3-Line Summary
- While the principle for inviting parents of a marriage immigrant (F-1-5 Visit and Cohabitation) is one person, both parents of the marriage immigrant can be invited together. The statement that they must come one by one applies to family members other than parents.
- Application is possible when pregnant or when there is a child requiring care, until the end of September of the year the child turns 9 years old (based on Ministry of Justice guidelines). The inviter is, in principle, the Korean spouse of the marriage immigrant.
- If the parents have visited multiple times on short-term visits in the past, documents proving that the purpose was not employment must be submitted to ensure a smooth screening process. After entry, they must register their foreign residence within 90 days, and they cannot engage in employment during their stay.
Table of Contents
- The day both parents entered the country together
- The misconception that only one parent can be invited
- The husband as the inviter, signatures aligned with business trip schedules
- Two records of the father’s short-term visits
- Documents on the necessity of childcare and a one-page invitation statement
- Application for a visa at the overseas diplomatic mission and one request for supplementation
- What to do within 90 days after entry
- Marriage immigrant family invitation checklist
- Administrative agent office work details
1. The day both parents entered the country together
I am an administrative agent working in Songdo, Incheon. I would like to introduce the story of a family I met while handling visa and residence matters.
A single photo taken at the Incheon International Airport arrival hall was sent to me via messenger. A father in his early 60s and a mother in her late 50s from the Philippines were standing between two large suitcases, and a five-year-old boy was holding his grandmother’s hand. The person who sent the photo was the mother of that child. It was 9 weeks before the expected due date of her second child.
It took about 7 weeks for them to be able to fly together. During the initial consultation, the client believed that “the only way is for the mother to come first, and then the father to come on a rotating basis a few months later.” This article covers why that plan changed and why the father’s past visit records were a concern until the very end.
2. The misconception that only one parent can be invited
The client was in her late 20s and was a marriage immigrant (F-6) from Iloilo, Philippines. She had been in Korea for 6 years and was living in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, with her husband and five-year-old son. On weekday afternoons, she taught English as an after-school instructor at a local children’s center, and she was 22 weeks pregnant with her second child.
The husband was a field engineer at a semiconductor equipment company. Since his job involved installing equipment at client factories, he stayed at local or overseas sites for nearly two weeks every month. They needed someone to care for their eldest child before and after childbirth. The daycare center dismissal time was 4:00 PM, and the client’s classes ended at 6:00 PM.
The first contact was via email. The client said she heard from a friend from the same country that “only one person per household is allowed for marriage immigrant family invitations.” Therefore, she was considering a sequence where the mother would come first, and after the mother passed away, the father would come. The mother ran a small shop in her hometown, and the father had quit his job as a school shuttle bus driver and was receiving a pension. If the two moved separately, it would mean two sets of flight tickets and a longer period of leaving the shop unattended.
The friend’s statement was not entirely incorrect. According to the Ministry of Justice guidelines, the principle for F-1-5 invitation is one person. However, an exception is made so that both parents of a marriage immigrant can be invited together. In cases where siblings are invited instead because the parents have passed away or cannot come due to old age or illness, the one-person principle still applies. It appeared the friend was talking about her experience of inviting siblings.
When preparing these marriage immigrant family invitation documents, the first thing I checked was the deadline. For F-1-5, you can apply when pregnant or when there is a child requiring care, until the end of September of the year the child turns 9 years old. Since the client was 22 weeks pregnant and the eldest child was five, there was no issue with the deadline. According to the Ministry of Justice guidelines, the number of invitations is twice per child. Since the father had only visited on short-term visits for the first child without using F-1-5, this was the first invitation based on the second child.
3. The husband as the inviter, signatures aligned with business trip schedules
In principle, the inviter for F-1-5 is the Korean spouse of a marriage immigrant. Cases where the marriage immigrant themselves can be the inviter are limited to those who have obtained permanent residency (F-5-2) or citizenship, or single parents raising a child alone after the marriage has ended. Since the client held F-6 status, the husband had to be the inviter.
A scheduling issue arose here. A week after the consultation, the husband had a three-week business trip scheduled to a client’s site in Taiwan. The inviter’s own signature is required on the Letter of Invitation, the Letter of Guarantee, and the Application Form. If we prepared the documents after he returned from his trip, the application would be delayed by three weeks, which would bring the parents’ entry closer to the expected date of childbirth.
Therefore, we first prepared the documents that required the husband’s direct signature before his business trip. Two days after the consultation, the husband visited the office at the scheduled time, and at that moment, he reviewed the contents of the Letter of Invitation and the Letter of Guarantee one by one before signing them. We also obtained his certificate of employment, documents verifying recent income, the Family Relationship Certificate, and the Marriage Relationship Certificate within that same week.
