Can a Foreigner Get Divorced in Korea? Process and Grounds

Quick answer: In most cases, yes. A Korean court can hear a divorce even when neither spouse is a Korean national, because Korean law decides jurisdiction by where the couple actually lived rather than by nationality alone. Whether the case is then decided under Korean law or under a foreign law is a separate question, answered by the Act on Private International Law. Both questions are settled before anyone argues about the marriage itself.

When a Korean court can hear your divorce

Foreign nationals often assume that a divorce has to be filed in the country of their passport, or in the country where the marriage was registered. Korean law does not work that way. Under Article 2 of the Act on Private International Law, a Korean court has international jurisdiction where the parties or the dispute have a substantial connection with the Republic of Korea.

For marriages, that general rule is made concrete by Article 56 of the same Act (Act No. 18670, wholly amended on 4 January 2022), which sets out when a Korean court has special jurisdiction over a case concerning a marital relationship. The situations it lists include:

• Either spouse has his or her habitual residence in Korea, and the last common habitual residence of both spouses was in Korea
• The plaintiff, and all or some of the minor children, have their habitual residence in Korea
• Both spouses are nationals of the Republic of Korea
• The plaintiff is a Korean national with habitual residence in Korea and is seeking only to terminate the marriage

The word doing the work in the first two is habitual residence (일상거소), not nationality. A German national who has lived and worked in Seoul for years, married to an American national who lived here with her, is not outside the Korean courts merely because no one in the marriage holds a Korean passport. Conversely, a couple who married in Korea but left years ago and now live in different countries may find that the connection to Korea has gone.

This is why the first thing worth establishing is factual rather than legal: where each spouse has actually been living, where the couple last lived together, and where any minor children are living now.

What changes when one or both spouses are foreign nationals

Jurisdiction answers where. Governing law answers under which country’s rules. A Korean court can accept a case and still decide part of it under a foreign law, which surprises people who expect the two to move together.

Article 66 of the Act on Private International Law governs divorce, and it applies the ladder set out in Article 64 for the general effects of marriage, in order:

• The national law common to both spouses
• Failing that, the law of the habitual residence common to both spouses
• Failing that, the law of the place to which the spouses are most closely connected

Article 66 then adds a proviso that decides a great many real cases: where either spouse is a national of the Republic of Korea with his or her habitual residence in Korea, the divorce is governed by Korean law.

In practice that produces three common patterns. A foreign national married to a Korean spouse who lives in Korea will almost always have the divorce decided under Korean law. Two foreign nationals who share a nationality may find their common national law applies, even though a Korean court is hearing the case. Two foreign nationals of different nationalities who have built their life here will usually land on the law of their common habitual residence, which is Korea.

None of this is a formality. Grounds for divorce, how property is divided and how custody is decided can differ sharply between legal systems, so the governing-law question can change the outcome before a single fact about the marriage is argued.

How the Korean divorce process works

Where Korean law applies, there are two routes, and which one you are on changes everything about the timeline.

Divorce by agreement (협의이혼)

This route requires both spouses to agree, and to still agree when the court confirms it. The couple applies to the family court, receives the court’s guidance, waits out a statutory reflection period, is confirmed by the court, and then registers the divorce with the administrative office.

The reflection period is three months where there is a minor child and one month where there is not. It can be shortened or dispensed with where there is domestic violence or another urgent reason. If either spouse changes their mind before confirmation, the route closes and the matter becomes a contested one.

Where there are children, an agreement on custody and parental authority must be submitted. If the parents cannot agree, the court decides the point itself rather than letting the divorce proceed without it (Civil Act Articles 834, 836 and 837).

Divorce by judgment (재판상 이혼)

Where one spouse will not agree, the other sues. Article 840 of the Civil Act sets out six grounds:

• An act of infidelity by the spouse
• Malicious desertion by the spouse
• Extremely unfair treatment by the spouse or the spouse’s lineal ascendants
• Extremely unfair treatment of one’s own lineal ascendants by the spouse
• The spouse’s life or death having been unknown for three years or more
• Any other serious ground making it difficult to continue the marriage

The first five are specific. The sixth is open, and it is where most contested international divorces are actually fought — whether a particular history of separation, breakdown or conduct amounts to a serious ground is decided by the court on the facts of that marriage, not by a checklist.

The family court will normally attempt mediation before a case is tried. Mediation is not a soft option: a great many cases finish there, on terms the parties can live with, without a judgment.

The procedure inside a contested divorce

The grounds decide whether a divorce is available. The procedure decides how long it takes, where it happens and what you can hold in place while it runs, and for a cross-border couple the procedure is usually where the case is actually won or lost. This section walks the sequence. Each step has a separate answer page with the detail.

You apply for mediation before you sue

A judicial divorce is a Type B family case, which means an application for mediation comes first. Filing the suit without it does not skip the stage, because the court must then refer the case to mediation itself. There is a proviso for the case where a spouse cannot be summoned other than by public notice, and that proviso is what does the work when a spouse has left the country. See whether mediation is required before a contested divorce, and how a mediated divorce differs from a contested one.

Which family court hears it is fixed, not chosen

Jurisdiction is exclusive and set by five rules that apply in order. The one that decides most cases is the second: the district where the couple last had a common address, if either of them still has a general venue there. That often puts the case where the marriage was lived rather than where you live now. See which family court you file in.

Serving a spouse who is outside Korea

Service abroad goes through the Korean embassy, consulate or the competent authority of that country, and it is slow. Where it cannot work, service by public notice is available, and for a case that had to be served abroad the first public notice takes effect two months after it is carried out rather than two weeks. That period cannot be shortened, and it is the single largest source of delay in these cases. See how divorce papers are served on a spouse outside Korea.

