Personal Seal Certificate Issuance

Where to Get One

• You can get one at any city, county, or district office, or any eup, myeon, or dong community center (including branch offices) nationwide.
• The place where you register a seal is the one with jurisdiction over your place of stay, but you can be issued a certificate anywhere nationwide (Ministry of the Interior and Safety office manual overview).
• If you have not yet registered a seal, first do the seal registration for foreigners. You can be issued a certificate only after registering.

When You Apply in Person

• Issuance in person is the rule, and your identity is checked with your ID.
• Check with the competent office before you visit. For reference, when reporting a seal, an alien registration card or a certificate of alien registration facts is used as ID.

When a Proxy Applies (Power of Attorney)

• The proxy must be at least 17 years old.
• The power of attorney for seal certificate issuance (etc.), the ID of the person delegating, and the proxy’s ID are submitted.
• When a proxy is issued the certificate, the proxy stamps a thumbprint.
• The power of attorney and the consent form are valid for 6 months from the date of delegation.
• Minors, persons under limited guardianship, and persons under adult guardianship have separate requirements.

Three Purposes

• General use
• Sale of real estate
• Sale of a vehicle
• For the sale of real estate or a vehicle, you must provide the buyer’s name, address, and resident registration number (for a corporation, the corporate name, location of the main office, and corporate registration number) and sign.

Statutory Fee

• The fee for a seal certificate is 600 KRW per copy.
• There are grounds for exemption, such as when it is attached to a public-interest project, and local government ordinances may reduce the fee.

Government24 Online Issuance

• Online issuance through Government24 (정부24) is available only to the person themselves, and certificates for the sale of real estate or vehicles cannot be obtained. Certificates for submission to courts (litigation, registration, deposit, execution) and to financial institutions (deposits, loans, insurance, securities, etc.) also cannot be obtained.

Alternative: Signature Verification Certificate

• The Signature Verification Certificate is a signature verification system that you can use without registering a seal in advance (Act on Signature Verification (본인서명사실확인 등에 관한 법률)).
• The fee is 600 KRW per copy, but it is waived until 2028-12-31 (Ministry of the Interior and Safety office manual p.31, p.64).
• The electronic Signature Verification Certificate uses the Government24 issuance system and is free.
• A person who has completed alien registration signs in English with the name entered in the alien registration record (office manual p.31).
• The places that accept it differ from those that accept a seal certificate (limited to public institutions, etc.).

Laws may be amended.