FBI Background Check Apostille for South Korea — What Each Consulate Actually Requires

FBI apostille for South Korea

E-2 language instructor and F-4 overseas Korean

Korea does require an apostilled criminal record check. For the E-2 the consulate never sees it, and it is due weeks before the appointment people count back from.

Verified 2026-08-06

What you will read everywhere else. You bring your apostilled FBI check to the Korean consulate with your E-2 application.

What the consulates actually publish. Not to the consulate. Seattle’s published E-2 list contains no criminal record check at all, because by then Korean Immigration Service has already issued your visa issuance number — and the apostilled check is part of what produced it. The document is due at the start of the process, in Korea, not at the end of it in the United States.

What the official sources say

Below is every source we read on this, in its own words, with a link so you can check us. Where two of them appear to disagree, we have left the disagreement visible rather than picking the tidier answer, and explained underneath what is actually going on.

Requires it · Six months Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Seattle — F-4 overseas Korean visa “Criminal history record check issued by FBI and apostille confirmation by US Department State office of Authentications (Washington D.C) It must be issued within 6 months before application submission (No Exceptions). FBI criminal background check is only valid for 6 months from its date of issuance by the FBI (Not from the date of Apostille).” Read 2026-08-06 · source →

Does not list it Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Seattle — E-2 foreign language instructor “Its published E-2 document list asks for the visa application carrying a visa issuance number already granted by Korean Immigration Service, the passport, a photograph, the fee, the consul’s checklist, proof of residency and two nationality documents. No criminal record check and no apostille appear anywhere on it.” Read 2026-08-06 · source →

Requires it Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea — E-2 visa requirements “A criminal record check which covers your whole country, and also from your country’s government. The records must be affixed with the relevant nation’s Apostille. According to the Korean immigration law a criminal background check from the Korean Ambassador of your country will not be accepted.” Read 2026-08-06 · source →

So do you need one or not?

Yes, you need it — but the two sources are describing two different desks, not disagreeing. The F-4 applicant hands the apostilled FBI report to the consulate. The E-2 applicant does not: the apostilled check goes to Korean Immigration Service inside Korea, normally filed by the employer, to produce the visa issuance number that the consulate then asks for. Counting backwards from your consular appointment is how E-2 applicants miss it by a month.

Apostille

Required, and federal. The Seattle consulate names the office by hand — an "apostille confirmation by US Department State office of Authentications (Washington D.C)". An FBI report carries no state seal, so a state Secretary of State has nothing on it to certify.

Translation

Not stated on any Korean source we read. Neither the ministry’s E-2 requirements nor the Seattle consulate attaches a translation requirement to the criminal record check. We also found nothing ruling one out, so ask the office handling your file rather than reading silence as a no.

The order matters

Apostille first, translate second. The apostille is a physical certificate the State Department attaches to your report, so a translation prepared beforehand does not cover it and has to be redone. This is the single most common way people pay a translator twice.

The caveat we would want told to us

The six-month clock runs from the day the FBI issues the report, not the day the apostille is attached — Seattle states that in those words, so a slow apostille eats your window rather than resetting it. Separately, the ministry warns that immigration "will not recognize the criminal records issued by online website or E-mail notarized by consulate’s office in Korea". We read that as aimed at records notarised inside Korea rather than at a printed electronic FBI report, but we have not found a Korean source that says so outright. If your employer is filing on your behalf, ask them which form they were given before you order anything.

Working backwards from your appointment

The FBI issues the Identity History Summary electronically, and a printed electronic copy is accepted for apostille. Federal apostille takes about two weeks in person, five weeks or more by mail. Add a translation if your post needs one. Three to four weeks end to end is realistic through a courier; three months is realistic if you post everything yourself and nothing goes wrong.

We are a courier, not an adviser. You order your FBI report; we get it apostilled. We cannot tell you whether your application will succeed, and nothing here is legal or immigration advice. Confirm your own consulate’s current list before you rely on it — the pages we quote can change the day after we read them.

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Federal FBI background check apostille The full federal process, its fees, and the 15-a-day cap. Timing How long a federal apostille really takes Five weeks by mail per the State Department, about two in person. Destinations Every destination we have verified What each consulate publishes, quoted, with the date we read it.

We will tell you when your consulate changes the rules

Consulates revise their instructions without announcing it. When one of the posts we track changes a window, a fee, or what it asks for, we send a short note saying what changed and what it means. No more than that, and nothing else.

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