If you hold a foreign registration in Korea, there are three deadlines written into the Immigration Act that decide whether an ordinary event — moving flat, renewing a passport, staying another year — stays ordinary or turns into a legal problem.
None of them are hard to meet. What makes them worth knowing is that two look identical on paper and are not, and the third has no number attached to it at all.
Moving house: 15 days, and it is a criminal fine
Article 36 of the Immigration Act says that a registered foreign national who changes their place of residence must report the move within 15 days of moving in. The report goes to the district office (si, gun, gu) or the local town or neighbourhood office (eup, myeon, dong) for the new address, or to the immigration office with jurisdiction over it.
Two things are worth noticing. The clock starts from the day you move in, not the day you sign a lease or the day you decide to move. And the report is filed at the new address, not the old one.
Bring your registration card. Article 36 requires you to submit it, and the office writes the change onto the card and hands it back to you. You are not getting a new card; you are getting the existing one updated.
Now the part people get wrong. Missing this deadline is not an administrative penalty. Article 98 of the Act lists failure to report a change of residence under Article 36(1) alongside failure to carry your passport, and both carry a fine of up to one million won — a criminal fine, imposed through the penal provisions of the Act, not a parking-ticket style charge.
New passport or changed details: also 15 days, but a different kind of penalty
Article 35 covers a separate list. If any of the following change, you report within 15 days to the immigration office with jurisdiction over your place of stay:
Your name, sex, date of birth or nationality. And your passport's number, date of issue, and expiry date.
The passport line is the one that catches people. Renewing a passport is a routine errand, and the new booklet feels like a private matter between you and your own government. Under Korean law it changes a registered detail, and the clock starts running.
Failing to report under Article 35 falls under Article 100(2), which sets an administrative penalty of up to one million won. Same ceiling as the address rule, different legal character. An administrative penalty is not a criminal record; a fine under Article 98 is a penal sanction.
Whether that distinction ever matters to you personally depends on circumstances no blog post can predict. But it is the reason it is worth treating the address deadline as the more serious of the two, even though the number and the amount are identical.
Staying longer: no number at all
Article 25 is the extension provision, and it is short. A foreign national who wants to stay beyond their current period of stay must obtain permission from the Minister of Justice before that period ends.
There is no 15 days here, and no 30. The requirement is simply that the permission be obtained while your current stay is still valid. In practice that means applying early enough for a decision to come back in time, which is not the same as applying on the last day.
The Act does not set out what the office looks for. Article 25(2) says the review standards are prescribed by Ministry of Justice ordinance, which means the criteria live outside the Act itself and can be revised without the law changing.
If the date passes without permission, Article 94 item 17 applies: staying on past your period of stay without an extension carries up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 30 million won. This is the one where the gap between the two outcomes is enormous — a form filed in time, or a criminal provision.
A note on special cases
Article 25-2 sets out an exception worth knowing exists. Where a foreign national is going through court proceedings, a criminal investigation, or another legal remedy process as a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence, child abuse, or human trafficking, the Minister of Justice may permit an extension until those proceedings conclude — and may extend further afterwards where recovery requires it.
This is not a general-purpose provision, and it is not something to plan around. It is here because people in exactly those situations are the least likely to know the option exists.
Putting the three together
If you are moving flats this month, the report is due 15 days after you move in, at the office covering your new address, with your registration card in hand.
If you renewed your passport this year and never mentioned it to immigration, that is a separate 15-day obligation that has probably already lapsed. It is worth asking about rather than waiting to be asked.
And if your period of stay ends in the next few months, the date to work backwards from is the expiry date on your card — not the date you plan to apply.
You can check that expiry date and book an appointment through the immigration system online; HiKorea Explained covers how that works and what to do when there are no slots.
Related
If you are on a student visa, two other obligations sit alongside these. D-2 or D-4 covers which visa you actually hold and the 90-day registration rule, and working part-time on a student visa covers the permission required before any job.
In short
Report a change of address within 15 days of moving in, at the office covering the new address, with your registration card — failure is a criminal fine of up to one million won under Article 98. Report changes to your name, sex, date of birth, nationality or passport details within 15 days under Article 35 — failure is an administrative penalty of up to one million won. Apply to extend your stay before your current period ends; staying on without permission carries up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 30 million won.
All of the above comes from the current text of the Immigration Act of the Republic of Korea. Procedures and required documents are set by subordinate regulation and change more often than the Act does, so confirm the current requirements with the immigration office before you file.
