South Korea Visa Documents to Notarise From Australia

For most South Korean visas, Australians need little or nothing notarised. The exception is the E-2 visa for teaching English. Recruitment programmes commonly ask for an apostilled national police check, an apostilled copy of your degree and an apostilled birth certificate. Only the degree copy usually needs a notary; DFAT can generally apostille the other two directly.

Key takeaways

• The E-2 teaching visa is the Korean visa where Australians most often need a notary and apostilles.
• A notarised copy of your degree, apostilled by DFAT, lets you keep your original testamur. DFAT requires the notary to state that the original was verified with the university.
• A national police check and a registry birth certificate are public documents that DFAT can generally apostille without a notary.
• Student, working holiday and most spouse visas need far less. Follow the Korean Embassy's current list for your visa.
• If you may change visa once in Korea, find out before you leave which Australian documents that will need.

Do short visits need anything?

A short visit to Korea on an Australian passport involves no notarised documents. Korea's electronic travel authorisation (K-ETA) rules for Australians have been changed by notice from time to time, including temporary exemptions. Check the Korean Embassy's current notice before you travel rather than relying on what applied last year.

What does an E-2 teaching visa need?

Programmes that place English teachers in Korean public schools, such as EPIK, publish a document guide for each intake. Private academies, known as hagwons, recruit through their own agents, and their instructions may differ. At our last check, the EPIK guide set out three apostilled documents for Australians. Your programme's current guide governs; read it before ordering anything.

What does the E-2 police check need?

At our last check, the EPIK guide asked for the national Australian Federal Police check and said checks below national level were not accepted, so a state police check will not do. It also wanted any former names to appear on it, and a date within a window measured back from the contract start. Order it too early and it can fall outside the window before you start. The guide states the window.

A national police check is on DFAT's list of documents it can legalise, so it can generally be apostilled directly, without a notary. The guide wanted a physical apostille on a physical certificate. Plan how you will obtain a paper certificate DFAT can apostille, not just a PDF, and confirm with DFAT for the format you hold. More detail is in criminal record checks and notaries.

How is the E-2 degree copy prepared?

The guide asked for an apostilled copy of your bachelor's degree and recommended a notarised copy, apostilled, rather than the original. That is sensible. An apostille is attached to the document it certifies, and you probably want your original testamur back.

1. Bring your original testamur to the notary in person, with photo identification.
2. The original is verified with the university. DFAT's current rule is that a notarised copy of a university document is accepted only if the notary's certificate states that the original was verified with the issuing institution. A plain "true copy" certificate is not enough.
3. The notary certifies the copy with that wording, signature and seal.
4. DFAT apostilles the notary's signature and seal.
5. Send the apostilled copy as your programme instructs, and keep your original.

Ask the notary about university verification when booking, because it adds a step and time. See certified copies of a university degree for more on how that works.

Which birth certificate does E-2 want?

At our last check the guide also asked Australians for an apostilled birth certificate. If you were born overseas, it asked instead for an apostilled Australian registration of birth abroad, or apostilled citizenship papers. A birth certificate from a state or territory registry is a public document that DFAT can generally apostille directly. Order the standard certificate, and do not laminate it, because DFAT refuses laminated documents.

What details trip E-2 applicants up?

• Bundling. Each document must be apostilled separately.
• Language. The apostille must be in English or come with an official English translation. An Australian apostille is issued in English, so this mainly affects documents from elsewhere.
• A JP-certified degree copy. A Justice of the Peace's certification cannot be apostilled, so it cannot be the copy that goes to DFAT.
• Hagwon agents' instructions. They may differ from EPIK's. Ask for them in writing.
• Name changes. If your degree is in a former name, bring the marriage or change of name record that links it to your passport.

What does an F-6 marriage visa need?

At our last check, the Korean Embassy's page for the F-6-1 visa, for spouses of Korean citizens, asked for the Australian marriage certificate and did not ask for an apostille. It also said applications had to be lodged in person in Canberra, and that documents were valid for a limited period from issue. A certificate ordered a year ago may therefore need replacing. The Korean spouse supplies the Korean family-registry documents.

Read the embassy's current page for whether it takes the original certificate or a certified copy, and who may certify one. Order the official registry marriage certificate, not the commemorative certificate from your celebrant. For the Korean family register side, see apostilles for South Korea, which covers reporting an Australian marriage there.

What about students and working holidays?

At our last check, the embassy's pages for student visas listed admission documents from the Korean institution, with no apostille, notarisation or translation. The working holiday visa list included a medical report, an activity plan and bank records, again with no apostille or notarised copies. The embassy may ask for more in a particular case. For the general picture, see working holiday documents.

Visa	Commonly asked for	Notary in Australia?
Short visit	Nothing beyond travel authorisation rules	No
E-2 teaching	Apostilled police check, degree copy, birth certificate	Yes, for the degree copy
F-6 marriage	Marriage certificate, per the embassy page	Usually not
Student	Admission documents from the institution	Usually not
Working holiday	Medical report, activity plan, bank records	Usually not

What if you change visa once you are in Korea?

Korean immigration offices apply their own requirements when you change status inside Korea. At our last check, a Seoul immigration office guide said foreign documents such as criminal records and degrees had to be apostilled or verified at a Korean consulate, and generally recently issued. If there is any chance you will change visa once in Korea, find out which Australian documents that will need before you leave. Arranging an apostille from Korea means dealing with DFAT from overseas, and a fresh police check may be needed. See apostille and authentication.

Does Korea accept an Australian apostille?

As of our last check of the HCCH status table, the Apostille Convention has been in force for the Republic of Korea since 14 July 2007. Check the table on the day. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) issues the apostille; Korean missions in Australia do not, and no Korean legalisation step follows an apostille. For how the notary's part works, see document notarisation.

What if you are coming the other way?

Korean documents going to an Australian body follow different rules. For an Australian visa, the Department of Home Affairs is the receiving authority. It generally accepts clear scans of Korean documents, or copies certified by an authorised person, and wants translations made in Australia to be by a NAATI-credentialled translator. A Korean family-registry document is certified in Korea, if at all, not by an Australian notary, because an Australian notary cannot vouch for a Korean registry's record.

Where a Korean body in Korea wants a document you sign in Australia, such as a power of attorney for property or a bank, that is an Australian document going out. It is signed before an Australian notary and apostilled by DFAT. Korea's own rules on seals and signatures then apply. The sibling page on notarising Korean documents in Australia covers that direction in more detail.

Here is an illustration, not a real case

A Brisbane graduate accepts an EPIK placement. She reads the intake's guide, then books a notary for a copy of her testamur, noting that the original must be verified with her university. While that runs, she orders a paper birth certificate from the Queensland registry. Once she is inside the guide's window, she orders the national police check. DFAT apostilles all three separately. Her testamur stays at home, and she brings a second notarised copy in case she changes visa in Korea.

In short

Most Korean visas need little from an Australian notary. The E-2 teaching visa is the exception: an apostilled national police check, an apostilled notarised copy of your degree, and an apostilled birth certificate. Only the degree copy usually needs a notary, and DFAT requires the original to be verified with the university. Follow your programme's current guide, time the police check to its window, and plan ahead if you may change visa in Korea.

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Heading to Korea? Send us your programme's document guide, and we will explain each step before you book.