F6 (marriage immigration) residency qualification at the Cheongju Immigration Office.
It is not a change of residency qualification. A change of residency qualification refers to changing a visa domestically while the visa is still valid. Granting residency qualification means granting a new residency qualification domestically when there is no residency qualification if the requirements are met. For example, it refers to granting residency qualification (visa) to a baby with foreign nationality born in Korea when the requirements are met.
The client was a husband with a Thai national spouse.
His wife entered Korea earlier this year with a C-3 (short-term visit) and had been granted several deferrals of her departure due to pregnancy.
In fact, before the pregnancy earlier this year, when COVID was more severe than now, I helped him get a deferral of the departure deadline for the C-3 visa due to marriage to a Korean citizen and COVID. After that, he requested a marriage visa from me after the pregnancy.
※I think many people are confused, so I will clarify this part accurately.
Of course, the manual states as follows:
Extension of C-3 Stay Period
❍ If it falls within the scope of short-term visit (C-3) activities, there is no suspicion of illegal employment, and the necessity for extension is recognized, an extension within 90 days from the date of entry is possible. ◆ Examples of extension reasons ◆
① If there is no ship to depart or if there is an unavoidable reason such as an accident or illness that was not predicted at the time of entry.
② For those who entered for the purpose of visiting relatives, language training, etc., and are not suspected of illegal employment
(Korean foreigners, families of marriage immigrants, etc.)
③ For business purposes, if there is a need to extend the stay period due to reasons such as delays in export/import loading or departure delays.
④ If a holder of a multiple visa needs to continue staying beyond the granted stay period after entry, etc.
※ As stated above, extension is only possible within 90 days from the date of entry. If it exceeds 90 days, it is not an extension but a deferral of departure.
If deferring the departure deadline is considered an extension, it could be extended,
but since the visa has expired, there is no residency qualification in Korea.
Therefore, if the C-3 visa has expired, there is no residency qualification, so you cannot even make a reservation at the immigration office. Reservations at the immigration office are possible when any form of visa is alive, that is, when there is a residency qualification.
In the case of the applicant, the C-3 visa had expired, and he was in a state of having received a deferral of departure,
so he could not make a reservation at the competent immigration office, had to visit without a reservation, draw a ticket for those expiring that day, and wait, and applied for an F6 (marriage visa) in Korea due to pregnancy, because there was no residency qualification, it was not an application for a change of F6 residency qualification, but an application for granting F6 residency qualification.
※In the case of the applicant, she was 31 weeks pregnant.
You must be over 20 weeks pregnant with a C-3 visa or has expired and is in a state of deferral of departure, to apply for a change of residency qualification or grant of residency qualification to F6 (marriage visa) in Korea.
Once you become pregnant or give birth to a child of a Korean citizen, the requirements for the F6 marriage visa are greatly relaxed.
Among the three major requirements for a marriage visa (income requirement, communication requirement, and authenticity of marriage),
the submission of documents proving the income requirement and communication requirement is exempted.
It would be a great privilege for those who had difficulty proving income and
for those who had a hard time getting their wives to pass TOPIK level 1. Moreover, the requirement for the Korean spouse to complete the international marriage guidance program is also exempted,
so the submission of health certificates for both parties (Korean, foreigner) is also exempted, and the submission of a criminal record certificate for the foreign spouse is also exempted.
However, in principle, if you are included in a high-risk tuberculosis country (19 countries), when issuing or changing any form of visa, including the F6 marriage visa, you must submit a tuberculosis diagnosis certificate, but in my experience, most immigration offices know that it is not good to expose the fetus in the womb to radiation, so they usually exempt the submission of a tuberculosis diagnosis certificate.
※When I mentioned "any form of visa" above, I am talking about long-term stay visas that require foreign registration for more than 90 days. It does not apply to visas that do not require foreign registration for less than 90 days, including C-3. Then, since it came up, let's take a look at the 19 high-risk tuberculosis countries.
High-risk tuberculosis 19 countries Nepal, East Timor, Russia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, India, Indonesia, China, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, Pakistan, Philippines, Laos |
Although many documents are exempted from submission and the requirements are significantly relaxed,
when applying for a change of F6 residency qualification or granting residency qualification in Korea due to pregnancy,
most immigration offices specifically request one document.
That is the result of a genetic test.
It is really a procedure to confirm whether it is the child of the Korean spouse who has registered the marriage.
Even if you have been pregnant after registering a marriage with a Korean spouse in Korea and have no record of departure since then and have lived with your husband and shared an address, in my experience, there are hardly any exceptions. You must submit it.
If you have given birth, it is not a problem, but you cannot test the genes of the baby in the mother's womb.
Therefore, the immigration office accepted the application first, and after giving birth, they asked to supplement only the genetic test result.
※Genetic testing is not just between the mother and baby or the father and baby,
all three of the mother, father, and baby must be tested.
Just because the submission of documents is exempted does not mean you should not submit any documents that can be submitted.
If there are any documents that can add points to the review, they must be submitted together.
So, in my case, if there are documents that cannot be issued or are difficult to obtain,
I request all the documents that can be easily obtained by the client and that can add points to the review, and submit them together to immigration.
※I have mentioned this before when posting.
The required documents are set, and the reason why immigration asks for them is to review them. It is not to grant permission.
If permission is granted just by submitting the required documents, there should be no one around who has been denied.
And immigration can request any related additional documents as needed for the review.
You can check the basic document list required for the Thai marriage visa (F-6) application below.