Korean Job Discussion Forums

[strangebrew]

I'm American and my fiancee is from England. We met here in Korea and plan to continue living here for several more years. In the meantime we want to get married.

At this point, we don't know where we will ultimately settle down. However, we will visit England this summer and the states next summer. Also, we are not opposed to traveling elsewhere to tie the knot. Actually, I think we'd prefer to get married outside of Korea, but we want to keep the paperwork involved to a minimum.

Any input would be wonderful. What is the best way to go about this? Has anybody gone down this road? Which route has the least paperwork?


Thanks

[Son Deureo!]

In terms of legalities, getting married here is a pretty good option. I (an American) recently married my Canadian wife here. We had our civil marriage here because it was very simple and cheap. $50 at each of our respective embassies for a notarized document affirming that we were not already married. After that W400 for the civil wedding at a gu office, and we had to bring 2 witnesses and fill out a one page form. Jongno-gu office is a good place to do this because they are very accustomed to handling foreigner weddings and they have English service, and it's also close to the US, Canadian, and UK embassies.

The only downside to getting married here is that our marriage certificate is in Korean, so when we move on to another country we'll probably have to translate it.

We had a wonderful ceremony in Thailand with friends and family, but getting legally married there is much more of a headache requiring a lawyer and a translator.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I'm American and I married my English husband here. It's really pretty easy and cheap, if you go the city hall/embassy route, as Son Deureo! said. We had our certificates translated at a legal notary, then notarized, then brought them to our embassies and had them verified. Son Deureo!, you should definitely get that done. I had 3 copies done for about 75k total. Make sure to have multiple copies.

We plan on having a small ceremony back in New York for family, but the actual marriage process is pretty easy here.

[strangebrew]

Thanks for the info. I'm really relieved to hear it is a pretty straightforward process. Did you exchange rings at the civil ceremony? Did you wear street clothes or the normal attire for bride and groom?

Many thanks!

[CentralCali]

There is no ceremony, as such, for the civil marriage. It's merely a matter of appearing at the appropriate government office, submitting the required forms, and paying the required fee. If you wish to have any kind of ring exchanging, religious ceremony, or any other kind of celebration, then you'll do that elsewhere and on your own--the government is not involved in that.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

We put rings on at city hall, and I wore a cute white Indian dress and he wore a suit, but we could have gone in jeans with no rings. We just felt like wearing something resembling wedding attire.

Seriously, get married here where it's easy. If you want a ceremony, you can do that elsewhere, but the legal process is super easy in Korea.

[Son Deureo!]

We also dressed up a bit and took photos at the gu office, and so did our friends/witnesses and went out for a mini-celebration at a galbi restaurant afterwards. The real ceremony, though, was elsewhere.

NYC Gal, I can translate the certificate myself, but after that I should be able to just get a copies notarized at the embassy, right?

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

[songbird88]

I'm an American looking to marry my English fiance here in Korea. The questions I have are:

-How far in advanced did you plan your weddings?

-Do you have to call the Jongno-gu office to make an appointment for a wedding?

-Do they speak English well at the Jongno-gu office? Do they have a website?

-Has anyone here also changed their last name while in Korea? Does anyone have any information on that process?

-Do the witnesses have to be present? Or can they just sign the paper? Are there forms available beforehand online?

Sorry for all the questions, hope someone can help me out.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

[songbird88]

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

I'm glad to be able to help. He's from just outside of London, and I'm from NY. Seriously, though, you need the legal translated and notarized documents. The office is literally across the street from the entrance, and it's not even a main road. You'll sit there for maybe 10 minutes, pay 25k per notarized translation, then head back to the embassies to have them stamped there.

Get the other stuff done in advance. The process itself only takes a few hours. Just do it that day, and you'll have less to worry about later on.

Definitely have a Korean friend there for spoken translation help.

[Son Deureo!]

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

If you want to be able to register the marriages at your home countries, take the extra steps, walk across the road, get the legal copies, then take them back to the embassies to register them. The British embassy sends it to the UK and you're registered. The US embassy does some sort of notarization, and you register it when you bring it to the states, in person. Trust me, don't skip this step. It takes an hour, but will save you a lot of trouble later on.

[roguefishfood]

For anyone who has had a wedding ceremony here:

Is it possible to have a real western-style wedding... as in... NOT in a freaking wedding castle? Like... in a park or on the beach or something?