My Korean husband has been missing for over three years — can I divorce him and remarry, and what does that do to my visa?

You are still married, you can divorce a spouse who has been missing for three years without declaring him dead, and the procedure is neither exotic nor years-long: it is a judicial divorce served by public notice, with three years' unknown whereabouts as an express statutory ground. On the visa, filing for divorce is not an admission of anything improper; you have been married throughout, and a divorce judgment that records your husband's disappearance is a better document for your future than an unexplained gap.

Can you divorce in Korea, and under which law

Korean courts have jurisdiction under Article 56 of the Act on Private International Law (국제사법, gukje sabeop) — you habitually reside here and your husband is a Korean national whose last residence was here. Korean law applies under Article 66.

Article 840 of the Civil Act lists, as its fifth ground for judicial divorce (재판상 이혼, jaepansang ihon), a spouse's whereabouts being unknown for three years or more (생사불명, saengsa bulmyeong). You have passed that mark. Malicious desertion is available alongside it, and the catch-all ground as well. You do not need a declaration of disappearance (실종선고, siljong seongo), which is a separate procedure with a five-year waiting period used to settle a missing person's estate; divorce does not depend on it.

Which route: agreement, mediation, litigation

Only judicial divorce is possible; agreement and mediation require a present spouse. The case proceeds without him once the court is satisfied he cannot be found.

Your spouse is unreachable: service and timing

This is the heart of the case. The court cannot decide against someone who has not been served, so the first phase is showing that service is impossible. That means: a resident registration search through his registration (주민등록, jumin deungnok), which you as spouse can request; attempted service at his last address and his family's address; a court-ordered inquiry (사실조회, sasil johoe) to carriers and, where relevant, immigration for departure records; the police missing-person report you filed three years ago; and a statement from his family. With that record, the court permits service by public notice (공시송달, gongsi songdal): documents are posted at the court and service is deemed complete after a statutory period.

The court then hears your evidence and issues judgment. The judgment is served by public notice too; the appeal period runs, and the divorce becomes final. Report it to the family register. A case with the search file complete before filing often finishes within six months to a year.

Children, property and support

You did not mention children. Property division (재산분할, jaesan bunhal) can be claimed; the apartment and anything acquired during the marriage are in the pool, though his failed business may have left debts in his name, which are his. Consolation money (위자료, wijaryo) for desertion is available in principle; whether to pursue it against a man who has vanished is a practical judgment.

Remarriage

Once the judgment is final and reported, you are free to marry in Korea or Australia. For an Australian marriage, obtain the judgment, the certificate of finality and the family-register certificate showing the divorce, apostilled and translated, before you need them. Australia recognizes overseas divorces where a party was habitually resident in that country — a general principle; confirm for your case.

What this means for your stay in Korea

Your renewals were made as a married person, which you are; there is nothing to correct. After the divorce, your F-6 loses its basis and the Immigration Office decides what follows. Immigration rules provide a specific treatment for a foreign spouse whose marriage ended through the Korean spouse's fault (귀책사유, gwichaek sayu) — a judgment finding three years' disappearance and desertion is the kind of document that review considers — and a marriage to a new partner changes the picture again. Those decisions belong to the Immigration Office, and we do not predict them; sequence matters, and it should be planned with an immigration specialist before you file. MEGA X handles the divorce; we coordinate with that specialist as part of the case.

Practical insight

Missing-spouse divorces stall on incomplete search files and on families who, out of loyalty, will not give a statement. His mother's tears are a statement; ask her, through counsel, for a written one. The other trap is the immigration timeline: a foreign spouse who files, gets her judgment, and only then thinks about her status has left the sequencing to chance. Do it in the reverse order — status plan first, then file.

Send us the police report and what you know of his last address and we can tell you what the search file still needs — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, International Family Law Team