Korea has a public service for almost every problem a foreign resident runs into. The difficulty is not that help is missing. It is that each service was created by a different ministry under a different law, so there is no single number, and the one you need depends on what happened.
Three phone lines, one legal route and one counter cover most of it. This page sorts them by the situation you are in, then compares their hours and their intended users side by side, because those two things decide more than the subject of your question does.
Start here: which service for which situation
Services verified September 2026 · Ministry of Justice · Ministry of Gender Equality and Family · Korea Legal Aid Corporation
Find the row that matches what is happening, then read the guide behind it.
| If this is happening | Call or go to |
|---|---|
| A crime, a fire, a medical emergency | 112 or 119 first. Then 1577-1366 for an interpreter |
| A visa, residence or registration question | 1345, weekdays |
| You cannot understand an office, a hospital or a bank | 1577-1366 for three-way interpretation |
| A contract, a dispute, something that may end up in court | 132, or a village lawyer through 1345 |
| Unpaid wages, or a problem at work | 1350, the labor ministry |
| Classes, childcare, ongoing support near home | A family center, in person |
Two of those rows send you somewhere that is not a helpline at all. Wage problems belong to the labor ministry rather than to a lawyer, and anything ongoing is better handled at a counter than on a phone.
Three other ministry lines come up often enough to be worth memorizing: 126 for tax, 1372 for consumer problems and 1332 for financial disputes. The Legal Aid Corporation names all three when a question falls outside its own remit.
When you need someone on the phone
Three national lines, and they do not overlap as much as they look like they do.
1577-1366, the Danuri Call Center, runs 365 days a year and 24 hours a day in fifteen languages. Its three-way interpretation covers the police, emergency services, hospitals, community service centers, schools and banks. Of the three, it is the only one open at night and at the weekend. The full guide to 1577-1366 covers the five services it lists and who the statute wrote it for.
1345, the Immigration Contact Center, carries twenty languages on weekdays from 09:00 to 22:00 and drops to Korean, English and Chinese after 18:00. It is the line for visas and residence, and its menu does two things without an operator at all. The guide to 1345 has the whole menu, including the star key that switches the call into your language.
112 and 119 are the police and the emergency services. They dispatch help; an interpretation line does not. Calling 112 or 119 without Korean explains how to add an interpreter to a call you have already made.
When the problem is a legal one
Three public routes give free legal consultations, and each is built on a different principle: one on where you live, one on who you are, one open to whoever dials it.
The Village Lawyer scheme assigns a lawyer to a district. The Danuri Call Center runs a Korean Bar Association appointment on Tuesday afternoons with interpretation included. The Korea Legal Aid Corporation answers on 132 on weekdays, with a lunch break in the middle. The guide to free legal advice sets the three side by side and lists what none of them will take.
These are consultations rather than representation. A consultation tells you what the law says; it does not file anything for you.
Interpretation works differently on each route. The Tuesday appointment has it built in, the village lawyer route runs it through 1345, and the 132 line does not publish what it offers. That difference is often what decides which route is usable rather than which one fits the subject.
When you have to go somewhere in person
Some things do not resolve on a phone. Classes, childcare, counseling that continues over weeks, help with a form in front of you — those belong at a counter.
Family centers are the national network for that, with 229 of them. Two different statutes sit behind the building, and only one of them names a group, so whether a program is open to you depends on which law it belongs to rather than on the sign outside. The guide to family centers has the comparison and the Korean sentence that settles it at the desk.
Cities with large foreign populations often run their own centers as well, and those take subjects the national services do not, such as a dispute with an employer. Ansan runs one with fourteen languages and Sunday opening, built around factory shifts rather than office hours.
Public health centers are the other counter worth knowing. They handle health paperwork that employers ask for, and treatment at some of them is free for foreign workers.
Which line stays open when
Read the hours together and the pattern is simple: one line never closes, and everything else keeps office hours.
| Service | Hours | Languages |
|---|---|---|
| 1577-1366 | 24 hours, 365 days | 15, all of them at any hour |
| 1345 | Weekdays 09:00–22:00 | 20 by day, 3 after 18:00 |
| 132 | Weekdays 09:00–11:50, 13:00–17:50 | Ask when you call |
| Danuri lawyer | Tuesdays 14:00–16:00. Book ahead | Interpretation included |
| Family centers | Each center sets its own | Varies by center |
The evening gap is the one to plan around. If your language is not Korean, English or Chinese, a call to 1345 after 18:00 will not reach an operator who speaks it, and 1577-1366 becomes the only line that will.
One more detail sits under the 24-hour line. The Danuri center runs seven regional offices on the same number, and outside Seoul a call placed after 18:00 routes automatically to the main line rather than to the local office. The number you dial does not change.
Who each service was written for
This is the part that is hardest to find in English, and it changes which door is actually open to you. Each service traces back to a statute, and the statutes do not describe the same people.
| Service | Set up for |
|---|---|
| 1345 | Foreign residents, and by decree foreigners staying in Korea — the widest of the three |
| 1577-1366 | Marriage immigrants and multicultural families |
| Village Lawyer | Residents of a district that has a lawyer assigned |
| Family center programs | Depends on the program. One statute names multicultural families; the other names no group at all |
None of these services publishes a rule saying who may not call, so this table describes what each law was written to do rather than who will be turned away. When your situation sits near an edge, the honest move is to ask rather than to assume in either direction.
Frequently asked questions
Official sources
Every figure here comes from the pages below, and each linked guide carries its own sources in full.