We're an American and an Australian who married in Bali and now live in Korea — does Korea even recognize our marriage, and can we divorce here?

Korea can divorce you. A Korean court's jurisdiction depends on where you live, not on where you married or whether a Korean office has a record of it; and your marriage is recognized in Korea because it was validly concluded under the law of the place where it happened. The wall you are hitting is a real feature of your situation — two nationalities, no shared national law — but it decides which route you use, not whether a route exists. For an amicable couple, the answer is mediation, and it produces a court order that both the US and Australia will generally accept.

Is your marriage recognized in Korea?

Under Article 63 of the Act on Private International Law (국제사법, gukje sabeop), the formal validity of a marriage is governed by the law of the place of celebration or by either spouse's national law. A marriage validly registered in Bali is a valid marriage for Korean purposes. Nobody registers foreign couples' marriages in Korea; the family register is for Korean nationals. The absence of a Korean record is normal, not a defect. Your Balinese marriage certificate, with an apostille or legalization as required and a Korean translation, is the proof.

Can you divorce in Korea, and under which law

Jurisdiction: Article 56 gives Korean courts international jurisdiction over matrimonial cases where the spouses habitually reside in Korea. Two years here on long-term visas is habitual residence.

Applicable law: Article 66 applies the rules for marital effects in sequence — the spouses' common national law; failing that, the law of their common habitual residence; failing that, the law of the place most closely connected. You have no common national law. Your common habitual residence is Korea. So Korean law applies to your divorce. That is the answer to "which country's law" — and it is a convenient one, because it means the court is applying the law it knows.

Which route: agreement, mediation, litigation

Divorce by agreement (협의이혼, hyeobui ihon) at the family court counter is, in principle, open to you, since Korean law is the applicable law and Korean law permits consensual divorce. In practice, courts handling foreign couples with no Korean registration vary in how readily they process a counter application, and you may be directed to mediation. Mediation (조정, jojeong) is the route we would recommend regardless: one of you files, the other consents, and the court issues a mediation record (조정조서, jojeong joseo) with the force of a judgment, in a small number of short hearings. For recognition in two other countries, a court record is a stronger document than a counter confirmation.

Children, property and support

No children. The shared savings can be divided by agreement and recorded as property division (재산분할, jaesan bunhal); do that rather than "sorting it out later," because later is on two continents. Consolation money (위자료, wijaryo) is not in play.

Leaving Korea: service and timing

Both of you are here, so service is immediate. The constraint is that the mediation must conclude before the first of you leaves; a departure mid-case adds international service and months. Start now, not the month before her flight.

What this means for your stay in Korea

Nothing. A D-2 and an E-2 are tied to enrollment and employment respectively. Divorce has no bearing on either.

Practical insight

Cross-national foreign couples in Korea make one recurring mistake: assuming that because their marriage has no Korean footprint, a Korean divorce would be a legal orphan, and postponing everything to a "home" jurisdiction that turns out to be two different countries with different rules. The Korean mediation record, apostilled and translated, is the document each of you takes home. The US will generally recognize a divorce obtained through court proceedings where the parties resided; so will Australia, which recognizes overseas divorces where either party was habitually resident in the country concerned. Those are general principles, and the one thing to confirm with counsel at home is whether anything about your specific state or circumstances requires more. Obtain two apostilled sets — one for each of you — before you separate geographically.

If you send us the Bali certificate and your visa expiry dates, we can map the mediation timeline around your departures — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, International Family Law Team