Korea F-1-5 Childcare Visa from Nepal (F-6 Families)

On every other Korean visa route the application is about the applicant. On the F-1-5 it is about a child.

This is the route by which the parents or family of an F-6 marriage migrant come to Korea to help with childcare, and almost every document in it describes the child's situation rather than yours: the child's family relation certificate, the child's school enrolment, the child's disability certificate where that applies, or — if the child is not yet born — a pregnancy certificate or prenatal handbook.

Your own half of the file is the shortest of the twelve routes. No bank statement. No employment certificate. No tax clearance. The form, a photograph, your passport, a return flight booking, and one family relationship certificate doing unusual work.

That shape is deliberate, and once you see why, the whole application makes sense. The embassy is not assessing whether you can afford to visit. It is assessing whether a child in Korea needs care, and whether you are the right person to provide it.

This guide covers the F-1-5 route. For requirements shared across all twelve routes — validity windows, translation and notarisation — see Korean visa documents from Nepal.

Who qualifies

Parents or family of marriage migrants holding F-6, coming to provide childcare support. Up to ninety days.

Two points worth being precise about.

The sponsor must hold F-6, the marriage migrant status. If your family member in Korea holds something else, this is not your route — see the comparison further down.

And the eligible applicant is a parent or family member, which is broader than parents alone. That breadth is what makes the sibling provision below possible, and it comes with a condition.

Which route is yours

• Sponsor holds F-6 and there is a child needing care → this route, F-1-5
• Sponsor holds E-7 and you are their spouse or child → the F-3 dependent route
• Sponsor holds E-7-4R or F-2-R and you are their spouse or child → the C-3-1 dependent route
• Sponsor holds F-5 permanent residence and you are their spouse or child → the F-2-3 residence route
• You simply want to visit a relative, with no childcare purpose → the family visit route, C-3-9, which is a lighter application
• There is no child, or the child does not need care → F-1-5 does not apply. The family visit route is the honest application

As with every route that turns on a sponsor's status, confirm the code from their official immigration record rather than from memory. Background in family and dependant visas.

What the sponsor in Korea provides

This is the substance of the application, and three of these are specific forms that must be downloaded from the embassy's own website.

The forms

• F-1-5 invitation letter, on its specific form
• Guarantee letter, on its specific form
• Pledge to prevent illegal stay and employment, on its specific form

Identity

• Copy of ID — resident registration card or passport
• Resident registration copy

The child — the heart of the application

• Family relation certificate in the child's name. If the sponsor is pregnant rather than already a parent: a pregnancy medical certificate or prenatal handbook instead
• Where there are two or more children: a certificate for each child
• Where the child is adopted: the adoption relation certificate
• Certificate of enrolment, required if the child is of school-going age

Where illness or disability is the basis of the request

• Special support documents
• Disability certificate, which must be marked "Severe Disability" or "Degree of Disability is Severe"

For single-parent households

• The sponsor's own family relation certificate
• The child's family relation certificate
• Resident registration
• The former spouse's marriage relation certificate

What you provide from Nepal

• Visa application form, with your original signature on page 5 matching your passport signature
• A recent passport-size photograph, 35 × 45 mm, taken within the last six months
• Original passport and a photocopy
• Round-trip flight booking, departure at least fifteen business days after your application date
• Family relationship certificate — a document that can verify all immediate family members and siblings of the Nepali spouse, originals and photocopies
• Inability to invite parents proof — if a sibling is coming because the parents cannot, submit copies of the parents' IDs and a doctor's opinion or medical note

All Nepali-language documents translated into English and notarised by an authorised notary public.

The pledge, and what it tells you

One form on this list exists on no other route: a pledge to prevent illegal stay and employment, signed by the sponsor in Korea.

It is worth reading that for what it is. The embassy is aware that a childcare visa could be used as a route to working in Korea, and it is asking the sponsor to put their name against an undertaking that it will not be.

Treat it accordingly. Do not work on an F-1-5. Not a few shifts, not cash in hand, not helping out at a relative's restaurant. The status is ninety days of visitor permission granted for a specific caring purpose, and the sponsor has signed a pledge about it — so the consequences of working reach them as well as you, and they hold F-6, which is a status they will not want jeopardised. Immigration offices and overstay sets out what follows.

Why they want to see all the siblings

The requirement that your family relationship certificate verify all immediate family members and siblings of the Nepali spouse looks like excessive paperwork until you connect it to the sibling provision.

The route is primarily for parents. A sibling may come instead, but only on proof that the parents cannot — copies of the parents' IDs and a doctor's opinion or medical note explaining why.

So the full family certificate is doing a specific job: it shows the embassy the complete set of people who could, in principle, provide this care. Against that picture, the claim "the parents cannot come, so I am coming" becomes assessable. Without it, the claim cannot be checked at all.

This has a practical implication. If you are a sibling applying, the two documents are a package: the full family certificate establishing who exists, and the medical evidence establishing why the parents are unavailable. A doctor's note saying a parent is unwell, without the family certificate, leaves the reviewer unable to see whether another sibling or relative might have come instead. Submit both, and make the cover letter connect them explicitly.

And the medical note should be specific. "Unwell" is not a reason; a stated condition that plainly prevents long-haul travel or caring for a small child is.

The disability wording is exact

Where the request rests on a child's illness or disability, the requirements specify that the disability certificate must be marked "Severe Disability" or "Degree of Disability is Severe".

That is unusually precise language for one of these lists, and precise language in a requirement generally means a specific administrative category rather than a description. A certificate recording a disability at a lesser grade may not satisfy the item as written, however genuine the need.

If this is the basis of your application, establish early — with the sponsor and the embassy — whether the child's existing Korean certification carries that marking. It is better to know before the file is built than after, and if it does not, the application may need to rest on a different ground, such as school-age childcare need, rather than on the disability provision.

