By Kim Hyelin and Hahm Hee-eun

Non-Korean residents who have permanent resident status in Korea will now be issued a Certificate of Permanent Residency instead of the former Certificate of Alien Registration.

The Ministry of Justice announced on Sept. 12 that it will issue the new Certificate of Permanent Residency instead of the former Certificate of Alien Registration starting Sept. 21. The new certificate will be issued to non-Korean residents with an F-5 visa, which proves their qualification for permanent residency in Korea.

A Certificate of Permanent Residency must be reissued every 10 years and can be asked for reissuance in less than 10 years, if needed. If the certificate is not reissued after 12 years, a penalty of KRW 2 million or less will be imposed.

As of the end of August, around 130,000 non-Korean residents are eligible for the certificate of permanent residence, which is around 6 percent of the 2,300,000 non-Korean residents in Korea. The Ministry of Justice will notify the non-Korean nationals via mail so that qualified non-Korean residents can have the proper paperwork issued.

An officer from the Ministry of Justice said, “Up to now, there were difficulties in determining the residential status of non-Koreans, including changes of address or death, with no expiration date. We've decided to adopt this system so that we can properly consider the residential status of non-Korean residents eligible for an F-5 visa."


kimhyelin211@korea.kr