Giving birth in Korea as a foreigner — nationality, insurance, and the 90-day rule
Verified firsthand · Nationality Act (국적법) Articles 2, 3 and 4, Immigration Act Article 23, and National Health Insurance Act Articles 41 and 50, read directly on law.go.kr on 2026-08-27
The most-searched question about having a baby in Korea is simple: does the child get Korean citizenship?
Short answer: no — with narrow exceptions. And there is a 90-day deadline that many families miss.
Short answer
| Nationality | Being born in Korea does NOT make the child Korean. Nationality follows the PARENTS, not the birthplace (Nationality Act, Article 2) |
| Exception | If the father or mother is Korean → the child is Korean at birth |
| Deadline | A child born in Korea must obtain a STATUS OF STAY within 90 DAYS of birth (Immigration Act, Article 23) |
| Hospital | Childbirth is within health insurance coverage (Article 41) |
Why birth in Korea does not confer citizenship
Korea follows jus sanguinis — the principle of blood (속인주의) — not jus soli. The United States and Canada grant citizenship to anyone born on their soil; Korea does not.
Nationality Act, Article 2(1):
A person falling under any of the following subparagraphs acquires the nationality of the Republic of Korea at birth: 1. A person whose father or mother is a national of the Republic of Korea at the time of birth 2. A person whose father died before the birth and was a national of the Republic of Korea at the time of death 3. A person born in the Republic of Korea, where both parents are unknown or have no nationality
Subparagraph 1 is the deciding rule: the law looks at the parents, not the delivery room. Two Filipino parents having a baby in Seoul have a Filipino baby.
Subparagraph 3 is the only birthplace exception — parents unknown or stateless. Paragraph 2 adds one more: an abandoned child found in Korea is presumed born in Korea.
When one parent is Korean
Then it flips: under subparagraph 1 the child is Korean from birth, wherever the birth happens.
If the father is Korean but not married to the mother, nationality is not automatic at birth. Article 3 provides the route: once the Korean father (or mother) legally acknowledges the child (인지), and the child is still a minor, nationality is acquired by notification to the Minister of Justice — effective from the moment of filing.
The 90-day rule
This is the part families most often miss.
Immigration Act, Article 23(1):
A foreigner falling under any of the following subparagraphs who stays in the Republic of Korea without a status of stay under Article 10 shall obtain a status of stay within the following period: 1. A foreigner born in the Republic of Korea: 90 days from the date of birth
Your baby is born a foreigner with no status of stay — even if both parents hold valid visas. Within 90 days you must go to the immigration office and apply for a grant of status of stay (체류자격 부여) for the child.
The fee is 80,000 won (Enforcement Rules, Article 72(4); 40,000 won for F-6 cases).
Past 90 days, the child is staying unlawfully — through no fault of its own, but everything afterwards becomes considerably harder.
In parallel: register the birth with your own country
The child's nationality is the parents' nationality, so the birth is registered at your own country's embassy or consulate. The child's passport is issued there too — and the passport comes first, before the status-of-stay application.
The exact procedure and papers are each country's own rules — we do not paraphrase them; ask your mission directly.
Order: ① birth registration + passport at your embassy
② status of stay for the child (within 90 days of birth)
Hospital costs: insurance covers childbirth
National Health Insurance Act, Article 41(1):
Health care benefits shall be provided for the disease, injury, childbirth, etc. of the insured and their dependants.
Childbirth is inside the coverage — prenatal care, natural delivery and c-sections apply the same as for Koreans, as long as you are insured (employment through a company means mandatory enrolment — see what Korea takes out of your pay).
Article 50 additionally provides supplementary benefits for pregnancy and childbirth medical expenses, with details delegated to the Presidential Decree. We could not verify the exact amount against the source, so we do not print it — ask the insurance service at 1577-1000.
Other birth-related payments (the first-meeting voucher and local baby bonuses) sit in ministry notices and municipal rules, and eligibility for foreigners varies by scheme — ask 1345 or your local community centre.
Frequently asked questions
The child was born and raised in Korea — will naturalisation be easier later? Naturalisation (귀화) is a separate procedure under Article 4: required residence years, conditions, and permission from the Minister of Justice. Under the current Act, birth in Korea by itself creates no shortcut.
Mother is a foreigner, father is Korean, not married? After legal acknowledgment (인지), while the child is a minor, nationality can be acquired by notification under Article 3. Do it early; ask 1345 about the paperwork.
We missed the 90-day deadline — now what? The child is in unlawful stay. Go to the immigration office as soon as possible — it only gets harder. The 1345 helpline is multilingual.
Does the mother get maternity leave? Maternity leave belongs to the Labor Standards Act — a separate topic we will cover after verifying the source text.
Sources
Nationality Act (국적법) — in force 2022-10-01, Act No. 18978
Art. 2 (nationality by birth) · Art. 3 (acknowledgment) · Art. 4 (naturalisation)
https://www.law.go.kr/법령/국적법
Immigration Act (출입국관리법) Art. 23(1)1 — the 90-day rule
Enforcement Rules Art. 72(4) — grant-of-status fee 80,000 won
National Health Insurance Act (국민건강보험법) Art. 41 · Art. 50
Foreigner information centre: 1345 (multilingual)
