Korea Family Visit Visa from Nepal (C-3-9): The Inviter Half

The family visit visa shares a code with the tourist visa — both are C-3-9 — and shares almost none of its paperwork.

That overlap causes real damage. Applicants discover that visiting a brother in Korea is a "C-3-9", find a tourist checklist, assemble a tourist file, and submit it for a trip their own cover letter describes as a family visit. The file contradicts itself on page one.

The distinction is simple. The tourist route is for someone travelling with no inviter. The family visit route is for a person who is invited by a relative currently living in Korea, and the weight of the application shifts accordingly: roughly half the file is now your relative's documents, not yours.

This guide covers the C-3-9 family visit list, what your relative in Korea has to produce, and the one place this route is easier than every other. For the rules shared across all twelve routes — the Class A bank requirement, validity windows, translation and notarisation — see Korean visa documents from Nepal.

Who qualifies

A person invited by a relative currently living in Korea, for a stay of up to ninety days.

The relative's own legal status in Korea is what makes this route available, and their status determines which list you are actually on. This matters more than people expect:

• A relative on a general residence status inviting you for a visit → this route, C-3-9 family visit
• A spouse or child of an E-7 holder moving to Korea for more than ninety days → not this route. That is the F-3 dependent visa
• A dependent of an E-7-4R or F-2-R holder → a C-3-1 dependent application, different again
• A spouse or child of an F-5 permanent resident → the F-2-3 residence route
• Parents or family of an F-6 marriage migrant coming to provide childcare → the F-1-5 route

Before anything else, get your relative to confirm their exact visa code as it appears in their Korean immigration records. The requirements for the dependent routes say this explicitly, and the reason is that E-7-4 and E-7-4R look nearly identical on a phone screen and lead to different applications. Ask them to check rather than remember.

If no relative is involved, you want the tourist route. Broader context on this family of visas sits in family and dependant visas.

What your relative in Korea must produce

Start here, not with your own documents. This half depends on somebody else's time, somebody else's employer and somebody else's bank, and it is reliably the slower half.

• Invitation letter and guarantee letter, both on the specific forms published for download by the embassy. Download them from the embassy's own site, not from a copy circulating in a group chat
• Certificate of foreign resident registration
• A copy of their residence card, front and back. The card's expiry must be more than six months after your application date. If their card is closer to expiry than that, their renewal happens before your application, not after — see getting your Alien Registration Card in Korea
• Certificate of seal
• Employment certificate or employment contract
• Business registration certificate
• Confirmation of residence or accommodation, or a lease contract — proof there is somewhere for you to stay
• Certificate of income for the recent two years
• A photocopy of their passport
• Korean bank balance certificate
• Korean bank statement for the recent six months, issued showing deposit records only

Two notes on the Korean bank documents. The one-month issuance window that governs Nepali bank statements applies here too in practice, so your relative should not request them months early. And "deposits only" is a specific instruction about how the statement is generated — ask them to request it that way rather than submitting a full transaction history.

What you provide from Nepal

• Visa application form, with your original signature on page 5 matching your passport signature
• Passport photograph, 35 × 45 mm, recent
• Family relationship certificate, original and photocopy
• Marriage certificate, original and photocopy
• Your employment certificate
• Visa cover letter — purpose of the visit, tentative itinerary, and who is covering your expenses
• Two-way flight booking, departure at least fifteen business days after your application date
• Your original passport and a photocopy
• Your bank balance certificate and bank statement — but see the exemption below

All Nepali-language documents translated into English and notarised by an authorised notary public. Arrange the file in the order the list gives.

The exemption worth knowing about

The family visit list contains one of the few genuine reductions in burden across all twelve routes:

Your own bank balance certificate and bank statement are not required if you are an immediate family member.

This is the only short-stay route that waives the applicant's financial documents, and the logic is sound — your relative in Korea has already submitted a guarantee letter, two years of income certification, and six months of Korean bank statements. The money question has been answered by the person answering for you.

Two cautions. "Immediate family member" is the embassy's determination, not yours, and the boundary is not spelled out in the list — a parent, spouse or child is clearly within it; a cousin or an uncle is a different conversation. If your relationship is anything other than immediate, assume your financial documents are required and prepare them. And if you are in any doubt, submitting them anyway costs you a trip to the bank, while omitting them wrongly costs you the application.

Note what is not waived: the family relationship certificate. In fact it matters more on this route than on any other, because it is the document that establishes the relationship the whole application rests on. If the certificate does not clearly show the link between you and your inviter, nothing else in the file works.

What the reviewer is weighing

The questions are different from the tourist route, and knowing which they are tells you where to put your effort.

Is the claimed relationship real and documented? The family relationship certificate and marriage certificate carry this. Names must match across your passport, your certificate and your relative's documents. Transliteration differences between Nepali ward documents and a passport are a common and entirely avoidable source of doubt — have the translator work from originals so spellings stay consistent.

Is your relative in Korea lawfully, stably and able to support you? Their residence card validity, employment certificate, two years of income and Korean bank statements all answer this. A relative whose own status is precarious weakens your application regardless of how good your half is.

Is there somewhere for you to stay? That is what the confirmation of residence or lease contract is for.

Will you leave at the end of ninety days? Your employment certificate, and your relationship to a life in Nepal, carry this. It is the one question the inviter cannot answer for you.

Sequencing a family visit application

The inviter's documents are the critical path. Work from them backwards.

