Those who invite foreign nationals for marriage and cohabitation purposes in 2019 are subject to a before-tax annual income requirement of 17,439,168 KRW for a two-person household and 22,560,192 KRW for a three-person household in the previous year, counted from the application date. The amount increases by 5,121,024 KRW per additional person.

In the case of the past year, some applicants were refused application and asked for additional income information for the previous FY when applying with income requirement documents from overseas; in reality, the income requirement should have been considered sufficiently met with the records for one year leading up to the application date in 2018 as well.

However, from the standpoint of practitioners, the ambiguous wording of the rule resulted in differing interpretations at each consulate. In order to resolve this issue, the phrase ‘earnings in the previous year’ was clarified with ‘counting backwards from the application date.’

■ 2019 Marriage Visa (F6) Income requirement exemption
In order to receive a marriage visa (F6), you must have a certain income. In some cases, you may be exempted from income requirements. In other words, if you have any humanitarian reasons such as the following, you are exempt from income requirements.

① If there is a child born between the inviting party and the marriage immigrant
② If the couple has been living in a foreign country for more than one year and therefore has no domestic income for the past year
③ In addition, if the Minister of Justice specifically recognizes that it is necessary to exempt the application of the requirements

Immigration visa requirements tend to change frequently, so it is important to double check in real situations.