I also checked in advance whether new documents would need to be obtained if there was a gap of more than three weeks between the signature date and the application date. This is because the standards for requiring recently issued documents can vary slightly depending on the jurisdiction of the Immigration Office. We decided to obtain certificates where the issuance date is critical right before the application and focused on completing the documents requiring the inviter’s signature first. The husband finished all necessary tasks the day before leaving for his business trip.
4. Two Short-Term Visit Records of the Father
While preparing the documents, the client asked cautiously, “My father has visited Korea twice before; will that be a problem?”
The father had visited on a short-term visit (C-3) during the year the eldest child was born and stayed for 85 days, and he returned two years later and stayed for nearly 80 days. In both instances, he departed within the permitted period. He had no record of violating any laws. However, if stays close to 90 days are repeated, the examining authorities may investigate whether he intended to work in Korea. F-1 (Visit and Stay with Family) is a status that does not allow employment, and past stay history serves as data for judging the purpose of the invitation.
Rather than simply dismissing this as “no problem,” we decided to use documents to demonstrate the specific reason for each of the two visits. While speaking with the client on the phone, the reasons became clear as we matched the dates one by one.
- The first visit was two weeks before the birth of the eldest child. The expected date of birth in the maternity handbook matched the immigration entry date.
- The second visit was during the period when the client was recovering from an appendectomy. Hospital medical expense receipts and hospitalization certificates were available.
- In both cases, the father continued to receive his pension from his home country, and he had booked round-trip tickets from the beginning.
I wrote these three points in chronological order on a single page and attached the supporting documents behind it. The proof of pension receipt from his home country was obtained from the Philippines, went through Apostille verification, and was attached along with a translation. Since it was difficult to obtain a Certificate of Entry & Exit on behalf of the father, we included copies of the pages in his passport containing the entry and exit stamps that the client had kept.
There was a small commotion during this process. While we were confirming the issuing agency of the pension documents via video call with the father, a rooster kept crowing outside the frame. The father walked to the edge of the yard while holding his mobile phone, but the sound followed him. The client translated with a laugh, “My father’s rooster talks more than my father does.”
5. Data on the Necessity of Childcare and the 1-Page Statement of Reason for Invitation
F-1-5 is not a simple family visit, but a stay intended to assist with pregnancy, childbirth, and childcare. Therefore, the examination looks at why the parents’ assistance is necessary. In cases where both parents are being invited together, the circumstances necessitating both of them must be naturally revealed.
The client’s family circumstances could be verified through work schedules and daycare documents. The husband’s recent six-month business trip schedule showed an average of 13 days of field work per month. The eldest child’s daycare enrollment certificate showed a dismissal time of 4:00 PM. The client’s classes ended at 6:00 PM, and after childbirth, she would have to care for both the newborn and the eldest child simultaneously. The pregnancy confirmation certificate stated the expected date of childbirth.
I also specifically detailed the reasons why both of them must come together. The plan was for the mother to care for the newborn and the postpartum mother, while the father would handle the daycare drop-offs and pick-ups for the eldest child. Since the father had visited twice before and spent time with the eldest child, the child took to him well. Conversely, this was the mother’s first time in Korea. I wrote these details down in a chronological daily schedule.
Initially, there was a three-page letter written by the client themselves. While it was a heartfelt letter expressing their love for their parents, the facts necessary for the screening were scattered throughout. Therefore, I condensed the statement of reason to one page and rewrote it in the following order:
- Relationship between the inviter, the marriage immigrant, and the child, and the expected date of childbirth
- The husband’s business trip schedule and the eldest child’s daycare pick-up time
- The division of roles between the two parents and the intended duration of stay
- The purpose of the two previous short-term visits and the fact that they departed the country
- An assurance that they will not engage in employment during their stay and will depart within the permitted period
The last item may seem like a formal sentence. However, in cases with a history of previous visits, it is advisable to clearly include this sentence in the statement of reason. This is because it allows the applicant to disclose the information that the examiner will likely be most curious about first.
6. Application for Visa at the Overseas Mission and One Request for Supplementation
There is only one application route. Based on the current Visa Manual (revised on 2026. 10. 19. by Hi Korea), F-1-5 is not subject to the issuance of a Visa Issuance Confirmation; rather, it is a visa issued at the discretion of the head of the overseas mission, so the parents must apply for the visa directly at the Korean overseas mission in the Philippines. There is no route to enter under a different status and then change to F-1-5 within Korea.
The parents lived in Iloilo. They had to travel by plane or boat to reach the overseas mission’s reception office, and traveling together incurred higher costs. Therefore, I prepared the documents in advance in Korea so they could be submitted to the mission all at once. Since there was a lot of data from the inviter’s side regarding the past visit history, I organized the invitation letter, the statement of reason, the letter of guarantee, and the supporting documents in Korea and sent them to the parents.
