Korea F-2-3 Residence Visa from Nepal (Spouse of an F-5)

Every other Korean visa route from Nepal assesses documents. The F-2-3 residence visa assesses people — and most of the assessment falls on the family member in Korea, not on you.

It is the only route of the twelve where the sponsor submits a criminal record certificate. The only one where they submit a credit report. The only one requiring a health checkup covering syphilis, mental illness and AIDS. The only one that asks for their real estate lease agreement and income certification from the National Tax Service. And the only one whose own requirements end by saying, plainly, that additional documents may be requested and an interview may be conducted if necessary.

That is not a document checklist. It is a background check with a document list attached, and understanding that changes how you prepare for it. The question being asked is not "are these papers in order?" It is "should this person be allowed to settle in Korea permanently, and is the relationship real?"

This guide covers the F-2-3 route. For the requirements shared across all twelve routes — bank rules, validity windows, translation and notarisation — see Korean visa documents from Nepal.

Who qualifies

The spouse and children of a permanent resident — an F-5 holder. More than ninety days.

The sponsor's F-5 status is what makes this route available and what makes it demanding. An F-5 holder has permanent residence in Korea; bringing a spouse or child onto a residence visa is a step toward their permanent settlement too, and the assessment is proportionate to that.

If your sponsor's status is anything other than F-5, you are on a different route:

• Sponsor holds E-7 → the F-3 dependent route, F-3-17 or F-3-74
• Sponsor holds E-7-4R or F-2-R → a C-3-1 dependent application, ninety days only
• Sponsor holds F-6 as a marriage migrant, and you are their parent or family member coming to help with childcare → the F-1-5 route
• You want a short visit rather than residence → the family visit route, C-3-9

As with every dependent route, confirm the sponsor's exact code from their official immigration record rather than from memory. Background on this family of visas in family and dependant visas.

What the sponsor in Korea provides

The long half, and the intrusive one. Several of these take weeks and one of them — the criminal record certificate — is not something most people have ever requested.

Identity and status

• Copy of the front and back of their alien registration card
• Seal certificate
• Certificate of complete registration information

The relationship

• Marriage background statement, on the specific form published for download by the embassy
• Marriage certificate
• Divorce agreement, if applicable
• Family relationship certificate

Character and credit

• Criminal record certificate
• Personal credit information inquiry form, issued by the Korea Federation of Banks and available online at credit4u.or.kr

Health

• Health checkup certificate, which the requirements specify must be issued by a hospital or higher, and must cover syphilis, mental illness and AIDS

Money and home

• Occupation-related documents — employment certificate, business registration certificate or equivalent
• Six months of bank statements including salary details, issued within one month of the visa application date
• Bank balance certificate
• Proof of income issued by the National Tax Service
• Real estate lease agreement

Two notes worth passing on to your sponsor. The bank statements here must include salary details — this is not the "deposits only" instruction that governs the other dependent routes, so a statement generated the usual way for an F-3 application is the wrong document here. And the credit report is obtained online at the address given, which makes it one of the few items on this list they can complete the same day.

What you provide from Nepal

Short, by comparison, and heavily weighted toward medical and relationship evidence.

• Visa application form, with your original signature on page 5 matching your passport signature
• A recent passport-size photograph, taken within the last six months
• Passport, original and photocopy
• Visa cover letter
• Medical report on syphilis, HIV, mental disorder and tuberculosis — from only the four hospitals designated by the embassy
• Marriage background statement — the personal details form for the F-2-3 visa, downloadable from the embassy's website
• Marriage certificate, original and copy
• Family relationship certificate, original and copy

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

And the line that governs everything above: additional documents may be requested, and an interview may be conducted if necessary. Prepare for both as the expected case rather than the exception.

The medical requirement is wider here than anywhere else

On the student and F-3 routes the medical requirement is a tuberculosis report. On F-2-3 it is syphilis, HIV, mental disorder and tuberculosis, from the same four designated hospitals:

• Patan Hospital, Patan
• Civil Service Hospital, New Baneshwor
• Korea Nepal Friendship Hospital — also known as Korea Thimi Hospital — Bhaktapur
• Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku

A report from any other hospital is not accepted, however reputable. And note that the sponsor in Korea has a parallel health requirement covering substantially the same conditions, issued by a hospital or higher — both halves of the couple are being assessed.

This is a wider medical screen than most applicants expect, it involves tests whose results are not available the same day, and it is run through four facilities serving every long-stay applicant in the country. It is the item to book first.

The marriage background statement, and what it is for

Two documents on this route carry the same name and they are not the same form. The sponsor submits a marriage background statement on a specific form. You submit a marriage background statement described as the personal details form for the F-2-3 visa, downloadable from the embassy's website.

Download both from the embassy's own site. Forms that circulate in community groups go out of date, and on this route a superseded form is a weak start to an application that is already being read sceptically.

What these forms are doing is the heart of the F-2-3 assessment. A marriage certificate proves a marriage was registered. A marriage background statement asks how the relationship came about — how you met, over what period, how the marriage was arranged or decided, how you have maintained contact. Across every country that operates a spousal settlement route, this is where genuineness is assessed, and it is the reason the requirements allow for an interview.

Two pieces of practical advice. Complete the two statements consistently. You and your sponsor are describing the same history on separate forms, and discrepancies on dates, places or sequence are exactly what an interview explores. Sit down together, agree the facts and the dates, and fill them in from the same shared account rather than separately from memory.

