Fifteen days to report your new address

Right now

1. 1Write the day you moved in on a calendar and mark day 15. The clock starts on the day you actually moved in, not the day you signed or paid.
2. 2If you are still inside the 15 days, HiKorea finishes it online. There is no fee and processing takes 3 days.
3. 3If you need the new address written on the back of your card, or you need a 확정일자 for a deposit, go to the community service centre of the new address instead.

What to have ready

• Your alien registration card: At a counter you hand over the card itself. Staff write the new address on the back and give it back to you.
• Your passport: The counter document list says passport or alien registration card. Carry both and either request is covered.
• Proof that you live at the new address: A lease contract, a sale contract, a housing-provision confirmation letter, a utility bill receipt or a dormitory fee receipt. Anything showing you are living at that address.
• The full new address: The road-name address down to the building and unit number. Reading and writing a Korean address is its own guide.
• A power of attorney, if someone goes for you: The representative also needs their own ID and a document proving the relationship. For anyone under 17, only a parent may file.

Phrases you can copy and paste

Step by step

1. 1

   The 15 days run from the day you moved in

   Article 36(1) of the Immigration Act (출입국관리법) is short. A foreigner who has registered under Article 31 and then changes their place of residence must, within 15 days of the day they move in, file a move-in report with the head of the 시군구 or 읍면동 covering the new address, or with the head of the immigration office with jurisdiction over it. The first thing to notice is which day starts the count. Not the day you signed the lease and not the day you paid the balance, but the day you actually moved in. The second is that this report stands in for the one Koreans file. Article 88-2(2) states that a foreigner's registration and change-of-residence report substitute for resident registration and 전입신고, so you do not file both, you file this one. Put the Korean numbers next to yours and the difference shows. Article 16(1) of the Resident Registration Act (주민등록법) gives Koreans 14 days, and missing it carries an administrative fine of up to 50,000 won under Article 40(4). Your deadline is one day longer and your penalty is twenty times heavier. There is one more reason the numbers get confused. Before 10 December 2020 foreigners also had 14 days, and the law changed to 15 on that date. University and employer handbooks written before then say 14, and so does the For Foreigners section of Government24 today. The article in force says 15. One group should not read this clock at all: if you hold F-4 and filed 국내거소신고, your deadline is 14 days and your penalty is different. That is set out in the not-you section below.

2. 2

   The counter does not have to be immigration

   The article names two places side by side. The head of the 시군구 or 읍면동 covering the new address, and the head of the immigration office with jurisdiction over it. That means your neighbourhood community service centre takes this report, and the reason that counter exists is so you do not have to queue at immigration. It is easy to miss, because the English page on HiKorea names only the local Immigration Office and drops the local route the statute expressly provides. What you hand over is one report form and your proof of residence. The form number depends on where you file: forms 34, 34-2 and 34-3 at an immigration office, and forms 34-4 through 34-8 at a 시군구 or 읍면동 office. The counter picks the right one for you. There is no fee. The fee schedule in Article 72 of the Enforcement Rule has no line for this report at all, and HiKorea and Government24 both state that the fee is none. In person the change is done immediately, and Government24 puts it at within three working hours. At the counter you hand over the physical card. Article 36(2) requires you to submit the alien registration card and requires the office to write the change on it and return it to you. Filing by post is allowed only for residents of island areas, by registered mail. One point is genuinely unsettled. The statute and Government24 both name 시군구 alongside 읍면동, but the Korean-language page on HiKorea names only 읍면동. Whether a district office in practice accepts it is not something the official sources settle, so the safe instruction is the 동 주민센터 of your new address.

