ENGLISH

- Regular passports are issued by the Republic of Korea’s overseas missions (referring to the embassies, representative offices, and consulates general of the Republic of Korea in other countries) or passport service agencies nationwide (Article 21(1) of the Passport Act; see Article 2 of the Act on the Establishment of Diplomatic Missions Abroad of the Republic of Korea; and Article 37(1)1 of the Enforcement Decree of the Passport Act).

- Those who wish to obtain a passport must provide the following information (the main body of Article 9(1), Article 7(1)2, and Article 8(1) of the Passport Act):

- However, fingerprints can only be collected, stored, and managed for verifying the identity of the individual during the passport issuance process, and the storage and management period is within 3 months (proviso to Article 8(1) of the Passport Act).

- People who fall under any of the following can opt not to provide fingerprints when applying for a passport issuance (Article 3(3) of the Enforcement Decree of the Passport Act):

- The passport issuance application must be made personally by the individual (the main body of Article 9(3) of the Passport Act).

- If a person under the age of 18 wishes to obtain a passport, they must apply for the passport issuance with the consent of their legal representative (Article 9(4) of the Passport Act).

- Those who wish to obtain a passport must pay a fee to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, if applying for a passport issuance through the head of a local self-governing body acting on passport affairs, the fee must be paid to that head of the local self-governing body (Article 22(1) of the Passport Act).

- Passport issuance fees can be paid in cash, cash deposit certificates, credit cards, etc. However, at overseas diplomatic missions, payment can be made in local currency or US currency (Article 38(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Passport Act).

- The following individuals may be exempt from the passport issuance fee (Article 38(2) of the Enforcement Decree of the Passport Act):

- As a general rule, passport issuance fees are nonrefundable. However, the fee will be refunded if the passport issuance is refused or restricted, or if the fee has been clearly paid in error (Article 38(3) of the Enforcement Decree of the Passport Act).

- The passport can be collected directly by the individual, through a representative, or by mail (the main body of Article 7(1) of the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act).

- If a representative who did not apply for the passport issuance collects the passport, they must submit a copy of the applicant’s ID and a power of attorney, and show their own ID (Article 7(2) of the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act).

- If you wish to receive the passport by mail, you must indicate this when applying for the passport issuance, provide the necessary information such as a valid address, and bear the postage costs (Article 7(3) of the Enforcement Rules of the Passport Act).

- If the applicant does not collect the passport within 6 months from the date of issuance, the passport becomes invalid (Article 13(1)2 of the Passport Act).

- No one may engage in or facilitate acts of obtaining a passport by providing false information in the submitted documents or through other fraudulent means (Subparagraph 1 of Article 16 of the Passport Act).

- Those who provide false information in the documents submitted for passport issuance, or obtain a passport through fraudulent means or facilitate such acts, will be subject to imprisonment for up to 3 years or a fine of up to KRW 30 million (Article 24 of the Passport Act).