I’m officially “Korean” since October 2007. I applied for it in January 2006 when I was three months pregnant with my son. Two immigration officials visited us at our apartment in December 2006 for an interview. Barely a week after we came back from a month’s vacation in the USA. Our luggages were still unpacked and the house was a total mess! I wondered what those two guys thought.

If you’re married to a Korean, you could either change your citizenship or get the F-5 or Permanent Resident visa, like most Western women here do. All my Filipina friends who are married here are naturalized Koreans.

You can apply for naturalization after two years of marriage and residence in Korea. It takes about 1 1/2 years to 2 years to process in Seoul. The immigration official said their Seoul office receives the most number of applications (specially from Korean Chinese).

Why did I change my citizenship? In two words, family circumstance. This is my husband’s and my son’s country. They are both Koreans and we plan to live here for a long time. Although I still have two sisters in the Philippines, most of my family members live in the USA. Another reason is that my father-in-law thought I’d get more “protection” if I were Korean. There’s also the benefit of having a Korean passport like I won’t need to apply for visa when I visit EU countries, Japan, Australia, Canada and soon, USA. Of course, being a citizen here means I won’t need to get a separate visa when I get a job or open my business.

Here is the list of requirements:
- Naturalization Application from : Attach 1 color photo (4cm x 5cm)
- A copy of Passport
- A Statement for Citizenship Application
- Prepare the Statement of Identity / A copy of Statement of Identity with photo attached
- Family registration, basic registration, marriage certificate and resident registration transcript of the Korean spouse
- Financial document (to verify the ability of the applicants, or their family, to maintain themselves):
–Bank Balance containing more than KR30 million in the name of the applicant or the family
–Lease contract or Estate registry equivalent to KR30 million
–A Certificate of Incumbency (Attached the copy of Employer’s Business Registration certificate )
–Certificate for the employment expected (Financial guarantee not allowed)
–For the self-employed, A copy of Business Registration Certificate and store lease contract
※ If verification of the financial status is impossible, the document of the financial status of relatives (Attached Guarantor’s Legally Affixed and financial documents)
Other materials to prove the fact that the marriage status is maintained
- Ex) Photo, Statement of people around, Letters exchange before the marriage etc.
Fee: 100,000 KRW (Government Revenue Stamp)

For the financial document, we only submitted the estate registry. We also included family pictures. We were at the Seoul Immigration Center at nine o’clock in the morning. There were a lot of applicants and we weren’t able to submit our documents until almost lunch. They will just check if your documents are complete. Then you’ll just have to wait until they call you someday…

Like I said, it took a long time for my application to be processed since we didn’t have a child yet that time. If you have a child (with your Korean husband), the waiting time is shorter. After the December 2006 visit of the immigration officials, they sent us the approval documents in October 2007. Just a few weeks after I renewed my Philippine passport. We were given 30 days to check my name at the district office in Jong-ro. Then we had to get three copies of the family register with my name on it.

Before I became officially Korean, I had to renounce my Filipino citizenship. This country doesn’t recognize dual citizenship for adults. At the Philippine Embassy, I submitted the three copies of our family register, birth and marriage certificates, photocopy of the first and last pages of my passport, valid passport and the approval letter from the immigration. I had to pay 40,000 won for the Renunciation certificate and I had to come back three business days later.

After getting my renunciation certificate at the Philippine Embassy, we traveled to the Seoul Immigration Office in Mokdong and submitted the documents listed on the approval letter. We then proceeded to our “dong” office for finger-printing and numbering. I received my temporary ID the same day. Three weeks later, they delivered my ID at home.

My passport is Korean and my ID is the same. However, I still cook and eat adobo at home. Sisig is still my favorite food. Some of my favorite books were written by F. Sionil Jose. I still talk in Tagalog and wish I could go to Palawan for a vacation. And this afternoon, I and a Pinay friend watched Sharon Cuneta and Gabby Concepcion’s first movie together “Dear Heart,” and we couldn’t help but feel kilig at their scenes!