General Naturalisation Needs Permanent Residence First, and the Foreign Passport Goes Within a Year Unless You Married a Korean
Article 5 of the Nationality Act sets six requirements for general naturalisation and the second of them is the one that reorders the whole path: since 19 December 2017 an applicant must already hold a status of residence that allows permanent residence in Korea. The five consecutive years of domicile sit alongside it, not instead of it, so the ordinary route runs through F-5 rather than straight from a work status. The other four requirements are adulthood under the Civil Act, good conduct as prescribed by Ministerial Decree of Justice, the ability to support oneself from one's own assets or ability or through the family one lives with, and basic knowledge as a Korean national including Korean language proficiency and an understanding of Korean customs; the Minister of Justice must also be satisfied that naturalisation would not harm national security, public order or public welfare. Article 6 cuts the five years to three and drops the permanent-residence requirement for three groups - a person whose father or mother was once Korean, a person born in Korea to a parent also born in Korea, and an adult adoptee of a Korean national - and runs a separate scheme for the spouse of a Korean national: two years of domicile while married, or three years of marriage with one year of domicile. Nationality is acquired not on the grant but at the moment the applicant swears the oath of citizenship before the Minister of Justice and receives the certificate. Then article 10 applies: the foreign nationality must be renounced within one year, on pain of losing Korean nationality automatically when that year runs out. Five categories may instead swear never to exercise the foreign nationality in Korea, and two of them are the spouse limbs of article 6(2) - which is why marriage is the ordinary way a naturalised Korean keeps a second passport.
At a glance
- Domicile for general naturalisation
- 5 consecutive years
Article 5(1) of the Nationality Act.
- Permanent residence first
- Required for general naturalisation
Article 5(1-2) of the Nationality Act, added on 19 December 2017. Articles 6 and 7 disapply both it and the five years.
- Simplified naturalisation by descent or birth
- 3 consecutive years of domicile, with no permanent residence requirement
Article 6(1) of the Nationality Act, for a person whose father or mother was once a Korean national, a person born in Korea to a parent also born in Korea, or an adult adoptee of a Korean national.
- Simplified naturalisation by marriage
- 2 years of domicile while married, or 3 years of marriage with 1 year of domicile
Article 6(2)1 and 2 of the Nationality Act. Subparagraphs 3 and 4 let the remaining period be completed where the marriage ended through no fault of the applicant, or where a minor child of the marriage is being raised.
- When nationality is actually acquired
- On taking the oath of citizenship and receiving the certificate, not on the grant of permission
Article 4(3) of the Nationality Act. The oath may be waived where age or disability makes it impossible to understand or express.
- Deadline to give up the other nationality
- 1 year from acquiring Korean nationality
Article 10(1) of the Nationality Act.
- What happens if you miss it
- Korean nationality is lost automatically when the year expires
Article 10(3) of the Nationality Act. Article 11 allows re-acquisition by notification if the foreign nationality is renounced within a further year.
- Who may keep the other nationality
- Five categories, including the spouse limbs of article 6(2) and a person who returns at 65 or over to live permanently and recovers Korean nationality
Article 10(2) of the Nationality Act. They swear not to exercise the foreign nationality in Korea instead of renouncing it.
- Recovery of nationality
- Refused to a person who lost or renounced Korean nationality to evade military service
Article 9(2)3 of the Nationality Act, one of four bars on recovery.
Requirements
- Five consecutive years of domicile in Korea, and a status of residence allowing permanent residence - or three years, or the spouse periods, under article 6
- Adulthood under the Korean Civil Act
- Good conduct as prescribed by Ministerial Decree of Justice, including compliance with the law
- Ability to support yourself from your own assets or ability, or through the family you live with
- Korean language proficiency and understanding of Korean customs, as basic knowledge of a Korean national
- The oath of citizenship before the Minister of Justice
- Renunciation of the foreign nationality within one year, or the undertaking not to exercise it where article 10(2) allows
In detail
Permanent residence became a precondition in 2017
Before the amendment of 19 December 2017, five years of domicile was the gate. Article 5(1-2) added a second one, and it changes the shape of the path rather than its length: an applicant must hold a status of residence allowing permanent residence in Korea. Permanent residence has its own conditions in article 10-3(2) of the Immigration Act and its own nineteen entry points in Attached Table 1-3 of the Enforcement Decree, several of which themselves require three or five years of prior residence. The result is that general naturalisation is a second step taken from a position most applicants reach years after arriving, and the simplified routes in article 6 are valuable precisely because they disapply both subparagraph 1 and subparagraph 1-2.
