Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jizza]

Lately I've been thinking about the possibility of getting married in Korea and have a few questions that hopefully some married-in-Korea posters can help with.

1. Money
I've heard that to marry in Korea a man needs three things: 1) House 2) Car 3) Job.
With the price of Korean real estate these days, how realistic is actually buying a house? Can you really buy a house on 4-5 million salary a month? (I'll just take that as an average salary for a 25-35 year old ESL teacher).

2. Immigration
Maybe you marry a Korean girl and you both decide to move back to your home country. What were your wife's experiences with finding a job in the US?

3. Married Legal status in Korea or America.
From what I've read, it seems that a marriage in Korea or America counts as a marriage in both countries. Now, it also seems to say that an American who applies on his own for nationality (as opposed to it being granted automatically) may forfeit his US citizenship.

Do any married posters have dual citizenship? What is your Visa status in Korea? What is your wife's status in America?

Thanks! any other insights or just shared experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[redaxe]

I can't really answer 1. but I can answer 2. and 3.

If you are legally married in Korea you are also legally married in the U.S. and essentially everywhere else in the world. If you want her to come to the U.S. with you, you are supposed to file form I-130 to get her an Alien Relative visa:
http://www.uscis.gov/i-130

You also have to file form I-864 to demonstrate that you can support her financially so she will not become a public charge (aka welfare recipient) in the U.S. http://www.uscis.gov/i-864

Once she is in the U.S. you have to file I-485 to adjust her status to that of a permanent resident, this is how she will get the green card: http://www.uscis.gov/i-485

Or if she enters the U.S. on a tourist visa it is also possible to just file I-485 to adjust her status to permanent resident, but that's not how you're supposed to do it.

When you start thinking about moving back to the U.S. together, you should browse around the USCIS site a little bit, all the information is there.

[jizza]

Thanks redaxe for the forms. Are you married btw?

Actually, I was looking more for people's general experiences and anecdotes, not specific forms as I have no plan on getting married anytime soon, although it's looming on the horizon.

Question #2 was more of an attempt to get anecdotes from people.. realistically, if your Korean wife moves to America, what kind of jobs are available and realistic for her to do? (this will greatly depend on her English level of course) I think posters' experiences could shed some light on the possibilities.

I'm just trying to think of all the angles in advance.
Thanks.

[redaxe]

[hondaicivic]

[crossmr]

The Korean real-estate market is a stepping stone style.

A lot of new couples get a ton of money from their parents to get a jeonse, but I doubt your parents will have a few tens of thousands of dollars to send you.

You can get into the housing market on 10,000. You'll be paying a higher monthly, but every 2 years you can upgrade that with whatever you've saved.

It all depends on how old you are now and how quickly you want to have kids. a 10k deposit place is usually sufficient for a couple who doesn't have too much stuff. Got a lot of stuff or plan to have a kid before your first contract is up, you might want to try and drop 30-50k if you have it and grab a larger place.

[ed]

if you marry a Korean citizen you and her both keep your citizenship and in Korea you apply for an F5 residency visa which grants you most of the benefits of being a Korean citizen while remaining an American citizen.

your F5 is good for life in Korea.

when moving to America she would get the same type of visa.

most married couples rent an apartment then move to a better one every couple years.

your best bet in Korea is to work hard and save hard then when you move back to America open a small business.

[Unposter]

1. You don't need to buy a house. You just need to put a deposit on one. While I think there are a lot of Korean women who hope to marry a man who owns his own apartment (especially in Gangnam), I think most will settle for less. Very few of the people I know who have married Korean women own their own apartment.

You can get loans for both buying an apartment as well as for key money. I don't think you can get a loan for more than 50% of its price.

Key money can vary greatly depending on the city and the location within the city and of course the apartment itself. Expect to pay a lot for the nicer parts of Seoul. Outside Seoul, the prices start to drop quickly.

You might be able to buy a decent apartment in Seoul (not Gangnam) for 300 million won. You would need 150 million down and a loan for another 150 million. It may be possible to get an apartment in Gangnam (not sure) for 600 - 700 million won. Same thing applies - you would need 300 to 350 million down and another 300 - 350 million in loans.

Outside of Seoul, you could conceivably buy an apartment for 100 million won or less depending on the location but in the big cities outside of Seoul, you may again be looking in the 300 million won range.

I think you could do that on 3-5 million won a month but I don't know why you would want to. It is an awful lot of money to put into one egg basket if you ask me. If you were planning on living their for the rest of your life and you expect one of your children to inherit it, fine, but otherwise I would be wary. You think that 600 million for Gangnam is ridiculous but it could be 2 billion won or more in 20 years. Koreans think long term. Housing prices are expensive, partly, because people are thinking about long term value, not necessarily what the real estate is worth today.

2. What can your future wife do? If she has marketable skills, then she might be able to get a good job. If she doesn't have marketable skills, well, you can guess the rest.

3. I have met a couple of people now who have married Korean women, brought them to their home countries and their wives because citizens of said countries. The problem is once they become a citizen of another country, they lose their Korean citizenship. The bigger problem is that a lot of couples end up returning to Korea; their wife can get an F-4 visa but the guy can only get an E-2. So, if you want an F-visa, you better get it before your wife changes nationalities.

Good luck!

[nathanrutledge]

[northway]

[nathanrutledge]

[JFP2020]

I am writing an article for the Korea Herald about the challenges and cultural differences that arise in marriages between Koreans and expats.

Could anyone married here PM me if interested in talking to me? Experiences can be good, bad or indifferent. It's just to get an indication of what mishaps, misunderstandings or simple differences crop up. Thanks!

[TheresaTheresa]

[Ice Tea]

1) Housing
The other posters are correct about upgrading once you save up more. But also, not all apartments are super expensive. Officetels are not $1,000,000. More like $200,000-300,000. If you need more rooms, then you go to the million dollar apartment

2) Wife
My wife hated Canada and we came back to Korea. We had jobs too. Mine was a good paying one.

3) Don't go full citizen. Do two years F-2 and then get your F-5

[brier]

This is just to say: Marriage isn't a word, it's a sentence. What on earth are you doing?