F-5-29 (Special Contributor's Spouse / Minor Child Permanent Residence) Korea Visa Guide | 2026

1. What F-5-29 Is

F-5-29 is the permanent-residence code for the spouse or minor child of an F-5-28 (special contributor) permanent-residence holder. The applicant themself must also currently hold the qualifying F-2 카목 (특별기여자, labeled F-2-16 on this site) status and have stayed in Korea under it for at least 2 years — this is a family-linked upgrade, not an automatic derivative of the principal's F-5-28 grant.

2. Eligibility Checklist

• Livelihood requirement (same as F-5-28, satisfy one): income — prior-year per-capita GNI x1 or more, aggregating income of the F-5-28 holder, the applicant, minor children, and parents (excluding the spouse's parents) who share livelihood with the applicant; OR assets — prior-year average net assets per household or more, same aggregation basis.
• Spouse route: the F-5-28 principal must have held F-5 permanent residence for at least 2 years before the spouse-applicant's own application date, maintained it continuously, and resided in Korea continuously — plus the legal marriage and actual family relationship must remain intact through the decision date (divorce or a merely-de-facto marriage is not recognized). The spouse-applicant must, as of the application date, have maintained the legal marriage and actual family relationship for 2+ years while continuously resident in Korea, and must have held F-2 카목 (특별기여자) status specifically — not just any F-2 status — for that period. If the couple divorced and later reconciled, marriage continuity is NOT recognized; only time held under the qualifying F-2 카목 status counts.
• Minor-child route: the F-5-28 parent must have held permanent residence for at least 2 years before the child-applicant's application date, maintained it continuously, resided in Korea continuously, and retained parental rights/custody through the decision date. The child-applicant must be a minor under Korean Civil Code as of the application date, and must have maintained the parent-child family relationship for 2+ years while holding F-2 카목 (특별기여자) status and residing continuously in Korea — for adoption cases, that 2-year clock starts from when the adoption legally established the family relationship, not from the adoption filing.
• Required documents (as extracted): family-relationship proof (a domestic birth certificate if the child was born in Korea); the manual's fuller document table for this entry did not survive PDF text extraction cleanly, so confirm the complete checklist with a licensed practitioner before filing.
• Manual date-stamped '26.9.1. per the HiKorea revision log, alongside F-5-28 — treat both as newly current-ized codes, not legacy entries.

3. Criteria Summary

• F-5-29 is not a points-based category.
• The definition above is taken from the manual's own wording for this code.
• Numeric thresholds, stay periods and fees are set in the manual's tables and annexes and are deliberately not reproduced here — confirm the current figures before filing.
• Where a rule depends on another status, check that status's own criteria too; several of these codes take their conditions from a principal holder.

4. Salary and Contract Rules

• The manual does not attach a salary or contract framework to this code specifically.
• Where income or financial capacity is assessed, it is evidenced with the documents named under that requirement rather than against a published floor.
• If your circumstances involve employment, verify separately whether this status authorises it — several of these categories do not.
• Do not assume the salary rules of a neighbouring code apply; they are set per status.

5. Employer and Workplace Change Rules

• Employer sponsorship is not the organising basis of this code.
• Any economic activity must fall within what the status authorises; where it does not, activity-outside-status permission is the mechanism.
• Report changes of circumstance that bear on the ground for the status.
• Keep the evidence that established eligibility available for extension reviews.

6. Required Documents

• Application form, passport, standard photograph and the fee.
• Evidence establishing the ground on which this status is claimed, as described above.
• Residence and identity documents as required at the counter.
• Any further documents the reviewing office considers necessary.

7. Fees and Processing

• Fees follow the published schedule for the application type rather than the subtype.
• Processing time varies by office workload and by how clearly the qualifying ground is evidenced.
• Where a principal holder's status governs the period granted, the principal's expiry date is the practical constraint.
• Apply with margin before any existing permission expires.

8. Common Rejection Reasons

• The qualifying ground for this specific code is not established by the evidence.
• The circumstances fit a neighbouring code better, making this a category mismatch.
• Supporting documents are incomplete, inconsistent, or out of date.
• An underlying condition the status depends on has ceased to apply.
• Unresolved immigration compliance history.

9. FAQ