🇰🇷 South Korea · Citizenship
Naturalization and citizenship-by-investment: residence years, language and civics tests, dual-citizenship rules, and multi-passport planning.
South Korean citizenship by general naturalisation is available to adults (19+) who have maintained domicile in Korea for at least five consecutive years, are of good conduct, show financial capacity (income above GNI per capita or assets of at least KRW 60 million) and basic knowledge of Korean language and society — completing the KIIP can satisfy this. New citizens must generally renounce their former nationality within one year, with exceptions (e.g. marriage migrants, special-contribution cases, applicants aged 65 or older).
- General naturalisation: at least five consecutive years' domicile in Korea, aged 19 or over, good conduct and financial capacity.
- Basic Korean language/society knowledge is required; completing the KIIP can fulfil it and exempt the written test.
- New citizens generally must renounce their former nationality within one year — exceptions include marriage migrants, special-contribution cases and applicants aged 65+.
- Applications and appointments are handled through the immigration service / HiKorea.
Official authorities
- HiKorea (Korea Immigration Service)
Official e-government immigration portal for naturalisation steps.
Official-information aggregation, not legal advice. Always verify on the authority's own site.
Government portals
- Government of Korea — Korea's integrated government portal — policy, administrative services, e-government
- Korea Immigration Service (HiKorea) — Visas, residence status changes, work permits, and alien registration in Korea
- National Tax Service (NTS) — Korean income tax, corporate tax, VAT filing; annual comprehensive tax return for foreigners (May); foreign taxpayer incentive lookup