3. 3

   The online route is open only inside the 15 days

   The legal basis for filing online is the last sentence of Article 45(1) of the Enforcement Decree. You submit the report form to the 시군구 or 읍면동, or to the head of the immigration office, and in that case the report may be filed over an information network designated by the Minister of Justice. That network is the HiKorea e-application window. Your visa type does not shut you out. The table of eligible services in Ministry of Justice Notice No. 2025-112 lists the change of residence and change of sojourn report as open to every status of stay. Intake runs on weekdays from 07:00 to 22:00, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Processing takes up to 3 days, again not counting holidays. There is no fee. Only you can file for yourself. There are two exceptions: a parent may file for a child under 17, and someone recorded at immigration as the household head in connection with a dependant (F-3) can file for themselves and their accompanying family in one submission. If your household mixes a registered foreigner and a holder of 국내거소신고, each person files separately. One submission does not cover both. And this window closes with the deadline. The Guro-gu guidance and the HiKorea e-application notice say the same thing: once the reporting period has passed, online is not possible and you must visit the immigration office or branch with jurisdiction over the new address. If the change has to be visible by a fixed date, do not count on the 3 days. Use the counter.

4. 4

   Filing online leaves the back of your card unchanged

   The single line Government24 puts under follow-up actions is the quietest trap in this whole process. Online filing is for yourself only, and when you file online the new address is not written on the back of your alien registration card. The report is legally complete, but the card still shows where you used to live. The problem appears not with the people who check a screen but with the people who read the card. Bank counters, landlords and phone shops mostly look at the back of the card. If you have an account to open or a phone line to start soon, this is where it catches you. To get the address onto the card you have to visit an immigration office and ask a staff member to write it in. That is the only method the Guro-gu guidance gives. There is a newer path in the statute: an amendment in June 2023 added Article 36(8), which lets a holder of a mobile alien registration card who uses the electronic civil service window have the change recorded on the mobile card instead of the plastic one. Whether HiKorea has actually built that is something the official sources do not confirm, so this guide records only that the law allows it. It is also worth knowing what the card is worth on its own. Article 88-2(1) provides that where a procedure or transaction requires a Korean resident registration card or 주민등록등본, an alien registration card or a 외국인등록 사실증명 takes its place.

5. 5

   Missing the deadline is a criminal fine, not an administrative one

   The most commonly mis-stated fact about this report is what kind of penalty it carries. The basis is Article 98 of the Immigration Act, and subparagraph 2 puts anyone who breaches the change-of-residence duty under Article 36(1) at a fine of up to 1,000,000 won. A 벌금 is a criminal fine, not an administrative 과태료. The administrative fine article, Article 100(2), covers breaches of Articles 35 and 37 instead: Article 35 is the report you file when registration details such as your passport number change, and Article 37 is returning the card. Both are different duties. That said, you are not normally headed to court. Article 102(1) lets the head of the immigration office, once the investigation has established the offence, issue a written notice requiring you to pay a 범칙금 equal to the fine at a designated place. In practice that notice is where it ends. The amount is set by how late you are, under Table 7 of the Enforcement Rule: 100,000 won if under three months late, 300,000 won from three to six months, 500,000 won from six months to one year, 700,000 won from one to two years, and the full 1,000,000 won from two years. Those figures are not fixed. Article 86(2) of the Enforcement Rule lets the office cut or raise the standard amount by up to half, taking account of your age and circumstances, the motive and result of the breach, your ability to pay and the number of previous violations. So the 100,000 won tier can land anywhere between 50,000 and 150,000 won. On top of that, Article 103(2) lets the Minister of Justice waive the notice entirely. Since the discretion is written into the law, the obvious question is what a first-time late filer actually gets, and no published source answers it. Table 7 leaves something else open too. It does not say whether the period of the breach is counted from the day you moved in or from the day after the 15 days expired, and for anyone near a boundary that is a whole tier. Nor could this guide find any official source on how a late report or a paid 범칙금 is treated later in an extension, a change of status, permanent residence or naturalisation. It is not asserted either way here.

