The Justice Ministry on Sunday said it will start providing Korean citizenship classes for immigrants on a trial basis in April. Under new rules, foreigners who study these courses, which will teach the Korean language and understanding of Korean society, will be exempt for the written naturalization test.

General immigrant visa holders will be exempt from the written naturalization exam if they have completed between 30 and 450 hours of such courses. Immigrants for marriage, who were exempt from the written test, will be screened for swift naturalization and will also receive extra points in their interviews. Foreigners will first take a basic knowledge test, and depending on their scores they will be divided into five classes.

The higher the scores, the higher the level of classes and the fewer the hours of education. There is another test at the end of each level.