Our daughter has Korean and Australian citizenship — after the divorce, who controls her passports, and can I take her to Australia for holidays?

Both of you have a say in her Korean passport, because you both hold parental authority; your ex cannot lawfully exclude you from it, and you cannot lawfully exclude her from the Australian one. The nationality question is real but far less dramatic than "prepare her to be Korean" suggests — Korean law does require certain dual nationals to make a declaration in early adulthood, and a declaration of intent not to exercise the foreign nationality preserves both. For the summer trip, your mediation record is your document: visitation that "may be spent in Australia" is a court's permission, and the "signed guarantee" is not a legal requirement. What your ex could do is the one thing worth taking seriously, and it is answered by leaving and returning exactly as the order says.

Passports and parental authority

Under Korean law, a minor's passport application requires the consent of a person with parental authority (친권, chingwon). Where parental authority is joint, either parent may apply, but the passport office's practice — and the Passport Act's requirement that the application reflect the legal representative's consent — means a parent with joint authority can object, and can register that objection with the passport authority. Your ex "handling it" alone is permissible only in the sense that one joint holder's application may be processed; it does not extinguish your authority, and if you become concerned about how the passport is used, you may notify the passport office of your status and request that you be consulted.

The Australian passport is governed by Australian law, which likewise generally requires both parents' consent for a minor's passport, with its own exceptions and objection procedures; your ex has the same standing there that you have in Korea. The symmetry is the point: a passport is not custody, and holding one is not control.

Nationality: what "choosing" means

Under the Nationality Act (국적법, gukjeok-beop), a person who acquired Korean and a foreign nationality by birth must, in principle, choose one nationality by the age of twenty-two — or, for men, within a period tied to military service — and Korean nationality is lost if no choice is made by the deadline. The alternative to choosing is a declaration of intent not to exercise the foreign nationality in Korea (외국 국적 불행사 서약), which allows a person who acquired both nationalities by birth to keep both. That is a decision your daughter makes as an adult; neither parent decides it for her, and nothing either of you does now forecloses it. Your ex's framing is not the law, and it is not a custody matter.

For a son, military service obligations attach to Korean nationality and shape the timing; for a daughter, they do not.

The summer trip

Your mediation record (조정조서, jojeong joseo) has the force of a judgment and expressly contemplates visitation in Australia. That is your authority to leave with her. Korea does not require a notarized consent letter from the other parent for a child to depart with a parent who holds a court-ordered right, and immigration does not stop a child travelling with a parent absent a specific order. Carry the mediation record, translated, and her passports.

What your ex could do: apply to the family court for an order restricting the child's departure if she can show a real risk of non-return — which, against a court-ordered three-week visit with booked return flights, she cannot — or, if you overstayed, apply for return under the Hague Child Abduction Convention, which Australia and Korea both implement. "Report it" refers to that. The Hague process is what you must never trigger: return on the date, not a day later. A parent who honors the order year after year is a parent whose future applications — longer visits, a relocation — are heard with credibility.

A "signed guarantee" is not required; if a short letter confirming the dates and your return flight avoids a fight, there is no harm in providing one, provided it says nothing beyond the dates.

Children, property and support

Continue paying child support (양육비, yangyukbi) as ordered; a father who travels with his daughter while in arrears has given the other side a grievance that a court will listen to.

Practical insight

Passport and nationality disputes after a Korean divorce are usually control disputes in disguise. The parent who understands that both passports require both parents, that nationality is the child's adult decision, and that the mediation record is the travel document, does not need to argue. The parent who fears losing the child argues about passports. Keep copies of every passport application and every trip's itinerary; the record of a father who always came back is worth more than any guarantee.

Send us the mediation record and your ex's messages about the trip, and we can confirm what you need at the airport and whether any response to her is warranted — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, International Family Law Team