The oath is constitutive
Article 4(3) is drafted so that permission is not acquisition. A person granted naturalisation becomes Korean at the moment they take the oath of citizenship before the Minister of Justice and are handed the certificate, which means the date of nationality is a ceremony date rather than a decision date. The Minister may waive the oath where age or a physical or mental disability makes the meaning impossible to understand or to express, and may delegate the ceremony to the head of a regional immigration office. The same structure governs recovery of nationality under article 9(3).
One year, then the nationality goes by itself
Article 10 does not make dual nationality an offence, or a ground for revocation at the Minister's discretion. It sets a one-year clock and article 10(3) ends it automatically: a person who has neither renounced the other nationality nor, where permitted, sworn not to exercise it, loses Korean nationality when the year expires. Article 11 then gives a further year to renounce and re-acquire by notification, so the sanction is severe but reversible. The five categories allowed to swear rather than renounce are listed in article 10(2), and the first of them points back at article 6(2)1 and 2 - the two spouse limbs - so the marriage route is also the route that most often leaves a second passport intact.
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«제5조(일반귀화 요건) 외국인이 귀화허가를 받기 위해서는 제6조 나 제7조 에 해당하는 경우 외에는 다음 각 호의 요건을 갖추어야 한다. <개정 2017. 12. 19.> 1. 5년 이상 계속하여 대한민국에 주소가 있을 것 1의2. 대한민국에서 영주할 수 있는 체류자격을 가지고 있을 것 2. 대한민국의 「민법」 상 성년일 것 3. 법령을 준수하는 등 법무부령 으로 정하는 품행 단정의 요건을 갖출 것 4. 자신의 자산(資産)이나 기능(技能)에 의하거나 생계를 같이하는 가족에 의존하여 생계를 유지할 능력이 있을 것 5. 국어능력과 대한민국의 풍습에 대한 이해 등 대한민국 국민으로서의 기본 소양(素養)을 갖추고 있을 것 6. 귀화를 허가하는 것이 국가안전보장ㆍ질서유지 또는 공공복리를 해치지 아니한다고 법무부장관이 인정할 것»About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«An alien shall meet the following requirements in order to obtain permission for naturalization, except in cases falling under Article 6 or 7: <Amended on Dec. 19, 2017> 1. He or she shall have had a domicile in the Republic of Korea for at least five consecutive years; 1-2. He or she shall have qualification for permanent residence in the Republic of Korea; 2. He or she shall be an adult under the Civil Act of the Republic of Korea; 3. He or she shall meet the requirements regarding good conduct prescribed by Ministerial Decree of Justice, such as complying with statutes; 4. He or she shall be able to support himself or herself, relying on his or her own assets, ability, or family he or she lives with; 5. He or she shall have basic knowledge as a national of the Republic of Korea, such as Korean language proficiency and understanding of Korean custom;»The publisher states its translations are for reference only and are neither official nor legally effective. This translation is of Act No. 18978 of 15 September 2022, the same Act as the Korean text read here.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«제6조(간이귀화 요건) ① 다음 각 호의 어느 하나에 해당하는 외국인으로서 대한민국에 3년 이상 계속하여 주소가 있는 사람은 제5조 제1호 및 제1호의2의 요건을 갖추지 아니하여도 귀화허가를 받을 수 있다. <개정 2017. 12. 19.> 1. 부 또는 모가 대한민국의 국민이었던 사람 2. 대한민국에서 출생한 사람으로서 부 또는 모가 대한민국에서 출생한 사람 3. 대한민국 국민의 양자(養子)로서 입양 당시 대한민국의 「민법」 상 성년이었던 사람 ② 배우자가 대한민국의 국민인 외국인으로서 다음 각 호의 어느 하나에 해당하는 사람은 제5조 제1호 및 제1호의2의 요건을 갖추지 아니하여도 귀화허가를 받을 수 있다. <개정 2017. 12. 19.> 1. 그 배우자와 혼인한 상태로 대한민국에 2년 이상 계속하여 주소가 있는 사람 2. 그 배우자와 혼인한 후 3년이 지나고 혼인한 상태로 대한민국에 1년 이상 계속하여 주소가 있는 사람»Our translation - not official
Article 6 (Requirements for simplified naturalisation) (1) A foreigner falling within any of the following who has had a domicile in the Republic of Korea continuously for three years or more may obtain permission for naturalisation without meeting the requirements in article 5(1) and (1-2): 1. a person whose father or mother was a national of the Republic of Korea; 2. a person born in the Republic of Korea whose father or mother was also born in the Republic of Korea; 3. an adoptee of a national of the Republic of Korea who was an adult under the Korean Civil Act at the time of the adoption. (2) A foreigner whose spouse is a national of the Republic of Korea and who falls within any of the following may obtain permission for naturalisation without meeting the requirements in article 5(1) and (1-2): 1. a person who has had a domicile in the Republic of Korea continuously for two years or more while married to that spouse; 2. a person who, three years having passed since the marriage, has had a domicile in the Republic of Korea continuously for one year or more while married to that spouse.
