A Chinese woman who previously entered Korea using someone else's passport and overstayed illegally before being caught married a Korean man and applied for naturalization, but was denied.
The Seoul Administrative Court's Division 2 (Presiding Judge Gong Hyeon-jin) said on Apr. 23 that it dismissed the suit filed by Pyao Jeong-su (Korean name Park Jeong-suk) seeking to overturn the Ministry of Justice Minister's denial of her nationality application, announcing the decision on the 29th.
Pyao entered Korea in May 2003 as an industrial trainee using a passport under the name of a person surnamed Jin, a Chinese national. She then worked at a corporations in Daegu and, in October of the same year, left her workplace without permission and overstayed illegally in the Seoul metropolitan area. She later received a departure order in Dec. 2008 and left voluntarily.
In Feb. 2012, Pyao entered again under her real name on a short-term visit visa (C-3-1). The visa allows stays of up to 90 days for purposes such as family visits.
In May of the same year, she changed her status to a visit and employment visa (H-2) and stayed in Korea legally. The H-2 visa is for ethnic Koreans from China and former Soviet regions, allowing them to stay in Korea for up to 4 years and 10 months and work freely. She then entered again in Jan. 2015 with visit and employment status, and in Dec. 2018 obtained an overseas Korean residency visa (F-4) and lived in Korea.
Pyao met and married a Korean man, a person surnamed Kim, and has been residing since Mar. 2019 on a marriage migration status (F-6). Under the Nationality Act, a foreigner married to a Korean whose marriage has lasted at least two years may apply for simplified naturalization. Simplified naturalization has lower residency and eligibility requirements than general naturalization.
However, the Ministry of Justice rejected Pyao's simplified naturalization application. It said she failed to meet the requirement of "good conduct, including compliance with laws," under the Nationality Act.
Pyao then filed an administrative suit. During the trial, Pyao said, "It was a single wrongdoing 22 years before the date of my simplified naturalization application that I entered using a passport under another person's name," but noted, "Since then, I have entered properly, married, worked without violating the law in Korea, and have lived diligently."
The court did not accept Pyao's claim. When she was ordered to leave the country for her past illegal stay, she did not disclose her real name, and when she later obtained a short-term general visa under her own name, she did not disclose that she had previously used a passport under someone else's name. This past history came to light during the Ministry of Justice's review of Pyao's simplified naturalization application.
The court ruled, "If the state's stance on the use of fake passports, including those under another person's name, is ambiguous, it could send the wrong signal regarding the enforcement of the Immigration Act and the Nationality Act."