Incoming files need apostilled national-level certificates issued within six months; your Korean record, when you need it later, is free and same-day at any police station.
Overview
Police clearance touches a Korean migration file twice. Coming in, the Korea Immigration Service requires home-country (and sometimes long-residence-country) criminal record certificates for categories including E-2 conversation instructors, F-6 marriage migrants, F-5 permanent residence and D-8 investors: national-level (not state or local where a national system exists), apostilled in the issuing country — or consular-legalised if it is not a Hague party — generally issued within six months of submission, and paired with a Korean translation. Later, anyone who has lived in Korea needs the domestic document: the criminal/investigation record reply sheet (범죄·수사경력회보서) issued by the Korean National Police Agency — free, available same-day at any police station with your passport or residence card, online through the police e-system for holders of Korean digital ID, and through Korean embassies and consulates for former residents abroad. Korean law strictly limits who may demand the fuller record types, and for use abroad the certificate is apostilled in Korea. Verified against police-agency guidance reflected in Canada.ca's official Korea instructions, overseas.mofa.go.kr consulate pages and immigration.go.kr as of June 2026.
The Two Directions at a Glance
| Scenario | Document | Issuer | Key rules |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applying TO Korea (E-2, F-6, F-5, D-8, others per checklist) | National-level criminal record certificate from your country (FBI, ACRO, AFP, RCMP, etc.) | Your national police/justice authority | Apostille (or Korean consular legalisation for non-Hague states); issued within ~6 months of submission; Korean translation attached |
| Living/lived in Korea, applying elsewhere | 범죄·수사경력회보서 — criminal/investigation record reply sheet | Korean National Police Agency, via any police station | Free, same-day in person with passport/residence card; online via the police e-issuance system with Korean digital ID |
| Former resident now abroad | Same Korean reply sheet | Korean embassies/consulates (appointment required) | Processing routed to the police agency; allow weeks, plan validity windows |
| Korean document for a foreign authority | Reply sheet + apostille | Police issue; apostille per the MOFA/MOJ split | Most destinations also want a certified translation |
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See Paid Plans →Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get a Korean police clearance certificate while living in Korea?
Go to any police station with your passport or residence card and request the criminal/investigation record reply sheet (범죄·수사경력회보서), stating the purpose — emigration, foreign visa, employment abroad. Issuance is free and normally same-day. Residents with Korean digital identity can instead use the police e-issuance service online. If the destination country requires authentication, take the reply sheet for an apostille (KRW 1,000) — and add a certified translation if the receiving authority wants one. Note that Korean law limits the fuller record types: you obtain your own record for lawful purposes, and third parties cannot demand lapsed-record versions.
I've left Korea — can I still get my Korean record from abroad?
Yes, through the Korean embassy or consulate serving your area. Former residents apply by appointment with passport and application form; some posts collect fingerprints where the receiving country requires a fingerprint-verified record. The mission routes the request to the Korean National Police Agency and the certificate comes back through the consulate, so allow several weeks rather than days — and check the validity window of the authority you are submitting to before ordering, because a certificate that spends a month in transit can land already stale. Consulate pages on overseas.mofa.go.kr publish each post's exact procedure and appointment system.
What police certificate does Korean immigration want from my home country?
The national-level certificate where your country has one: FBI Identity History Summary for Americans, ACRO for the UK, AFP National Police Check for Australians, RCMP for Canadians, and equivalents elsewhere — state or local letters are rejected for E-2 and most categories. It must be apostilled in the issuing country (or consular-legalised if the country is not a Hague party), generally issued within six months of your submission date, and accompanied by a Korean translation. The checklist for your specific category and nationality, published via HiKorea and your Korean mission, is the binding list — some categories also require certificates from long-residence countries.
How fresh does the certificate need to be, and what if processing makes it stale?
Plan around a six-month validity window running to the date you submit, which is the standard Korean immigration expectation. The trap is supply-chain time: a fingerprint-based FBI certificate plus apostille can take six to ten weeks, and consulate-routed applications longer, so a certificate ordered too early can expire before your sponsor's confirmation number or your appointment slot arrives. If immigration judges the certificate stale at filing, it requests a re-issued and re-apostilled one — restarting the slowest part of your file. Order when filing is one to three months out, apostille immediately, and submit the pair promptly.
I have an old minor conviction — will Korea refuse me?
Not automatically. Criminal history is weighed by the deciding immigration office against the category: recency, seriousness, sentence and relevance all matter, and minor dated offences frequently pass for work and family categories, while drug offences are scrutinised hard given Korean drug policy, especially for E-2 teaching. The certain path to refusal is concealment — Korean forms ask, the certificates answer, and a discovered omission becomes a misrepresentation finding that poisons future applications well beyond the original offence. Disclose, attach court disposition documents and a short explanation, and let the office weigh a complete, honest file.
Which Korean applications actually require foreign police certificates?
The recurring set: E-2 conversation instructors (apostilled national-level certificate as a core requirement), F-6 marriage migrants, F-5 permanent residence (home-country certificate alongside the Korean record check), D-8 investors per checklist, and naturalisation. Plain E-7 work visas and student visas often do not require one at the visa stage — but the certificate reappears at the F-5 milestone years later, by which time you may have additional countries of residence to certify. The practical habit: whenever you leave a country you've lived in for a year or more, consider ordering its certificate while you still hold local ID and easy access.