The Ministry of Justice in Gwacheon, south of Seoul (Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 21 (Korea Bizwire) — The Ministry of Justice plans to expand job opportunities for single-parent foreigners who are raising extramarital children with Korean citizenship.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) announced on Monday that the justice ministry partially accepted the recommendation it presented to improve the status of sojourn for the foreigners concerned.
In response to the state human rights watchdog’s recommendation, the ministry noted that it would continue to grant F-1 visiting and joining family visas to the foreigners concerned, while expanding the scope of areas in which they can obtain employment from existing professional and seasonal jobs to simple elementary occupations.
In principle, it’s difficult to get a job with an F-1 visa, but those with such visas can be employed if they receive permission for non-sojourn activities within a specific range of scope.
Several years ago, during a trip to South Korea to study Korean, a foreign woman gave birth to an extramarital child while dating a Korean man with marriage in mind.
However, she broke up with him and raised the child alone after realizing that he was a married man who was pretending to be single.
After her student visa expired, she applied to change her visa to one issued to married migrant woman. The ministry, however, simply granted an F-1 visa citing the lack of qualifications.
She then filed a petition with the NHRCK in February last year.
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