6. 6

   This report does not give you a 확정일자

   HiKorea says so in its own e-application notice: if you need a 확정일자 under the Housing Lease Protection Act (주택임대차보호법) to protect a jeonse deposit, ask the 읍면동 community service centre directly. Why the two are connected shows when you read the articles together. Article 3(1) of that Act says a lease takes effect against third parties from the day after the tenant takes possession of the home and completes resident registration, and adds that filing 전입신고 counts as completing resident registration. Article 88-2(2) of the Immigration Act then makes your change-of-residence report count as that 전입신고. Chain them together and the protection attaches the day after your report is done. What this guide could not verify is a court decision applying that substitution in an actual deposit dispute, so what is set out here is the structure of the statutes, not a promise about your money. The 확정일자 sits on top of that and has its own counters. Article 3-6(1) of the same Act limits who can give one: the 읍면사무소 or 동 주민센터 where the home is, a 시군구 branch office, a district court or its branch or a registry office, or a notary. HiKorea is not on the list. The fee is 600 won per document, plus 100 won for each additional four pages beyond four. If you have moved into a place with jeonse or a large deposit, finishing the report online and forgetting the 확정일자 is the most expensive mistake in this guide. In that situation, take the contract to the 동 주민센터 from the start and do both at one counter.

7. 7

   A Korean spouse filing 전입신고 does not cover you

   This is where families lose the deadline. Foreigners are not subjects of resident registration, and the substitution runs one way only. Your change-of-residence report stands in for 전입신고, but your spouse filing 전입신고 for the household does not stand in for your report. While everyone assumes the Korean spouse handled the move, the foreign member of the family quietly goes past 15 days. Having your name recorded on the household's 주민등록표 is a separate application as well. Article 6-2(2) of the Enforcement Decree of the Resident Registration Act requires an application by the foreigner, by the head of the household they will belong to, or by a member of it. Marriage alone does not put you on it. The conditions for that record to carry over to a new address are in paragraph 5 of the same article, and both have to be met. First, the foreigner must have filed their own move-in report with the mayor, county head or district head, or the head of the 읍면동, covering the new place of residence. Second, every person who belonged to the old household must have filed 전입신고 to the same address. If either is missing, the record does not follow you and you apply to be listed again from the start.

Watch it happen

Videos other people made, picked because they show a part of this guide that words cannot. They are not our sources: the rules and figures above come from the official pages listed at the end.

• 

  집에서 온라인 전입신고 1분 만에 하는 방법

  Channel: 행정안전부, Korean, no English subtitles. The value is the screen

  From the ministry that runs the portal. It shows the online 전입신고 screens, the filing this guide keeps distinguishing from your own 체류지 변경신고, so you can see which form is which before you sit down at either.

  Open on YouTube

The Korean words

체류지 변경신고che-ryu-ji byeon-gyeong sin-go, change-of-residence report

The report a registered foreigner files within 15 days of moving. This guide is about it.

전입한 날jeo-nip-han nal, the day you moved in

The day the deadline starts counting from. Not the signing date and not the payment date.

전입신고jeo-nip sin-go, move-in report

The version Koreans file. Your change-of-residence report legally substitutes for it.

동 주민센터dong ju-min sen-teo, community service centre

The neighbourhood government counter. You can file this report here instead of at immigration.

체류지 입증 서류che-ryu-ji ip-jeung seo-ryu, proof of residence

A lease contract, a utility receipt or anything else showing you live at that address.

벌금beol-geum, criminal fine

A fine imposed as a criminal penalty. This is what missing the deadline carries.

과태료gwa-tae-ryo, administrative fine

A civil administrative penalty. It does not apply to this report, though many sources say it does.

통고처분tong-go cheo-bun, written notice to pay

The written notice from the head of the immigration office telling you to pay instead of going to court.

범칙금beom-chik-geum, penalty payment in lieu of prosecution

What you pay on that notice. It runs from 100,000 won to 1,000,000 won by how late you are.

확정일자hwak-jeong il-ja, fixed date stamp

A date stamped on a lease contract. It sets priority over your deposit and is a separate errand.