I sent the documents the week after the husband returned from his business trip. For certificates where the issuance date is important, I obtained new ones during that week, prepared individual visa applications for both parents, and had them submit them together at the mission on the same day. There was a reason for making each person’s application complete rather than bundling the two parents’ documents into one case: to ensure that if a supplementation was required for one person, it would not delay the screening for the other.
Two weeks after submission, one request for supplementation was received. It requested additional documents from their home country to verify the mother’s business operations. Since the mother had never been to Korea, this appeared to be intended to verify whether she had a base of life to return to in her home country. The mother sent the business permit documents issued by her local city hall and the shop lease documents, which I organized and submitted to the mission as supplementary documents within a week.
About two weeks after submitting the supplements, visas were issued for both of them. From the initial consultation, it took about six weeks in total. The parents entered the country together nine weeks before the expected date of childbirth. While this case was resolved with only one supplementation, the screening period and whether supplementation is required will vary depending on the competent authority and the specific case.
7. Things to Do Within 90 Days After Entry
The process does not end with entry. I pre-informed the client’s family about the things the parents must observe while staying in Korea.
- Alien Registration: Foreigners who intend to stay for more than 90 days must complete alien registration within 90 days from the date of entry (Article 31 of the 「Immigration Act」). The parents completed their registration together three weeks after entry.
- Employment Restrictions: The Visit/Cohabitation (F-1) status is not a status that allows for employment activities (Article 18 of the same Act). I clearly explained that even helping out briefly at a local restaurant or factory in exchange for daily wages could become an issue.
- Extension of Stay: To continue staying beyond the permitted period of stay, an extension must be applied for before the period expires (Article 25 of the same Act). We decided to decide on the extension based on postpartum recovery after childbirth and the eldest child’s schedule, and agreed to contact me again one month before the expiration.
- Change of Residence: If the address is moved after alien registration, a report of change of residence is required. Since the parents stayed together at the client’s house, this did not apply to them.
The father reportedly said upon hearing this guidance, “This time, I will truly only look at my grandchild.” The client smiled while conveying those words.
Exact legal provisions and interpretations require verification with the competent authorities, and requirements vary by case, so individual verification is necessary.
8. Marriage Immigrant Family Invitation Checklist
If you are preparing to invite the parents of a marriage immigrant, please check the following first.
- Reference Date for Children: Check if there is a child who is pregnant or requires care, and whether it is before the end of September in the year the child turns 9 years old (the criteria differ for single-parent or multi-child families).
- Inviter’s Eligibility: Check if the inviter is a Korean spouse, or if the marriage immigrant themselves is eligible to invite (F-5-2, naturalized, or single-parent).
- Number of Invitees: Both parents can be invited together, but the principle of one person applies to other family members, such as siblings.
- Past Visit History: If there are multiple short-term visit records, prepare materials that show the purpose and departure facts for each visit.
- Necessity of Childcare: Collect data that can be shown numerically, such as the spouse’s work schedule, the child’s daycare/school schedule, and the expected date of childbirth.
- Schedule After Entry: Mark the schedule on your calendar in advance for alien registration within 90 days, the prohibition of employment, and the application for extension before the expiration of the period of stay.
9. Administrative Agent Office Services
Hwang Yunsang Administrative Agent Office provides the following services regarding the invitation of marriage immigrant families.
- Review of F-1-5 Visit/Cohabitation invitation requirements and guidance on visa application procedures at overseas diplomatic missions
- Preparation of visa application forms, invitation letters, and letters of guarantee
- Preparation of childcare necessity materials and statements of reason for invitation
- Organizing explanation materials for past stay history and responding to requests for supplementation
- Agency for alien registration and application for extension of period of stay after entry
I heard the news that the second child was born four days earlier than the expected date. I was told that on that day, the grandfather took care of the eldest child’s daycare pickup, and the grandmother took care of the hospital visit. If the two had come in rotation as originally planned, one spot would have been vacant that day.
This has been reconstructed for better understanding and is not related to any specific person or event.
We are an administrative agent office located in Songdo, Incheon (POSCO Tower Songdo). We handle administrative appeals, licensing/reporting agency, foreign immigration (visas/stay), and regular administrative management. We also manage stay procedures involving childbirth and childcare schedules, such as inviting the parents of marriage immigrants, according to the schedule. If you are curious about a similar situation, please feel free to leave an inquiry.
- Address: Room 2697, POSCO Tower Songdo, 165 Convensia-daero, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon
- Phone: 010-3374-2687
- Website: www.hwangadmin.com