International Divorce (Divorcing a Foreign Spouse)

For a Korean spouse living in Korea, Korean courts usually have jurisdiction, and the law applied to the divorce is the Korean Civil Act (Private International Law Act Articles 56 and 66). So the grounds for divorce are also judged under Civil Act (민법) Article 840.

If both spouses live abroad or both are foreign nationals, jurisdiction and the governing law may differ, so each case must be reviewed separately.

If your foreign spouse left home and cut off contact, check their name in Roman letters, date of birth and passport number from the documents submitted when you reported the marriage. In a lawsuit, the court can be asked to check immigration records to confirm whether your spouse is in Korea or has left the country.

If it is shown that documents cannot be served by ordinary means, the case proceeds by service by public notice (공시송달) (Civil Procedure Act Article 194). The first service by public notice takes effect 2 weeks after it is posted, and service by public notice for service that would be made abroad takes effect after 2 months (Article 196 of the same Act). If you know a foreign address, service must go through overseas channels, which can take several months.

If your spouse left home after entering Korea without a valid reason and cut off contact, you claim divorce on the ground of malicious desertion (Civil Act Article 840, Item 2) or another serious reason making it difficult to continue the marriage (Item 6 of the same Article). Records of a missing-person report, messages trying to make contact, and immigration records serve as evidence.

If the only purpose from the start was to enter Korea or work, nullity of the marriage (혼인무효) can be considered. In a decision of June 10, 2010 (2010므574), the Supreme Court held that a marriage is void when the marriage was reported as a means of entry without any intention of forming a genuine marital relationship.

Once a Korean court's divorce judgment becomes final, you report the divorce within 1 month. If you obtained a divorce judgment from a foreign court, that judgment must meet the recognition requirements of Civil Procedure Act Article 217 to be reflected in the Korean family relationship register.

To have the Korean divorce reflected in the other country's civil status records, you must go through that country's procedure separately. If there are children, setting the person with parental authority, the custodial parent and matters about leaving the country together with the divorce will reduce disputes later.