Among other laws on foreigners' political activities, the Public Official Election Act does not give foreigners the right to vote in presidential or National Assembly elections, but gives the right to vote for local council members and local government heads to "persons aged 19 or older ... who are foreigners for whom three years have passed since acquiring permanent residence status under Article 10 of the Immigration Control Act and who are entered in the foreigner registration ledger of the local government under Article 34 of that act." This difference appears to rest on the premise that participation in the national political community and in a local community differ in nature, for example, choosing those who exercise important sovereign power with nationwide effect versus choosing those who handle local affairs such as residents' welfare. Foreigners are not given the right to run for local council or local government head. Foreigners are also barred from election campaigning, but in the exceptional cases where they have the right to vote, campaigning is allowed. In resident recalls and resident referendums, which are forms of resident participation in local autonomy, qualified foreigners can vote, but the requirements differ. The right to vote in a recall, which removes local council members and heads, covers the same range as voters under the election act, while the right to vote in a referendum, a procedure for deciding a specific issue, extends to "foreigners qualified to reside in Korea continuously under immigration laws and specified by local ordinance," a wider group. Finally, under the Political Parties Act, foreigners cannot become party members (Article 22(2)).

When a foreigner staying in Korea engages in political activity, the Minister of Justice may issue a written order to stop the activity or other necessary orders (Article 17(2) and (3) of the act). When ordering a halt under Article 17(3), the minister must state in the order "1. to stop the activity immediately, 2. that deportation or other measures will be taken if the order is not obeyed, and 3. other necessary matters," and issue it directly or through the head of an immigration office, branch or sub-office. Because it may not always be clear what counts as political activity, this should be improved so that, at the order stage, the agency's judgment that a specific act is prohibited by law is clearly communicated.

The Immigration Control Act was enacted with the purpose of "providing for immigration control of all nationals and foreigners entering or leaving Korea, stay control of foreigners residing in Korea, and refugee recognition procedures." Under Article 94, a person who stays beyond the scope of their status of stay or period of stay in violation of the act, and a person who employs them, may be punished by up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won, and employers can be restricted even from hiring foreigners legally. Those who arrange or encourage the employment of persons without status of stay can also be punished. Illegal stay generally means a foreigner staying in a country in violation of its immigration laws. Currently, 388,000 foreigners are staying in Korea illegally. In Justice Ministry statistics, illegally staying foreigners are those whose period of stay has expired without an extension. Of these, 125,022 had permission for a long-term stay of more than 90 days but overstayed or had permission revoked, and 263,678 entered visa-free or in transit for a stay of up to three months and overstayed.

To add: on March 23, 2023, the Constitutional Court ruled Article 63(1) of the Immigration Control Act, which allowed people under a deportation order to be detained with no upper time limit, incompatible with the Constitution (2020Hun-Ga1 and others). In response, the act revised in March 2025 and in force since June 1 limits detention in principle to an initial two months and a total of nine months even with extensions approved by a new Foreigner Detention Committee, and allows extensions up to a total of 20 months only in exceptional cases. Objections to detention are now also reviewed by that committee rather than the Minister of Justice. The voting age of 19 in the Public Official Election Act quoted in the paper was lowered to 18 in 2020.