Immigration suspects our marriage is false. What happens now?

A letter, a telephone call or a few minutes at a counter has told you that immigration doubts your marriage. The first thing to settle is not whether they believe you. It is which power is being used, because each one has a different consequence and only one of them comes with a fixed period in which you can answer. That period is seven days.

The three things the Act allows

Prosecution. Inviting a foreigner by entering false facts, by giving a false guarantee or by other improper means, and brokering such an invitation, is prohibited for everybody, Korean or not. So is applying falsely for a visa or a certificate of visa issuance (사증발급인정서), and brokering such an application. Separately, it is prohibited to submit forged or altered documents as evidence, or an application containing false statements, or to apply by other improper means, in connection with a stay permission, and to solicit or induce anyone else to do so. Each of those prohibitions carries up to three years of imprisonment or a fine of up to 30 million won. Notice who stands inside them: the Korean spouse who signed the guarantee, as much as the foreign spouse.

Fact-finding investigation. Immigration has a power to investigate facts. We have written about that power in another article, and it is not the centre of this one.

Cancellation or alteration of the permission. This is the quiet one, and the fastest way a stay ends.

Cancellation: the ground that says nothing about your marriage

Five situations let the Minister of Justice withdraw a permission already granted, or change its terms. The permissions reached by that power are many: the visa itself, the 사증발급인정서, permission to enter, a conditional entry, a landing permission given to crew or to a tourist, and the permission to stay.

Ground	Why a married couple should care
The person who guaranteed you pulls out, or no guarantor is left	No finding about the marriage is needed at all. A spouse who signs a withdrawal can set this going over a bad weekend
The permission came out of deception, or of some other improper route	This is the ground that obliges immigration to show something about the marriage itself
You broke a condition attached to your permission	Read the conditions printed on your own paperwork
Circumstances shifted so gravely that what was permitted can no longer be kept up	A separation, a move, a long absence
A grave breach of this or any other Act, or refusal to follow a lawful instruction from an immigration officer	The prohibitions above sit here

Look at the first row again. Protecting a marriage case is not only about evidence of a shared life. It is also about understanding that your residence can be attacked through the person who guaranteed you.

The seven days

Before taking either step, the Minister can summon the foreigner, or whoever applied on their behalf, and hear them. Where that happens, the notice has to reach you no later than the seventh day before the appointed day, and it has to carry the reasons for the step under consideration as well as where and when you are to appear.

Seven days is the only fixed window in this part of the Act, and it is not long. Whether a lawyer may sit beside you at that hearing is not settled in the Act itself, so put the question to the office that sent the notice, and put it ahead of the day rather than on it.

Because seven days is the window, the material that shows a shared life has to exist before the letter arrives:

• the lease or the title for where you live, with both names on it where that is possible
• bank records of shared spending, transfers between the two of you, utility and telephone bills
• dated photographs, spread across years rather than one wedding day
• messages between you, and messages with each other's families
• medical records, insurance papers, a child's nursery or school documents
• names and contact details of neighbours, colleagues and relatives who know you as a couple
• the Korean spouse's family register entries, and your own country's marriage record

Keep it as one folder, hold the originals, and write on the first page the date you put it together.

What the investigation looks like in practice

Home visits, separate interviews with each spouse, requests for photographs and questions about each other's daily habits are commonly reported by couples who have been through this. None of that appears in the Act as a test, and no list of criteria circulating among friends deserves to be treated as law. What the Act supplies is the power to investigate and the power to cancel. How an individual office uses it varies.

Two habits are worth keeping whatever happens on the day. Answer only about facts you are sure of, because a wrong guess about your spouse's workplace reads worse on paper than saying you do not remember. And the same evening, write down who interviewed you, where, for how long, and what you were asked.

The person who invited you

On the inviting side there is a further cost that outlives the case. Suppose the inviter breached that prohibition and ended up paying a fine, or an immigration penalty (범칙금). If the sum paid was 5 million won or higher, a 사증발급인정서 for the foreigner they invited can be withheld for three years, counted from the day the money was paid. Anything below that figure gives a one-year block instead. A closed case can still shut the door on a later invitation.

Next step

Before you answer any letter, establish which power is behind it, because a notice to attend and be heard, a request to appear as a suspect, and an invitation to bring documents are three different things with three different timetables. Bring the letter itself, both passports, both residence cards and your folder. Use the immigration contact centre on 1345 for procedural questions only, and write down the date and the answer. Advice from us is charged for, and our staff will tell you the rate when they ring you.

법무법인 대한중앙
1533-7377

Rules applied

Immigration Act (출입국관리법) Article 7-2 (prohibition on inviting a foreigner by false facts, a false guarantee or other improper means, on brokering such an invitation, and on a false application for a visa or a certificate of visa issuance or brokering one), Article 26 (prohibition, in connection with applications for permission under Articles 20, 21, 23 to 25, 25-2, 25-3 and 25-4, on submitting forged or altered documents or an application containing false statements or applying by other improper means, and on soliciting or inducing such conduct), Article 94 item 3 and item 17-2 (each breach: up to 3 years of imprisonment or a fine of up to 30 million won), Article 89(1) (grounds for cancelling or altering a visa, a certificate of visa issuance, an entry permission, a conditional entry permission, a crew or tourist landing permission or a stay permission under Articles 20, 21 and 23 to 25, including withdrawal or loss of the guarantor), Article 89(2) (attendance to be heard), Article 89(3) (notice of the reasons and of the time and place at least 7 days before the date), Article 80 (fact-finding investigations, mentioned only); Enforcement Rule Article 17-3(2) items 1 and 2 (a certificate of visa issuance may be refused for 3 years from the date of payment where a fine or a 범칙금 of 5 million won or more was paid for a breach of Article 7-2, and for 1 year where the amount was under 5 million won).

This is general information, not legal advice. Every case is different.