My Korean husband wants a divorce, I have no income and our son is three — what will I actually get, and can I stay in Korea with him?

Do not sign anything. Every part of the "fair deal" is built on a fear rather than a rule. The parent with the money does not get custody of a three-year-old in Korea; the parent who has been raising him does, in the ordinary case, and the money is then ordered from the other parent as child support. You are entitled to a share of the property built during five years of marriage regardless of whose name it is in, and your full-time care of your son is a recognized contribution. And a foreign parent raising a Korean child after divorce is a situation Korean immigration rules specifically contemplate. What he has described is not a deal; it is his opening position, aimed at someone who does not know where she stands.

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); Korean law applies under Article 66. He has not alleged any ground against you; "doesn't feel married" is not one of the six grounds for judicial divorce (재판상 이혼, jaepansang ihon) under Article 840 of the Civil Act, and a spouse who wants out without fault on the other side generally needs the other's agreement. That is leverage you did not know you had.

Which route: agreement, mediation, litigation

He wants divorce by agreement (협의이혼, hyeobui ihon), which requires both of you to appear at the family court and, with a minor child, a three-month cooling-off period (숙려기간, sungnyeo gigan) — and which requires an agreement on custody and child support that the court reviews. You can decline to agree until the terms are right. If he then files for judicial divorce, the case goes to mediation (조정, jojeong) and, if needed, trial, and a court decides custody, support and property on the law rather than on his offer.

Children: custody

Korean courts decide custody (양육권, yangyukgwon) on the child's welfare. For a three-year-old, the decisive factors are who has provided daily care, the stability and continuity of that care, and the child's attachment — not the parent's nationality and not the parent's current income. A mother who has been the full-time caregiver since birth starts from the strongest position the law recognizes. The father's income is relevant to child support, not to who the child lives with. Where the caregiving parent lacks income, courts order support; they do not transfer the child to the earner.

Child support (양육비, yangyukbi) is set by reference to the family court's guideline table using both parents' incomes and the child's age; it is payable monthly until the child is an adult and is enforceable by salary deduction if unpaid. Visitation (면접교섭, myeonjeop gyoseop) for the father is set alongside.

Property and support for you

Property division (재산분할, jaesan bunhal) covers assets acquired during the marriage in either name — the apartment included, to the extent it was acquired during the marriage or its value grew through the marriage. Full-time homemaking and child-rearing are contributions the courts credit substantially. Consolation money (위자료, wijaryo) depends on fault; a divorce without fault on either side does not produce it, but it is not the main source of your security — the property share and the child support are.

Korean law does not provide ongoing spousal maintenance in the Western sense; that is why the property division and the child support must be set correctly at the outset, and why "helps with money for a while" is not a term to accept.

What this means for your stay in Korea

Immigration rules provide for a foreign parent who has custody of, or is raising, a Korean child after divorce. That review is conducted by the Immigration Office, on documents — the custody order, evidence of care, the child's registration — and we do not predict its outcome. What we can say is that a divorce document recording your custody of your son is the document that review is designed around, and that a document in which you surrender custody is its opposite. MEGA X handles the divorce; where the result affects your stay, we coordinate with an immigration specialist as part of the case, and for you that coordination should begin before any term is agreed.

What to do now, and what not to do

Do not sign, and do not attend the family court counter with him "just to start the process." Do begin, quietly, to record your daily care of your son — medical visits, daycare contacts, routines — and to gather what you can see of the household finances. Do not leave the apartment with your son without advice; do not leave Korea with him at all. Get an interpreter for any conversation with his lawyer.

Practical insight

Foreign mothers sign bad agreements in Korea at exactly this moment — with no income, no language, no family and a husband who sounds certain. The certainty is the tactic. Korean family law is, on custody of a small child cared for by his mother, among the more protective systems there is, and the first time a lawyer explains that to him in Korean the deal changes. The second point: the three-month cooling-off period he is in a hurry to start is also three months in which to get the terms right. Use them.

Send us his offer, in whatever form he gave it, and we can tell you what a court would likely order instead — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, International Family Law Team