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«③ 제1항에 따라 귀화허가를 받은 사람은 법무부장관 앞에서 국민선서를 하고 귀화증서를 수여받은 때에 대한민국 국적을 취득한다. 다만, 법무부장관은 연령, 신체적ㆍ정신적 장애 등으로 국민선서의 의미를 이해할 수 없거나 이해한 것을 표현할 수 없다고 인정되는 사람에게는 국민선서를 면제할 수 있다. <개정 2017. 12. 19.>»About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«제10조(국적 취득자의 외국 국적 포기 의무) ① 대한민국 국적을 취득한 외국인으로서 외국 국적을 가지고 있는 자는 대한민국 국적을 취득한 날부터 1년 내에 그 외국 국적을 포기하여야 한다. <개정 2010. 5. 4.> ② 제1항에도 불구하고 다음 각 호의 어느 하나에 해당하는 자는 대한민국 국적을 취득한 날부터 1년 내에 외국 국적을 포기하거나 법무부장관이 정하는 바에 따라 대한민국에서 외국 국적을 행사하지 아니하겠다는 뜻을 법무부장관에게 서약하여야 한다. <신설 2010. 5. 4.>»About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(1) An alien who has acquired the nationality of the Republic of Korea but retains a nationality of a foreign country shall renounce the nationality of the foreign country within one year after acquiring the nationality of the Republic of Korea. <Amended on May 4, 2010> (2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), any of the following persons shall either renounce the nationality of the foreign country or vow his or her intention not to exercise his or her foreign nationality in the Republic of Korea to the Minister of Justice, as prescribed by the Minister of Justice, within one year from the date he or she acquires the nationality of the Republic of Korea: <Added on May 4, 2010>»Reference only and neither official nor legally effective, in the publisher's own words.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«③ 제1항 또는 제2항을 이행하지 아니한 자는 그 기간이 지난 때에 대한민국 국적을 상실(喪失)한다. <개정 2010. 5. 4.> [전문개정 2008. 3. 14.] - - 제11조(국적의 재취득) ① 제10조 제3항 에 따라 대한민국 국적을 상실한 자가 그 후 1년 내에 그 외국 국적을 포기하면 법무부장관에게 신고함으로써 대한민국 국적을 재취득할 수 있다.»Our translation - not official
(3) A person who has not complied with paragraph (1) or (2) loses the nationality of the Republic of Korea when that period expires. Article 11 (Re-acquisition of nationality) (1) A person who has lost the nationality of the Republic of Korea under article 10(3) may re-acquire it by notifying the Minister of Justice if he or she renounces that foreign nationality within one year thereafter.
The hyphens between the two articles are the separators the publisher's page puts between provisions.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«3. 병역을 기피할 목적으로 대한민국 국적을 상실하였거나 이탈하였던 사람»Our translation - not official
3. a person who lost or renounced the nationality of the Republic of Korea for the purpose of evading military service
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The Enforcement Decree and Enforcement Rules of the Nationality Act were not read. The good-conduct requirement in article 5(3) is expressly delegated to a Ministerial Decree of Justice, so what it actually requires is not established here.
The naturalisation test and the social integration programme are not mentioned in the Act. Article 5(5) states the basic-knowledge requirement and leaves how it is proved outside the statute.
Article 7, which provides for special naturalisation of a minor child of a Korean national, a person who has rendered special service to Korea and a person of outstanding ability, was read in outline but is not set out here.
No fee is stated. Nothing published by the Korea Immigration Service or by the social integration programme was read.
- consolidates국적법 [시행 2022. 10. 1.]
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처 · consolidated to 2022-10-01
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- reportsNATIONALITY ACT - Statutes of the Republic of Korea
Korea Legislation Research Institute
About this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source