I am a foreigner who married Korean. Recently my husband passed away. I had a plan to apply for facilitated naturalization as a Korean’s foreign spouse.
Can I have a Korean citizenship in this case? I have a kid with my deceased husband.
Yes you can, Let me explain in more detail.
A foreign spouse who marries Korean is qualified to be naturalized if (1) a person has h ad a domicile in the Republic of Korea for at least two consecutive years while being married to the said spouse or
(2) three years have lapsed since he/she got married to the said spouse, having a domicile in the Republic of Korea for at least one year while being married to the said spouse.
However, a foreigner is qualified to apply for naturalization if a person failed to fulfill the requirements for a period under (1) or (2) above for the reason that he/she was unable to sustain marriage due to death or disappearance of his/her spouse or other causes unattributable to him/her while having a domicile in the Republic of Korea and being married to the said spouse but has fulfilled the requirements for the remaining period under (1) or (2) and thus is considered a case reasonable by the Minister of Justice.
Hence, even though the foreigner’s Korean spouse died within a period under (1) or (2) above, t he foreigner is qualified to be a Korean citizen if she fulfilled the requirement for the remaining period under (1) or (2) above.
In this case, the written test will not be exempted unlike a foreigner who sustain his marriage with Korean. Furthermore, it is harder for a foreigner whose spouse is deceased to be naturalized than a foreigner who sustain his marriage with Korean. The questioner also has two children. In this case, she is also qualified to be naturalized as a exforeign-spouse who has at least one child with Korean. According to Korean Nationality Act, eve n though a foreigner’s marriage with Korean is over, a foreigner is qualified to be naturalized in case she has at least one child. In conclusion, the questioner is qualified to be naturalized.