My Korean wife wants sole custody and to keep our son in Korea — I'm leaving on my E-7 contract end. What visitation can I actually get?

A foreign parent who leaves Korea does not lose his rights by leaving, and the Korean parent does not win by default. What you have heard is half true: enforcing visitation from abroad is harder than enforcing it from Seoul. That makes the drafting of the divorce document — not the hearing — the part of this case that decides the next thirteen years. "Visit whenever you want" is a sentence; a schedule with dates, travel arrangements and a video-call cadence is an order.

Can you divorce in Korea, and under which law

Jurisdiction under Article 56 of the Act on Private International Law (국제사법, gukje sabeop) is clear: you both habitually reside here and your wife is Korean. Korean law applies under Article 66, and Korean law governs custody and visitation of a child habitually resident in Korea.

Which route: agreement, mediation, litigation

Because you agree on the divorce and disagree on the child, mediation (조정, jojeong) is where this belongs. The family court's mediation record (조정조서, jojeong joseo) can contain a detailed parenting plan and has the force of a judgment. If mediation fails, the court decides after a family investigator's report (가사조사, gasa josa), often with a custody evaluation; a five-year-old's views are not decisive, but his settled environment is.

Children, property and support

Korean courts decide custody (양육권, yangyukgwon) and parental authority (친권, chingwon) on the child's welfare. Sole custody to the primary caregiver, with the other parent retaining visitation and often joint parental authority, is the common shape. Nationality of the parent is not a factor the court is permitted to prefer; the fact that one parent is leaving the country is a practical factor about day-to-day care, not about your standing.

Visitation (면접교섭, myeonjeop gyoseop) for a parent abroad is drafted, not assumed. The elements that hold up: a fixed number of weeks in the UK each summer and a fixed period over the winter holiday, with the child's travel cost allocated; visits in Korea whenever you come, with a minimum notice period; scheduled video calls — days and times, not "regularly"; and a clause requiring the custodial parent to cooperate with the child's passport renewals and travel consents. Because he has two nationalities, address whose passport he travels on and who holds them.

Child support (양육비, yangyukbi) is set with reference to the Seoul Family Court's child support guideline table, which uses both parents' combined income and the child's age. Foreign-currency income is converted and, where it will change on your return, the order can fix a figure now with a review mechanism. Payment is by transfer to a Korean account; arrears can be pursued through the Child Support Agency of Korea (양육비이행관리원, yangyukbi ihaeng gwalliwon), and Korea and the UK both participate in international maintenance arrangements — the details of cross-border collection are worth confirming for your case.

Property division (재산분할, jaesan bunhal) and consolation money (위자료, wijaryo) are handled in the same record.

You will be abroad: service and timing

Nothing needs to be served abroad if this is done before you leave. That is the whole point: eight months is enough for mediation; it is not enough for a contested custody trial started in month six.

What this means for your stay in Korea

Your E-7 is tied to your job and ends with it. A parent of a Korean child has, in principle, a status route recognized in immigration rules, decided by the Immigration Office; if staying were an option you wanted to explore, that conversation belongs with an immigration specialist, and we would coordinate it as part of the case. You have said it is not, and the plan above is built on that.

Practical insight

Enforcement of visitation in Korea runs through a performance order (이행명령, ihaeng myeongnyeong) and fines for non-compliance; it works, slowly, and it works only against terms specific enough to be breached. The foreign parents who stay in their children's lives are the ones whose orders read like calendars. The second thing that matters: never take him out of Korea outside the order's terms. Korea is a Hague Child Abduction Convention country; a summer visit that overruns becomes wrongful retention, and it ends the goodwill the order depends on.

Send us your wife's proposal and your contract end date, and we can draft the parenting plan to put in front of her — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, International Family Law Team