If your spouse simply does not turn up

You do not win by default. For this class of case the Family Litigation Act switches off the Civil Procedure Act rules on deemed admission, so silence is not an admission and the ground still has to be proved. What an absent spouse does lose is the chance to contest the financial claims. See what happens if your spouse does not appear.

Holding the position while the case runs

Two different tools exist and they are not interchangeable. A pre-disposition order can settle care of the children and forbid dealings with property, but the statute says in terms that it has no enforcement power. Provisional attachment does bind, the family court can grant it without security, and a mediation application counts as the main action for it. If the worry is a transfer of money or property, the first tool will not stop it. See temporary orders while a Korean divorce is running.

Attending, and what a settlement is worth

The starting point is that you attend in person; an agent may appear instead only with permission for special circumstances, and that permission can be revoked. If the case settles in mediation, what is entered in the record has the same effect as a settlement in court, so it is enforceable without a further judgment. If mediation fails, the suit is deemed brought on the day you applied for it, which protects the date. See attending from abroad, whether a mediated divorce binds like a judgment, and what happens if mediation fails.

Family Litigation Act, Articles 7, 12, 22, 49, 50, 59, 61, 62 and 63, Act No. 20432, in force from 1 January 2026; Civil Procedure Act, Articles 191, 194, 195 and 196, Act No. 19516, in force from 12 July 2025; Judicial Conciliation of Civil Disputes Act, Articles 34 and 36, Act No. 16910, in force from 5 March 2020.

The full set of procedural questions sits in the divorce and family law answers section.

Children and property in a cross-border divorce

Two points come up in almost every international file, and both have deadlines or requirements that are easy to miss from abroad.

Children. In a divorce by agreement, custody and parental authority have to be settled in writing before the court will confirm it, and where the parents cannot agree the court fixes the arrangement itself. Where one parent intends to leave Korea, that intention is part of the arrangement rather than something to be raised afterwards.

Property. A claim for division of property is not open indefinitely. Under Article 839-2(3) of the Civil Act, the claim is extinguished two years from the date of the divorce — the date of registration for a divorce by agreement, and the date the judgment becomes final for a divorce by judgment. Foreign nationals who leave Korea immediately after the divorce and think about the apartment or the pension a few years later are frequently out of time.

If you have already read our account of how property and custody were divided after a short marriage, you will have seen how much turns on contribution and on what the child’s life actually looks like, rather than on who is formally at fault.

What documents may matter

Korean courts work in Korean, and documents produced abroad usually need translation and, depending on the country, apostille or consular legalisation. Gathering these takes weeks, not days, so it is worth starting early. The documents that typically matter are:

• Passports and, for residents, the alien registration card
• The marriage certificate, with translation and apostille or legalisation where it was issued abroad
• Proof of where each spouse has been living — lease, residence certificate, entry and exit records
• Documents relating to any children, including school and residence records
• Records that go to the ground relied on, such as messages, photographs or medical records
• Financial records for property division, including bank, property and retirement records

Do not send case documents or evidence through a website contact form. Describe the situation first; documents are handled through a secure channel once the matter is taken on.

When legal representation becomes useful

Not every divorce needs a lawyer from the first day. An international divorce usually does, and for a specific reason: the questions that decide the case come first and are technical. Jurisdiction and governing law are argued before the merits, service on a spouse living abroad has its own procedure and its own delays, and everything filed with a Korean court is filed in Korean.

It is also worth talking to someone before you act rather than after. Leaving Korea, moving a child, signing an agreement drafted by the other side, or letting the two-year property window run are all decisions that are far cheaper to discuss in advance than to unwind later.

For a case that has already run through a Korean family court from start to finish, see our account of an international divorce brought by a foreign client, which shows what the process looks like in practice rather than on paper.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Can I get divorced in Korea if neither my spouse nor I is Korean?
A: Yes, where the marriage has the connection to Korea that Article 56 of the Act on Private International Law requires — most commonly that one of you habitually lives here and Korea was your last shared home. Nationality is one route to a Korean court, not the only one.

Q: My spouse and I are both foreign nationals. Will Korean law decide the divorce?
A: Not necessarily. Under Articles 64 and 66, a common national law applies first, then a common habitual residence. If you share a nationality, that law may govern even though a Korean court is hearing the case. If either spouse is a Korean national living in Korea, Korean law governs.

Q: Does Korea have no-fault divorce?
A: Article 840 lists five specific fault-based grounds and a sixth, open ground: any other serious reason making it difficult to continue the marriage. Whether a particular breakdown falls within that sixth ground is decided by the court on the facts. Separately, spouses who both agree can divorce by agreement without proving any ground at all.

Q: How long does it take?
A: A divorce by agreement runs on the statutory reflection period — three months with a minor child, one month without — plus the court confirmation and registration around it. A contested divorce has no fixed length; in international cases the timeline is usually stretched by establishing jurisdiction, serving a spouse abroad, and translating documents.

Q: My spouse has left Korea. Can I still file here?
A: Possibly. A spouse leaving does not by itself remove a Korean court’s jurisdiction, particularly where you remain here and Korea was the last common home, or where minor children live here with you. Service abroad then becomes the practical problem rather than jurisdiction.

Q: Will a Korean divorce be recognised in my home country?
A: That is decided by the law of that country, not by Korean law. It is worth checking before you file, because the answer can affect how the Korean case should be documented.

Q: What happens to my visa?
A: Residence status is governed by immigration law separately from the divorce itself, and the two need to be looked at together rather than one after the other. Raise it at the first consultation.

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This article is general information about Korean family law and private international law and is not legal advice. Which court has jurisdiction and which law applies depend on the specific facts of each marriage, and statutory provisions are subject to amendment. For advice on your situation, consult a licensed attorney.