In the case of divorce, the biggest concern as a foreigner is the visa issue. If you cannot extend your visa, you will have to return to your home country. Not only do you not see children, but even if you do not have children, you have lived in Korea for a long time, so you have no hometown, parents, or property to return to. So, in reality, the most important thing in divorce of foreigners is whether they can keep their visa after divorce.
Divorce is more expensive and time consuming than you think. That’s why many foreigners do not know the law well, and in order to save money, they often agree to a settlement divorce without any countermeasures. In order to extend the visa after divorce, it is absolutely necessary to prepare measures according to your situation before divorce.
1. Settlement divorce
This is the divorce process that can be done when the divorce parties have agreed on the terms of the divorce.
In general, agreements on property division, alimony, parental rights, custody, and interview bargaining rights are required.
(1) Alimony You can think of it as a financial reward to the spouse who caused the breakdown of the marriage. If there is a perpetrator and a victim between the couple, it is a legal device that makes the perpetrator compensate the victim.
(2) division of property By divorce, it is the sharing of property that a couple had collected or shared with them while maintaining a marriage. It refers to deciding that each person can take a reasonable amount of money for his contribution while collecting his fortune.
(3) parental right Iran is a duty and right that consists of raising, protecting and educating children whose parents or fathers are minors, and managing their property.
(4) custody Iranian couples have a right as to who will raise their minor children after divorce.
Parental and custody can be designated jointly.
(5) interview right to negotiate (visitation right) Iran is the right of parents who do not raise their children after divorce to meet in person, make letters or phone calls.
If the above conditions are agreed, consensual divorce is possible. Consensual divorce is a relatively simple divorce process. After filing the divorce papers in Family Court, the decision is made after three months if you have children, or approximately one month if you do not have them. After the divorce decree, the divorce is finalized when one of the two people reports the divorce to the ward office. If both of you do not report within 3 months, it will be invalid.
♦ If you have custody or the right to bargain for an interview through agreement, you can extend your F-6 visa.
♦ However, it is practically impossible to extend the F-6 visa in the case of a divorce through agreement without any children born to a Korean spouse because it is difficult to prove the cause of the fault.
2. Mediation divorce
If there is no agreement on divorce, you will be divorced through a lawsuit. In that case, under the Domestic Lawsuit, the court must go through a mediation divorce as the first step.
Mediation divorce means, in simple terms, reaching an agreement in court. . This is a procedure in which a divorce is established when an agreement between the parties is established through the mediation of the judges by presenting their own evidence of the marriage breakdown and expressing their opinions.
If there is no agreement between the parties even in the court’s mediation, it will lead to a trial divorce.
Mediation divorce is a process aimed at reducing the number and time of litigation trials and streamlining the divorce process. However, it takes a lot of time and the procedure is not as simple as it is basically necessary to fill out and submit the litigation documents, answers, and evidence to the court, but it is simpler than the litigation trial.
♦ If you do not have any children born to your Korean spouse
You can extend your F-6 visa if you can prove the cause of your fault through a mediation divorce. However, due to the nature of mediation divorce that requires agreement between the parties, there is a problem in that the mediation judgment does not clearly state the reasons attributable to the other party. Therefore, F-6 visa extensions through mediation divorce may not be approved unless you have solid evidence.
3. Divorce suit
Winning a lawsuit is the surest way to extend your visa.
If no agreement is reached at the time of divorce mediation in court, the divorce proceedings through trial will proceed. However, in reality, it is difficult for foreigners who do not know much about Korean law to proceed with litigation. It is true that foreigners who cannot afford financially are reluctant because the cost of a lawyer or interpreter is high and takes a long time. So most of them come to an agreement at the stage of a mediation divorce.
If there is evidence of the cause attributable to you, you can use a public defense attorney or do it yourself to reduce costs. All trials can be conducted by yourself.
♦ Divorce by prevailing in a divorce case trial is time consuming and expensive, but it is the surest way to extend your visa.