The Justice Ministry of the Republic of Korea would like you all to know that regardless of what the U.S. State Department says, there’s no racial discrimination in Korea:
The Ministry of Justice on Friday refuted the latest U.S. State Department’s human rights report citing racial discrimination in South Korea.
It said, Seoul, contrary to the report, actually gave preferential treatment to many foreign nationals that want to become South Korean citizens through marriage.
“The findings that foreign nationals cannot become citizens, even if they marry (South) Korean nationals, because of overly strict rules is inaccurate,” a ministry official said.
He added the authorities have exempted foreigners who married South Korean nationals from taking written tests so as to make it easier for them to gain citizenship.
The ministry also said that under current immigration laws, a foreign national can be hired without any constraints and those that have lived more than two years in the country are eligible to apply for permanent residency status.
It said that although the government’s immigration and citizenship policies in the past may have been focused on control, this has changed.
Well, there you have it.
15 Comments
Not to be a grammar Nazi, but I wish more editors knew the difference between “rebut” and “refute”.
Anyhow, can foreigners who are permanent residents stand in the “Korean” lines at the airport? That would make my life much happier, if I could.
I don’t think there is [yet?] such a thing as a permanent residency, the way Westerners usually understand it [green card-ish]. You just can’t get a resident card that’s valid 10/20/100 years. Even with the recent improvements with visas, you still have to renew your visa every year or two [and foreigners from Korean descent do have a special visa for them, isn't that discrimination?].
The F5 visa for those married to a Korean national is pretty much a green card and never expires as I understand it. Will be applying in the next couple of months for it myself.
Oh well that settles it. I feel a lot better now.
From the U.S. State Department link, “Firms with more than 300 employees are required by law either to hire persons with disabilities or pay a fine.”
I’d say just about every business has decided to take the fine-paying route, because these people are as rare as whitey with Korean citizenship.
Since when are foreign nationals permitted to apply for permanent residency status after two years of residence? Does that mean foreign nationals married to Koreans, specially, foreign national women married to Korean men? No restraints on hiring foreign nationals? Com’on!
permanent residence DOES exist BUT, they’ve set the bar quite high. i believe you have to be in the country for a period of no less than 5 years (used to be 6) and be earning a substantial amount of money (60 mil. plus, i think). also, you have to be with the same company for the whole period. i.e. if you’ve been in the country for 5 years but switched jobs at the 4.5 year mark, forget it. you start from zero again. my friend had this experience.
speaking as a person married to a korean national, i can say that the government HAS made things better for us. anyone with an F2 visa is free to work without filing paperwork at immigration. have to give the immigration people kudos for that.
but… i guess the kudos should stop there. immigration is still messed up, as we all know…….. never heard of the F5 before. what’s that?
All foreigners should be given porn site ID numbers.
MJ,
The law is very vague and confusing, as usual, but I wonder if you might be confusing two categories of people who are elligible for premanent residency (F5 visa)?
I have read that there is one category of people with certain types of college degrees who can apply for an F5 visa after living in Korea for three years if they satisfy certain income requirements designated by the Minister of Justice. However, there is another group of people with D7 to E7 visas who can apply for an F5 after living in Korea for five years. Though an income requirement was specifically mentioned for the first group, the wording for the second group was vague, saying only that they had to be able to support themselves and their dependents. So I wonder if the 60-million-plus salary was only meant for the 3-year-residency group? Personally, I have never heard of an E2 visa holder making 60 million won a year. I certainly do not.
60 million seems a bit high – but would be a could discrimination tool to keep the EFLers out – as it represents 5 million per month [although after taxes you'll prolly get only around 4...], and not too many salaried Koreans earn this much. Usually, foreign expats [as opposed to locally hired] make this much or [much] more, so this could be a sign. Setting the bar this high would be effectively discriminative.
Well, I am interested in finding out – not for me, I’ve spent enough time in Korea to last me a lifetime – how this F5 thing works out. Direct experience – as opposed to I heard that…, I read that… since we know that theory and practice in Korea don’t mix too well – would be enlightning.
Funny but all the news exposes on “international marriages” are saying that foreign brides often have their passports confiscated by the husband’s family to prevent them from running away. Once their visas expire they are here illegally. Here in Korea, they also forfeit the rights to their own children. What a great prize Korean citizenship is!
As implied or said by several above, there are several “Catch-22″ provisions in granting those true-permanent-residency visas, and it’s not accidental. The Korean government really has no intention of giving them to anyone except women who marry Korean men and the Chinese who were born here but still retain Taiwanese citizenship (mostly not by their choice).
The LAWS as published in the official books clearly permits it for many of us, but the “catches” come in in the immigration official’s administrative interpretation of those laws, in which they are free to be quite creative (a Confucian tradition). Xenophobia and non-globalization continue to be the rule.
I’ve attempted to get such a true-permanent-residency visa several times, but even though I’ve been here for 21 years and have plenty income, No Dice.
What about Robert Halley and that German bloke who appears on TV dramas from time to time? Aren’t they Korean citizens?
Korean citizenship and permanent residency are not the same thing, but the former serve[d/s] as the latter for a few determined Westerners – and a lot more anonymous Joes and Janes]. In the absence of a permanent residency, many of the people took up the citizenship to avoid having to renew the “Alien Card” every year, to be able to buy land – until not so long ago it wasn’t exactly easy for foreigners – pay fewer taxes [in the case of "entertainers"], etc…
But giving up one’s citizenship for another is not something I’d do.
Me neither; despite all the years of visa-difficulties i’ve never really been tempted to exchange my US citizenship for Korean; i guess I’d rather be able to vote against guys like Bush than be able to vote against guys like Roh
> What about Robert Halley and that German bloke who appears on TV dramas from time to time? Aren’t they Korean citizens?
Yes they are. It’s a difficult process but possible. A few of my friends are white American guys who became Korean citizens years ago; they started out here as Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s and just decided to stay for the long-run. Difficult decision to make i suppose, and the US Embassy strongly discourages it, but for some people it’s what works for them.
Hyeon-gak Seunim, Korea’s most famous foreign Buddhist monk and by now a man of some influence, has tried for years to get a true-permanent-residency visa, with some legal VIPs backing him, but even he can’t get the bureaucrats to grant him one…