Easy to miss

• ·Believing the penalty is an administrative fine. The basis is the criminal fine in Article 98(2) of the Immigration Act and it goes on record with the immigration service. Article 100, the administrative fine article, covers the change-of-registration-details report and returning the card, not this one.
• ·Filing online and leaving the old address on the back of your card. The report is complete, but everyone who reads the card sees stale information. To put it on the card you have to visit an immigration office and ask a staff member to write it in.
• ·Reaching day 16. The online window is gone, you now have to book and attend a counter appointment, and while you put that off the penalty climbs by tier.
• ·Following the English page on HiKorea, which names only the immigration office. It leaves out the 시군구 and 읍면동 route the statute puts right beside it, so English-only readers queue at immigration for something the neighbourhood centre finishes in minutes.
• ·Trusting the For Foreigners section of Government24, which still says 14 days. It has been 15 since 10 December 2020. Two government sites disagree and the more foreigner-facing one is the wrong one.
• ·Assuming a Korean spouse's 전입신고 covers the foreign members of the household. The substitution runs the other way only.
• ·Assuming your listing on the household 주민등록표 survives a move by itself. It carries over only if you file your own report and every member of the old household files 전입신고 to the same address.
• ·Thinking this report gives you a 확정일자. HiKorea itself points you at the 읍면동 community service centre. The bigger the deposit, the more that assumption costs.
• ·Sending someone else to file online for you. Online is for yourself only, and an employer's HR staff or a friend cannot do it. A representative needs a power of attorney and a counter visit.
• ·Expecting the address you report to stay private. A property owner can pull an 외국인체류확인서 showing the names and move-in dates of foreigners registered there, for 300 won to view or 400 won for a copy. That is the design, not a leak.
• ·Paying anything at all. Every route is free. If someone quotes you 35,000 won, that is the fee for reissuing an alien registration card, a different service.

You can skip this if

• If you hold F-4 and filed 국내거소신고, your clock is different. Article 6(2) of the Act on the Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans gives you 14 days, and Article 17(1) sets an administrative fine of up to 2,000,000 won. In exchange, filing that report is deemed to satisfy Article 36 of the Immigration Act under Article 10(4), so you file once rather than twice.
• If you have not registered as a foreigner yet, this duty does not attach to you. The article binds foreigners who have registered under Article 31. Getting the card itself is covered in the alien registration card guide.
• If you have not moved, none of this applies. The trigger in the article is changing your place of residence. A change of registration details such as your passport number or your name is a different article, Article 35, with a different penalty.
• If you moved into a dormitory or company housing with no deposit at stake, skip the 확정일자 section. The report itself still has to be filed.

Where this comes from

• Immigration Act (출입국관리법, Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center, 법제처 국가법령정보센터)
• Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act (출입국관리법 시행령, Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center, 법제처 국가법령정보센터)
• Enforcement Rule of the Immigration Act (출입국관리법 시행규칙, Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center, 법제처 국가법령정보센터)
• Notice on the operation of the electronic civil service window, Ministry of Justice Notice No. 2025-112 (전자민원창구 운영에 관한 고시, 법무부, Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center, 법제처 국가법령정보센터)
• Obligation to report a change in place of residence (체류지변경 신고의무, Korea Immigration Service, Ministry of Justice, HiKorea, 법무부 출입국, 외국인정책본부 하이코리아)
• E-application guidance, change of place of residence and change of place of sojourn (전자민원 민원안내, Korea Immigration Service, Ministry of Justice, HiKorea, 법무부 출입국, 외국인정책본부 하이코리아)
• Report of a change of residence by a foreigner (외국인 체류지변경신고, Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Government24, 행정안전부 정부24)
• Online report of a foreigner's change of residence (외국인 체류지변경 온라인신고, Guro-gu Office, Seoul Metropolitan City, 서울특별시 구로구청)
• Act on the Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans (재외동포의 출입국과 법적 지위에 관한 법률, Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center, 법제처 국가법령정보센터)
• Resident Registration Act (주민등록법, Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center, 법제처 국가법령정보센터)
• Enforcement Decree of the Resident Registration Act (주민등록법 시행령, Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center, 법제처 국가법령정보센터)
• Housing Lease Protection Act (주택임대차보호법, Ministry of Government Legislation, National Law Information Center, 법제처 국가법령정보센터)