To provide a foreign-body inspection apparatus, in which it is sufficient to perform only one scanning operation of inspection light, even when a substrate to be inspected is large and by which a prescribed foreign body can be inspected in a short time.

In the foreign-body inspecting apparatus, the surface 1a of the substrate 1 to be inspected, held by an inspection stage 2 is irradiated with a light 4 from a light source 5, and a scattered light 8 from the surface 1a of the substrate 1, to be inspected, at this time is detected by linear array sensors 9. The linear array sensors 9 in a plurality of pieces are arranged, in such a way that they are in series in their longitudinal direction and that both end parts of them are overlapped by a prescribed length. The inspection stage 2 or an irradiation optical system 3, which contains the light source 5, is moved rectlinearly in the direction at right angles to the arrangement direction of the linear array sensors 9.