Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rt]

I am an American teaching on an E1 visa in Korea. My Filipina wife will join me here in the near future. My employer has given me the necessary paper work to take to the Korean immigration office in Seoul to apply for her Korean visa. So far so good.

My question is which marriage license (we were married in the Philippines) will I need to submit to Korean Immigration (along with the aforementioned documentation supplied by my employer)? We were required to sign four copies of the marriage license: one to be kept by the judge; one to be filed in the courthouse clerks office; one given to us; one to be sent to the National Statistical Office in Manila.

Does Korean Immigration require a certified copy from the Philippines National Statistical Office (downside: must pay a fee and wait many weeks to receive the certified copy) or will they accept a copy from the Philippines courthouse clerks office (easy for my wife to pick up) [i]or[/i] will they accept a copy of the license we were given (ideal, as we already have it)?

Anybody know?

[frankly speaking]

My wife has came over to be with me a few times. Though she is a Thai national, I am sure it would be similar situation. Our marriage license is written in Thai. So my wife had to have it translated to English and bring the translation with the original.

I am not sure of your particular case, but the marriage license that you have should be enough. We always use a photocopy of our original for all of our paperwork. Has not been a problem.

Good luck. Your wife should call the consulate in the Philippines, they will be more helpful and accurate on exactly what you need.

[mc_jc]

I'd go visit the Philippine Embassy in Itaewon and see what requirements are needed to bring your wife over.
But please be ready for alot of hassles~ Even soldiers who get married to Filipinos have a difficult time getting their wives registered with the Korean government because of the huge amounts of Filipino women being brought to Korea to work in the "entertainment" industry, many against their will.

I'd go visit the embassy if I were you- they'd provide you with all the info you need.

[traxxe]

You need the marriage contract from the NSO and NBI clearance.

Next your wife will have to attend the CFO seminar in Manila or Cebu. You can google it and get the locations. Not sure if they have one in Davao as I'm not sure where your wife is located.

The CFO give her a certificate and they won't let her leave the country without it.

If she has an old passport she has to get her passport notarized at the CF. She cannot do that without the CFO cert.

You will get a number from the immigration office and you'll want to send it to her. She goes to the Korean embassy and they will take a couple of days.

Message me and I'm happy to give you my phone number to help you with this.

Also, make sure she understands Koreans will not treat her well here. Depending on where you are this will change to varrying degrees. They hate southeast Asians. Sooner or later some drunk Korean will put his hands on her, try to give her money like a prostitute or just insult her.

Just last week my wife was shopping and looking at a shirt and the vendor screamed at her for ruining the product by touching it. I came over from where I was outside and put him down. Her social existence will be limited to other Filipinas and your friends. It can be tough of your wife at times.

[rt]

Traxxe,

Thanks for the info (she is in Cebu, btw). I was hoping we could use the marriage license we received just after our recent wedding, as I suspect the certified copy from NSO will take several weeks to receive.

What is the CFO by the way?

I don't have enough posts yet to be able to pm you, unfortunately.

Thanks a million!

rt

her passport is new

[traxxe]

CFO stands for Commission on Filipino Overseas...

It's the main organization, your wife should know of it.

[Philippines]

My wife got the NSO marriage certificate as well. She ordered it by phone, so she didn't have to physically go to the NSO office in Cebu (which, as I remember, is quite crowded).

By the way, when you get her visa number, she'll need to go to the Korean embassy in Manila to get the visa. The Korean consulate in Cebu doesn't handle any matters for non-Koreans. We found this out the hard way.