Author: J, Bang

As of April 1, 2025, 18 to 24 years old foreigners who have stayed long in South Korea can a job without college degree.

Who

You must meet the entire requirement below.

1. You are 18 to 24 years old (inclusive) and stay in Korea legally.
2. You have stayed here for more than 7 years before 18.
3. You did not stay overseas for more than 3 years consecutively between 10 and 18.
4. You have graduated from elementary, middle and high school including expected graduation or the certificate of equivalent level of education in Korea.

However, you are still eligible when you meet one of two cases below even if you cannot meet the 4th requirement above. It also includes expected graduation or the certificate of equivalent level of education in Korea.

• You have graduated from middle and high school including expected graduation in Korea. In this case, you must pass the standard course of KIIP.
• You have graduated from elementary school and one of middle or high school in Korea. In this case, you must pass the advanced course of KIIP.

Overseas Koreans are excluded if give up Korean nationality without serving military duty.

Job search (D10-1)

Foreigners who meet the entire requirements above can change their visa to D10-1 (D-10-1) visa even if they cannot meet two standard requirements for D10-1 visa such as the scoring system and the assets for accommodation.

Internship activity is allowed for almost every job type except gamble, night industry, etc.

Domestic grown youth workers (E7-Y)

Foreigners who meet the entire requirements above can change to E7-Y (E-7-Y) visa if you can a job in most industries except gamble, night industry, etc.

Education and career requirements are exempted.

Talent for specific regions (F2-R)

D10-1 or E-7-Y visa holders can change to F2-R (F-2-R) visa when they have stayed in the specific regions where population is decreasing for more than 4 years.

2 years after changing to F2-R, you can move to other regions where population is also decreasing in the same province or metropolitan city.

Source: the ministry of justice

The Ministry of Justice will relieve illegal immigrants enrolled on elementary, middle, and high schools under strict condition temporarily.

So, their parents can stay legally until their child becomes 19 years old or graduates from high school after they have paid a fine.

When

April 1, 2025 ~ March 31, 2028

Who

Foreigners must fulfill the requirement as below.

• You are one of following:
  • You were born in Korea or entered Korea when you were 0 ~ 5 years old and after that, stayed here for over 6 years.
  • You entered Korea when you were 6 years old or older and after that, stayed here for over 7 years.
• As of application date, you are attending middle school or high school or have graduated from high school.

What

1. Relief plan for child

As a child you will have a D4 visa until you graduate from high school.

If you have already graduated from high school, you can have D2 visa in case you enter college or another visa for which you meet the requirements. If you cannot have D2 and other appropriate visas, you will be able to get G1 visa for 1 year and change to another visa when you enter college or get a job.

2. Relief plan for parents

You as parents can stay until your child graduates from high school or is 19 years old with G1 visa. You can work to raise your child. Specific departure time will be set by the immigration office.

However, you must pay a fine for your illegal stay. A fine will be 30% of the normal amount and can be exempted in some cases.

How

Parents and children together must visit the competent immigration office and apply.

Source: The Ministry of Justice

From April 2024, parents and siblings as dependents of the employee insured have additional requirements about visa types and the period of stay.

About national health insurance

National health insurance based on the national health insurance act is public insurance for Korean nationals who have disease and injury to get medical service at cheaper price.

Korean nationals who reside locally shall be insured. There are 3 types of insured as below.

• Employee insured: Employed workers become employee insured. Provided, the worker employed for a period of less than one month shall be excluded.
• Dependents: Spouse, parents, children, and siblings of the employee insured become insured when report it to the National Health Insurance Service or NHIS.
• Self-employed insured: Others who are neither the employee insured nor dependents will be the self-employed insured.

Special provisions for foreigners

Foreigners staying in Korea can be insured when meet the specific requirements. If you are not eligible for the national health insurance, you should buy private travel insurance in your country to prepare for a disease or accident in Korea.

From April 2024, parents or siblings of the employee insured must have specific visa status or stay more than 6 months in Korea.

1. Employee insured

You as registered foreigner will be the employee insured when you are employed in Korea. If employed for less than one month, you will be excluded.

Your company or employer should report it to NHIS within 14 days.

2. Dependents

You can be dependents of the employee insured when meet all the requirements below. The employee insured must report it to NHIS.

• You must register as foreigner.
• You must be one of them below.
  • Spouse of the employee insured
  • Lineal ascendants of the employee insured: Parents, grandparents, etc. *Lineal ascendants of your spouse are included.
  • Lineal descendants of the employee insured: Children, grandchildren, etc. *Lineal descendants of your spouse are included.
  • Siblings of the employee insured
• You must be one of them below except you are spouse or minor children of the employee insured. *Minor children of spouse also excluded.
  • F5, E9, F6, D2, D4-3 visa holders
  • Students of elementary, middle, high school or college as F4 visa holders
  • D1, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9, D10, E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7, E10, F1, F2, F3, F4, G1-6, G1-12, H1, H2 visa holders who have stayed for more than 6 months after arrival.

3. Self-employed insured

Other foreigners who are neither the employee insured nor dependents will be the self-employed insured when meet all the requirements below. You don’t have to report it to NHIS.

