Korean Job Discussion Forums

[On the other hand]

A friend of mine(no, seriously!) is married to a Korean, and has lived in Korea on-and-off for ten years. They have no chlidren, and do not plan to have any. His visa is F-2-1.

At the moment, he is only a citizen of Canada. He wants to become a Korean citizen in order to open a small business here. The Canadian embassy told him that Canada recognizes Korean citizenship, but Korea does not. He has contacted the Korean immigration authorities for confirmation on this, and they confirmed that he would have to renounce his Canadian citizenship. However, he found the following document on a Korean Justice Ministry website. It seems to suggest that Korea does in fact recognize dual citizenship. Does anyone with any experience in these matters have any idea about what the actual facts are re: Korea's recognizing dual citizenship? Thanks in advance to anyone who answers.

A holder of dual nationality is a person who has Korean nationality according to the Korean Nationality Act which is based on the Law of Blood (ius sanguinis) as well as another country's nationality according to its Nationality Act. Details of the object are as follows:
�� A person who has another country's citizenship according to the Nationality Act of that
country which is based on the Law of Soil (ius soli) as well as Korean nationality thanks to parents' Korean nationality.(father, mother or both)
�� A person who was born of a Korean father and foreign mother, or Korean mother and foreign father and has a foreign nationality according to the Nationality Act of
his/her parent's country.
�� A person who acquired Korean nationality through the process of recognition, naturalization, accompanying acquisition or according to the Law of Blood (ius
sanguinis) (Nationality Act article 3, 4, 8, 9 Addenda article 7).
�� A person who reported to the Minister of Justice his/her intention of possession of Korean nationality for less than 6 months after his/her voluntary acquisition of foreign nationality

http://www.moj.go.kr/HP/COM/bbs_06/BoardList.do

[crazylemongirl]

I thought that korea made you choose at 18 or after military sevice. Korea citizenship or something else. But you can't be a korean and....

[Paddycakes]

I don't know, are foreigners even allowed to own [censored] in Korea? That may figure into the equation more than anything else.

[tzechuk]

No dual nationality allowed. You can only be either or.. if you want to be Korean, you have to renounce your other nationality...

[kangnamdragon]

[canadian_in_korea]

As far as I understood, Korea doesn't recognize dual citizenship. My husband told me Korean people have been complaining about it for a while. They would like to move overseas and keep their korean citizenship and also have american/canadian/etc. but the can only have one. It is true Canada doesn't care, when I called and asked about dual citizenship the lady told me that the problem is whenever you have dual 'citizenship' you are then entitled to two passports, this would pose a problem in some situations I suppose. Why does he have to be a korean citizen to open a business...? I thought if you were married to a korean citizen you could open start a business...?

[hellofaniceguy]

[On the other hand]

[canadian_in_korea]

Maybe you should post a question (or try a search here) about starting a business in Korea.....I think there are a few posters who have their own business, they would be the best ones to get info from as they obviously went through the process.

[JacktheCat]

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Yeah, that's it, start by becoming a citizen then think about running a business. That's the ticket.