International Marriage

[Anchor Lead]

A non-Korean woman who gets a divorced from her Korean husband may inevitably have to return home as she is not able to get a residence visa. A court has overturned the Justice Ministry's ban on naturalization for foreign women who come to Korea for marriage.

[Pkg]

A Chinese woman split from her Korean husband after 4 years of marriage due to his habitual violence. Two years later, she was on the verge of being deported back to China. It was because the Justice Ministry had not allowed her naturalization. The ministry took issue with the Chinese woman having run away from home for a year prior to the divorce. The ministry believed that due to this fact, she did not qualify for even the simple naturalization process which can be applied after 3 years of marriage. Her failure to prove she had means to earn a living also barred her from receiving a visa. However, the court ruled differently. The court said the husband's violence was the main cause of divorce and the provision in the Nationality Act demanding proof of means of living is not a barometer for determining a person's naturalization. About half of all multicultural couples in Korea split within 2 years of tying the knot. The husband's violence is the number one reason, but the wife needs to prove this fact in order to acquire Korean nationality.

[Soundbite] Lee Hyeon-seo(Attorney) : "They have difficulties in communication and don't know how to go about proving that. Therefore, often little physical evidence remains."

It remains to be seen whether the latest ruling that broadly recognizes the naturalization of foreign spouses can serve to lower the threshold of gaining Korean citizenship for the 200-thousand migrant women in the country.