• You must register as foreigner.
• You must be one of them below except you are spouse or minor children of the employee insured or minor children of spouse.
  • F5, E9, F6, D2, D4-3 visa holders
  • Students of elementary, middle, high school or college as F4 visa holders
  • D1, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9, D10, E1, E2, E3, E4, E5, E6, E7, E10, F1, F2, F3, F4, G1-6, G1-12, H1, H2 visa holders who have stayed for more than 6 months after arrival.

Workation visa type (F-1-D) is available from January 1, 2024.

Scope of activity

Workation visa is required for foreigners who can work remotely and want to have a tour for up to 2 years with dependent family member in South Korea. Dependent family member means the spouse and children.

Spouse and children don’t have to apply for visa with main applicant together.

Workation visa holders cannot be employed by domestic companies while they can get a new job from overseas companies.

Visa issuance

Check requirements for workation visa as below.

• You must own a business or be employed by the company and must be able to work remotely.
• You must have the same categorized occupation for over 1 year. *You don’t need to be employed by the same company.
• You must be over 18. Your children don’t have to be.
• You must earn twice the Korean GNI per capita last year. Dependent family members don’t have to be.
• You and your family members must have private health insurance with coverage of over 100,000,000 KRW.

Change of visa status

You can change to the workation visa after entering Korea with short-term visa including visa waiver. Requirements are the same with visa issuance.

Source: The ministry of Justice

Foreigners residing in South Korea can work at domestic companies and organizations only with work visa including residence visa which has no activity restriction.

How about working in Korea after getting a job from companies and organizations abroad which have no Korean branches? For example, if you get a job from German IT company, do you need still long-term work visa? Don’t you think it is not required since that job is not related to Korea?

Korean authorities confirmed that work visa type is required even in this situation.

By the way, nomad visa may be available soon in Korea. This visa holders can work remotely in Korea for about 1 year. *Workation visa will be issued from January 1, 2024. (F-1-D)

In principle, a foreigner who has a visa waiver (B1, B2) or short-term visa (C1, C3, C4) cannot change the visa while staying in Korea.

They must depart and apply for a new visa at the Korean consulate overseas. However, there are some exceptions as below. Contact me for more details.

• Dependent family (F3)
• Overseas Korean (F4)
  • Some subtypes are not available.
  • Nationals of Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Turkmenistan are not available.
• G1-10 visa holders who need the medical treatment
• Germans who enter Korea with B1 can change to another visa except D3, E9, H1.
• Canadians who enter Korea with B2 can change to D1, D6, F1, F3, G1 for 6 months.

Even if it is available for some cases like before, you must prepare required documents for changing visa status within your period of stay which is usually 1 month to 3 months. So your time can be running out before filing an application to the immigration office. Moreover, those are just exceptions and it is possible to be rejected for some unpredictable reasons.

So I recommend not to enter Korea with a B and C visa deliberately to change to a long-term visa type for whatever reasons. You should apply for that visa in the Korean consulate.

Foreigners who don’t have work visa can work at the farms and fishing facilities for long time.

When

The seasonal work program will start from March 30, 2022. This is different from E8 activity.

Who

You are at least 19 years old and reside legally as:

• F3 visa holder
• F1 visa holder except F1-3, F1-21, F1-22, F1-23, F1-24
• C3-1 visa holder after voluntary depart as illegal immigrant before
• H2 visa holder
• D2 visa holder with school permission for holidays and vacation
• D4 visa holder after 6 months from entry
• D1, D10 visa holder
• National of Myanmar and Afghanistan who has G1 visa

There is an exception as below:

• The extended period of stay for departure has already elapsed.
• You contracted for work with farmer or fisher independently without engaging with the local government.
• You didn’t contract for work with farmer and fisher even if it is required by the authority.
• The authority did not accept you as a seasonal worker after checking your application.

How

• You can apply at the local government which operate the seasonal work program for foreigners at any time.
• Check the available region and application form below. (Korean)

Source: The Ministry of Justice

From July 1, 2021, the period of stay will be granted within the valid time of the passport.

Intro

Until now, the period of stay of registered foreigners was granted regardless of the validity of the passport. So foreigners did not need to renew the passport and report the change of registered information. That’s why it was difficult for the Korean authorities to understand the exact state of immigration and stay.

Who

This policy will be subject to long term visa holders (registered foreigners) except for the below.

• Diplomacy (A1), Foreign Government Official (A2), Agreement (A3)
• Permanent resident (F5)
• Refugee related: Recognized refugee, Humanitarian status holder, Refugee applicant, and their family
• Denationalized people

Application

This policy will be applied to immigration applications such as below.

• Grant of status of stay
• Extension of period of stay
• Change of status of stay
• Addition and change of workplace

Transitional regulation

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, transitional regulation will be applied.

• Until June 30, 2022: Even if the valid time of the passport remains 1 year or less, the period of stay will be up to 1 year.
• From July 1, 2022: If renewal will be impossible within the valid time of the passport (6 months or less), the period of stay will be up to 6 months. It will be just one time.

Report the change of the registered information

Foreigners should report the change of the registered information like passport number, issuance date, and valid period after passport renewal.

Passport renewal will be applicable in an embassy or a consulate of the country of nationality.

Source: The Ministry of Justice