1. First, before anything: confirm your relative's exact visa code, and check their residence card expiry is more than six months out.
2. Immediately after: ask them to begin collecting their set — invitation and guarantee letters on the downloaded forms, foreign resident registration, seal certificate, employment and income certificates, residence confirmation. Employer-issued documents in Korea take as long as the employer takes.
3. Early and safely: your ward documents — family relationship and marriage certificates. Six-month window.
4. Four to six weeks out: notarised English translations of every Nepali document.
5. Three to four weeks out: your employment certificate.
6. Two to three weeks out: flight booking, fifteen-business-day rule respected.
7. Last two weeks: Korean bank documents from your relative, and your own bank documents if you are not exempt. These are the one-month items.
8. Finally: cover letter, page 5 signature, file in the published order.

The reasoning behind this ordering is set out in full in the validity clock section of the main guide.

Where family visit applications come apart

A tourist file submitted for a family visit. No invitation letter, no guarantee letter, no inviter documents — and a cover letter that mentions a relative.

The inviter's residence card expires within six months. Checked too late.

The wrong visa route because the sponsor's code was guessed. E-7-4 against E-7-4R; a dependent move treated as a short visit.

A family relationship certificate that does not clearly establish the link to the inviter, or names that differ in transliteration between documents.

Korean bank statements submitted as a full transaction history rather than deposits only.

Assuming the immediate-family exemption applies when the relationship is not immediate.

Forms downloaded from a group chat rather than the embassy site, and therefore out of date.

The fifteen-business-day flight rule, as on every route.

After you arrive

Ninety days on a C-3-9 is visitor status: no employment, paid or unpaid. If your relative's situation means you will be in Korea longer or repeatedly, look at whether a dependent or residence route fits your circumstances rather than running consecutive visits — extending your stay in Korea and immigration offices and overstay explain the limits and the consequences.

While you are there: the Nepali community in Korea covers finding the community and the support centres most people never use, remittance, cargo and flights covers the practicalities of moving money and goods, and cultural exchange and differences covers what tends to surprise first-time visitors.

Writing the cover letter

On this route the cover letter has a specific job: explain the relationship, and make clear that you understand this is a visit and not a move.

State the relationship precisely. Not "my relative" but "my elder brother, [name], who holds [visa status] and has lived in [city] since [year]". This should match the family relationship certificate exactly, including the spelling of names.

Describe the visit, not the reunion. Dates, where you will stay, what you will do. The accommodation should match your relative's confirmation of residence or lease contract.

Be clear about who pays. Usually the inviter, in which case say so and point at their guarantee letter, income certificate and Korean bank statements. If you are funding it yourself and are not exempt from the financial documents, point at yours instead.

Say what you are returning to. This is the paragraph applicants skip on family visit applications, assuming the inviter's guarantee covers everything. It does not. The inviter can vouch for your expenses; only you can establish that you have a job, a business or a family to come back to.

A shape to adapt rather than copy:

I am applying to visit my [exact relationship], [full name], who has resided in [city] since [year] and holds [status]; their invitation letter, guarantee letter, residence card copy and certificate of foreign resident registration are enclosed, together with our family relationship certificate. I intend to visit from [date] to [date] and will stay at their residence at [address], as shown in the enclosed lease contract. My [relative] will meet my expenses during the visit, as set out in their guarantee letter and supported by their income certificate and Korean bank statements. I am employed as [occupation] at [employer] and am due to resume work on [date]; my employment certificate is enclosed. I will leave Korea on [date] as shown on my return booking.

Write it last, against the assembled file, and have your relative read it so that nothing in it contradicts what they wrote in their invitation letter.

Questions people actually ask

My relative says their visa is "E-7". Is that enough to know? No, and this is the most expensive assumption on this route. Ask them to check the exact code in their official immigration status. E-7-4, E-7-4R, F-2-R and F-2-99 lead to different applications with different lengths of stay, and the requirements for the dependent routes tell applicants to confirm this explicitly.

Who counts as an "immediate family member" for the bank exemption? The embassy decides, and the list does not define it. A parent, spouse or child is clearly within it. A cousin, uncle or in-law is not something to assume. If your relationship is anything other than immediate, prepare your own bank balance certificate and six-month statement. Submitting them unnecessarily costs you one trip to the bank; omitting them wrongly costs the application.

My relative's residence card expires in four months. Can we still apply? Not safely. The requirement is that the card is valid for more than six months from your application date, so their renewal comes first. See getting your Alien Registration Card in Korea.

Their bank sent a full statement with withdrawals shown. Is that a problem? Yes. The list asks for the Korean statement to be issued showing deposit records only. It is a matter of how the statement is generated, so ask them to request it again correctly rather than submitting what they have.

Can my relative send scans of their documents by email? For planning, yes. For submission, the originals specified in the list are the documents, so build posting or courier time into your schedule.

Can I extend a family visit visa once I am in Korea, or switch to a dependent visa? Do not plan on it. A C-3-9 is a ninety-day visitor status, and if your real intention is to join your relative long-term, the correct route is a dependent or residence application made from Nepal with the right documents. Extending your stay in Korea explains what is actually possible.

Can I work while visiting family? No. Visitor status prohibits employment, paid or unpaid.

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 these requirements and changes them without notice. Download the invitation and guarantee letter forms from the embassy's own website, confirm the current list before committing money, and check the date on this page. Nothing here is legal or immigration advice, and whether you fall within "immediate family member" is a determination for the embassy.

If something here is out of date, tell us.