Your spouse can be covered under your insurance without paying a contribution of their own, but not from the day they land. Foreign residents have to have been in Korea six months first, and there is a separate 90-day deadline that decides whether the cover is backdated or starts the day you apply.
Neither of those appears in the English guidance. Both are written into the Enforcement Decree and the Ministry notice, in Korean, and missing the 90-day one costs money rather than paperwork. Here is who qualifies, from what date, and what your home country has to certify.
Who can be a dependent
This route exists only under an employee insured person. If nobody in your household is on a Korean payroll, there is no dependent to be, and the family joins as locally insured instead.
The Act lists four relationships, and no others.
A partner you are not married to is not on this list, however long you have lived together. Nor is a friend, a housemate, or a cousin. Each person also has to clear the income and property limits further down, and siblings have a tighter property limit than everyone else.
The six-month wait, and who skips it
Verified September 2026 · Ministry of Health and Welfare Notice 2025-69, Article 5
A Korean national becomes a dependent as soon as the relationship and the limits are satisfied. A foreign resident has one more condition on top, and it is the one that surprises couples who move together.
Two cases skip the wait entirely.
Everyone else waits. A spouse who arrives in March is not a dependent until September, and any medical care before that is paid at full price unless they are insured some other way.
The 90-day deadline that sets your start date
Verified September 2026 · Enforcement Decree of the National Health Insurance Act, Article 76-3
This is the part that costs money when it is missed, and it is not in any English summary we could find. Once the six months are behind you, when you apply decides where the cover starts from.
| When you apply | Cover starts from |
|---|---|
| Within 90 days of foreign resident registration | The registration date, backdated |
| More than 90 days after registration | The day you apply. Nothing before it |
| Only the six-month condition is outstanding | The day the six months are complete |
The same 90-day clock runs from the date the family member joined a Korean payroll, if that happened after the registration. Apply within 90 days of that and the cover is backdated to it.
So count 90 days from the registration date, or from the payroll start date if that came later, and apply for your family member before that day.
The income and property limits
Verified September 2026 · Enforcement Rule of the National Health Insurance Act, Attached Table 1-2, amended 23 April 2025
A dependent has to be supported rather than independently funded, and the rule puts numbers on that. Both the income test and the property test have to be satisfied.
| Test | Limit |
|---|---|
| Income | Total annual income of 20 million KRW or less |
| Business income | None. With no business registration it is treated as none where it stays under 5 million KRW a year |
| Property | Property tax base of 540 million KRW or less. Between that and 900 million, income also has to stay under 10 million a year |
| Siblings | Property tax base of 180 million KRW or less |
Property is measured on the property tax base rather than the market price, and that figure is well below what a home sells for. Income and property abroad are assessed on what can be documented, so ask NHIS about your own case rather than assuming either way.
The documents from your home country
Verified September 2026 · Ministry of Health and Welfare Notice 2025-69, Article 5
Korea has a family relations register for its own nationals, and NHIS reads it directly. There is no equivalent for a foreign family, so the relationship has to be proved on paper, and the paper has to be certified.
Start this before you need it. An apostille is issued in the country that produced the document, which usually means asking someone at home or paying an agency, and it is the step that turns a one-visit errand into a month.
Bring each person’s Alien Registration Card as well, and the employee insured person’s own identification.
What to say at the counter
Five sentences for an NHIS branch or foreigner service center. Show the screen if it is easier than speaking.
More on health insurance
Each guide below covers one part of the system. Open the one that matches where you are.
Frequently asked questions
Official sources
The relationship list comes from the Act, the dates from the Enforcement Decree, and the limits from the Enforcement Rule. Ask NHIS about your own case before you book time off for the visit.