What the reviewer is weighing

Is there a child, and does the child need care? The child's family relation certificate, the enrolment certificate for a school-age child, the pregnancy certificate where a birth is expected, and the special support and disability documents where illness is the basis.

Is the sponsor genuinely F-6, and is the household as described? Resident registration, ID copy, and for a single-parent household the additional set covering their own and the former spouse's records.

Are you the appropriate person? The relationship, established through the family certificate — and if you are a sibling, the evidence that the parents cannot come.

Will you leave at ninety days, and will you refrain from working? The return flight booking, and the pledge the sponsor has signed.

Notice what is absent: your income, your savings, your employment. Not assessed, because the sponsor is guaranteeing the visit. Do not volunteer financial documents into a file that does not ask for them, but do have them available in case the embassy asks — "additional documents may be requested" is a general feature of these routes.

Sequencing

1. First. Confirm the sponsor holds F-6, from their immigration record. Confirm which ground the application rests on: ordinary childcare, school-age need, pregnancy, or illness and disability.
2. If the ground is disability. Check immediately whether the child's certificate carries the "severe" marking the requirement specifies. This determines whether the application is viable on that basis.
3. Immediately. Have the sponsor download all three specific forms — F-1-5 invitation letter, guarantee letter, pledge — from the embassy's own website, and complete them.
4. At the same time. The sponsor gathers the child's documents: family relation certificate for each child, adoption relation certificate if applicable, enrolment certificate if school-age, pregnancy certificate or prenatal handbook if expecting, plus their resident registration and ID. For a single-parent household, the additional four documents.
5. Early and safely. Your family relationship certificate from the ward, covering all immediate family and siblings. Six-month window on ward documents, so this can be obtained early.
6. If you are a sibling. Obtain copies of the parents' IDs and a specific doctor's opinion explaining why they cannot travel or provide care.
7. Four to six weeks out. Notarised English translations of every Nepali-language document, worked from the originals so names stay consistent.
8. Two to three weeks out. Flight booking, respecting the fifteen-business-day rule.
9. Finally. Page 5 signature, and arrange the file in the order the list gives.

Full reasoning in the validity clock section of the main guide.

Where F-1-5 applications come apart

A certificate for only one child when there are two or more. Each child needs one.

No adoption relation certificate where the child is adopted.

A disability certificate without the "severe" marking the requirement specifies.

No enrolment certificate for a school-age child.

A sibling applying without the inability-to-invite-parents evidence, or with a vague doctor's note.

A family relationship certificate that does not cover all siblings, leaving the sibling claim unassessable.

Forms downloaded from a community group rather than the embassy's site. Three of the forms on this route are specific forms, which makes this failure more likely here than anywhere else.

A single-parent household submitting only the standard set, missing the four additional documents.

Working during the stay, which breaches a pledge the sponsor personally signed.

Ninety days of actual childcare

A practical note, because this is a real relocation for the person travelling even if it is legally a visit.

Ninety days is short for the purpose. If the need is ongoing — a parent returning to work, a child starting school, a second birth — it is worth the family discussing with the embassy and an immigration office what longer-term options exist for the sponsor's household, rather than planning on a sequence of visits. See extending your stay in Korea.

Worth reading before travelling, particularly for an older parent making the journey for the first time:

• Cultural exchange and differences — what tends to surprise first-time visitors
• Practical Korean — enough for a clinic, a pharmacy and a shop
• National Health Insurance in Korea — how coverage works, and why it does not extend to a ninety-day visitor
• The Nepali community in Korea — district support centres and associations, which are genuinely useful for a visiting grandparent and almost never used

Questions people actually ask

My daughter is pregnant, not yet a parent. Can we apply now? Yes — the requirements provide for it. In place of the child's family relation certificate, the sponsor submits a pregnancy medical certificate or prenatal handbook.

Both grandparents want to come. Is that one application? Documents are per applicant: each needs a form, photograph, passport and return booking, while the sponsor's set is shared. Confirm with the embassy how they want two applicants submitted together.

I am the sister, not the mother. Can I come instead? Yes, on proof that the parents cannot. That means copies of the parents' IDs and a doctor's opinion or medical note, together with the family relationship certificate showing all immediate family and siblings. The two work as a pair.

What if the parents are deceased rather than unwell? Nothing in the list addresses that specific case, so this page will not guess. Raise it with the embassy and ask what evidence they want in place of a doctor's opinion — death certificates would be the obvious documents, but how they want the item satisfied is their call.

Do I need to show bank statements or a job certificate? Not on this list. The sponsor's guarantee covers the visit. Have your own documents available in case they are requested, but do not pad the file with them.

Can I work part-time while helping with the baby? No. The sponsor has signed a pledge to prevent illegal stay and employment, and working would put their F-6 status at risk alongside yours.

My grandchild has a disability but the certificate does not say "severe". Check with the embassy before building the application on that ground. The requirement specifies the marking, and if the certificate does not carry it, the application may need to rest on a different basis.

Is ninety days extendable? Do not plan on it. Treat ninety days as the stay you are applying for.

Sources and accuracy

Requirements above are drawn from the trilingual visa document lists published by DAGACHI and World DAGACHI at worlddagachi.com, working from the English versions.

The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Nepal sets and changes these requirements without notice. All three specific forms — the F-1-5 invitation letter, the guarantee letter and the pledge — must be downloaded from the embassy's own website so that you have the current versions. Confirm the current list before committing to anything, and check the date on this page. Where this guide notes that a case is not addressed by the source list, that is a gap to take to the embassy rather than one to fill with assumption. Nothing here is legal or immigration advice.

If something here is out of date, tell us.