And be straightforward about an arranged marriage. Arranged marriage is ordinary across South Asia, it is not a problem, and attempting to present it as something else is. What is assessed is whether the relationship is genuine and continuing, not whether it began the way a Korean reviewer's own might have.

What the reviewer is weighing

Is the sponsor a suitable permanent settler, and is their household sound? Criminal record certificate, credit report, National Tax Service income proof, occupation documents, bank statements with salary detail, lease agreement. That combination is assessing character, solvency and stability — an unusual range, and the reason this route takes longer than the others.

Is the marriage genuine and continuing? The two marriage background statements, the marriage certificate, the family relationship certificate, the divorce agreement where there was a previous marriage, and — if called — the interview.

Is there a home for you to live in? The real estate lease agreement, which is a required document here rather than an optional one.

Are both parties in good health by the standards set? Your four-test medical report, and the sponsor's health checkup.

Does everything agree? Names, dates, places and sequence across your documents, your sponsor's documents and both statements. This is the route where inconsistency does the most damage, because inconsistency is precisely what a genuineness assessment looks for.

Sequencing an F-2-3 application

Allow more time than for any other route, and expect it to be gated by other institutions.

1. First. Confirm the sponsor genuinely holds F-5, from their immigration record.
2. Immediately. Book your medical at one of the four designated hospitals — four tests, with results that are not same-day. Have the sponsor book their health checkup.
3. Immediately. Have the sponsor request the criminal record certificate. It has an institutional timeline and most people have never requested one.
4. Same week, and quick. The sponsor obtains the credit information inquiry form online at credit4u.or.kr.
5. Download both marriage background statement forms from the embassy website. Complete them together, consistently.
6. Three to six weeks out. Sponsor gathers National Tax Service income proof, occupation documents, lease agreement, registration certificates and seal certificate.
7. Early and safely. Your ward documents — marriage certificate and family relationship certificate, originals and copies. Six-month window.
8. Four to six weeks out. Notarised English translations, worked from the originals so spellings stay consistent.
9. Last two weeks only. The sponsor's six-month bank statements with salary details, and the balance certificate. One-month validity.
10. Finally. Cover letter, page 5 signature, file in the published order — and prepare for an interview and a request for further documents.

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

Where F-2-3 applications come apart

The sponsor is not actually F-5. Assumed rather than checked.

The two marriage background statements contradict each other on how the couple met, when, or in what sequence. The most damaging failure on this route.

Bank statements without salary details. This route specifies salary detail, unlike the "deposits only" instruction elsewhere.

Only a tuberculosis test booked, when syphilis, HIV and mental disorder reports are also required.

The criminal record certificate started late, because nobody realised it was a separate institutional process.

Forms downloaded from a community group rather than the embassy site.

No lease agreement, treated as optional. It is listed.

Treating the interview as unlikely. The requirements say it may happen; plan on it.

Inconsistent transliteration of names across ward documents, passports and Korean records.

After you arrive

F-2-3 is a residence status and a step toward longer-term settlement, so the administrative groundwork matters more than on a short stay:

• Getting your Alien Registration Card in Korea — first, and everything depends on it
• National Health Insurance in Korea — household enrolment
• Jeonse, wolse and key money: Korean housing explained
• Sending money from Korea to Nepal
• Extending your stay in Korea and immigration offices and overstay — renewal and reporting obligations, which on a residence status are ongoing

On working: F-2 residence statuses generally carry broader work rights than a dependent F-3, but the specifics depend on your sub-category and the conditions attached. Confirm with immigration rather than assuming, before you accept a job.

For settling in: the Nepali community in Korea covers the associations and support centres, learning Korean is the single highest-return investment available to anyone staying long-term, and cultural exchange and differences covers the rest.

Questions people actually ask

Our marriage was arranged. Is that a problem? No. Arranged marriage is ordinary and is not itself a concern. What is assessed is whether the relationship is genuine and continuing. Describe how it actually happened, consistently on both statements, rather than reshaping it into something you imagine reads better.

Will there definitely be an interview? The requirements say an interview may be conducted if necessary. Treat it as likely rather than possible, and prepare by agreeing the facts and dates with your spouse rather than by rehearsing answers.

Why does my spouse need a credit report? Because this route assesses whether the household can support a permanent settler. The credit information inquiry form from the Korea Federation of Banks, available at credit4u.or.kr, is part of the solvency picture alongside the tax office income proof and the bank documents.

My spouse has a previous marriage. Then the divorce agreement is required where applicable, and the marriage background statements need to account for the history clearly. A previous marriage is not a problem; an unexplained gap or an inconsistency between the two statements is.

Can the medical tests be done at a private hospital in Kathmandu? No. Only the four hospitals designated by the embassy, and on this route the report must cover syphilis, HIV, mental disorder and tuberculosis.

Can children be included? The route covers the spouse and children of an F-5 holder. Document requirements are per applicant, so confirm with the embassy how they want a family group submitted and what applies to each child.

How long does this take? Nothing in the source list states a processing time, so this page will not invent one. What can be said is that the criminal record certificate, the four-part medical and the possibility of an interview make this the slowest of the twelve routes by some margin. Start months rather than weeks ahead.

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, and settlement routes are revised more often than visitor routes. Download both marriage background statement forms from the embassy's own website, confirm the designated hospital list and the required tests before booking, and check the date on this page. The requirements themselves state that additional documents may be requested, so no published list — including this one — should be treated as exhaustive. Nothing here is legal or immigration advice; for a settlement application with any complication in its history, consider taking professional advice.

If something here is out of date, tell us.