Residence Card in Korea: Register within 90 Days

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Staying in Korea for more than 90 days? Then you need to register and get your Residence Card. Here's an overview of the documents, the steps and the typical pitfalls. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🪪 Who has to register? If you stay in Korea for more than 90 days, you have to register within 90 days of arriving. This is called foreigner registration. Afterwards you get the Residence Card. In Korean it's called 외국인등록증, and it used to be called the ARC. 👉 For you: Plan your registration right after you arrive, so the 90 days don't get tight. ━━━━━━━━━━ 📋 The documents you need Typically you need these documents: the application form, your passport, one color photo (3.5 × 4.5 cm), proof of address (for example a rental contract) and the fee. Depending on your visa, more documents may be needed. One example is a tuberculosis test result. The sources don't go into detail about which documents apply to you. 👉 For you: Check beforehand what your visa requires. The Immigration Hotline 1345 answers questions, also in English. ━━━━━━━━━━ 💻 Step 1: Book an appointment via HiKorea You can't register online. First, you book an appointment via HiKorea (hikorea.go.kr). Appointments have been mandatory since April 2021. 👉 For you: Book your appointment early so you can make it within the 90 days. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🏢 Step 2: Go to the Immigration Office in person Go to the Immigration Office in person for your booked appointment. The office responsible is the one for your home address. 👉 For you: Make sure you go to the Immigration Office for your home address. ━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ Avoid these pitfalls If you don't register on time, you risk a fine. The sources give no details on the amount. There's also a deadline after registration: changes such as a move must be reported within about two weeks. 👉 For you: Note down the deadlines and report a move promptly. The Immigration Hotline 1345 answers questions, also in English. ━━━━━━━━━━ 🔗 Sources Stadt Incheon – Foreigner registration https://www.incheon.go.kr/en/EN050102 Sogang University – What is Foreigner Registration? https://oisaen.sogang.ac.kr/oisaen/1406/subview.do Yonsei University – Foreigners registration https://ged.yonsei.ac.kr/yiec_en/info/foreigners_registration.do Seoul National University – Residence Card https://oga.snu.ac.kr/?p=7988 Stadt Hanam – Registering foreign residents https://www.hanam.go.kr/english/contents.do?key=9641 ━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 How did your registration at the Immigration Office go, and what tip would you give others? 📲 On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lebeninkorea_en/ 📸 Photos: rawkkim, Marek Piwnicki, Marissa Lewis (Unsplash); Seoul Tourism Organization, Cultural Heritage Administration, Busan Metropolitan City citizen photo journalist Kwon Ki-hak (KOGL Type 1)