Changing jobs on an E-9 visa: Korea's EPS workplace change rules

7 min read

Poster for Soo House's Career in Korea workshop, a job-search session for foreign residents led by an HR and recruiting coach

For most foreign residents in Korea, quitting a job works the way it does anywhere: you resign, you look for the next thing, nobody asks the government's permission in between. For a worker on an E-9 or H-2 visa under the Employment Permit System (EPS), it doesn't work that way at all. Changing employers is a counted, permitted, two-agency event — and running out of chances or missing a deadline can end with a flight home instead of a new contract.

  • 3 timesMaximum workplace changes during your initial employment period
  • 2 moreAllowed if your stay is extended under the re-employment special case
  • 1 monthDeadline to apply for a change after your contract ends, or you must leave

How many times you're allowed to switch

사업장 변경, workplace change, is governed by Article 25 of the Foreign Worker Employment Act (외국인근로자의 고용 등에 관한 법률). The count is fixed by law, not by how reasonable your reason is: up to three changes during your initial period of permitted work, and up to two more if you qualify for the re-employment special case that extends your stay — five, total, across an entire EPS career.

How many workplace changes the law allows: up to three during the initial EPS employment period, and up to two more if the stay is extended under the re-employment special case, for a lifetime maximum of five Initial employment period 1 2 3 Up to 3 changes Re-employment period 4 5 2 more, only if your stay is extended A change caused by your employer — closure, unpaid wages, a bad dorm — doesn't use up one of these slots. See below.
Five is the ceiling for most EPS careers in Korea — fewer, if you never trigger the re-employment extension.

Every voluntary change — you found a better wage elsewhere, you just didn't like the job — burns one of those slots permanently. There's no resetting the counter and no appeal once all five are spent; running out means your only route to a new contract is finding an employer willing to sponsor the re-employment special case, which isn't guaranteed.

The one people assume doesn't apply to them Quitting a Korean job on an E-7 or F-visa and quitting on an E-9 are not the same event legally, even if the conversation with your boss feels identical. The count only exists for EPS visa holders — but plenty of workers don't find that out until they're already on change number three.

When a change doesn't cost you a slot

The law carves out exceptions, and they matter more than the headline number. Under Article 25(4)'s proviso, a change doesn't count against your three (or two) if it happens for a reason attributable to your employer, not to you:

Counts against your limit

You resign because you found a better wage, a shorter commute, or simply want out — a completely normal reason, and still one of your three or two.

Doesn't count at all

Your employer shuts down or has their permit cancelled, your dorm conditions are unfit, wages go unpaid, or you're changing because of a workplace injury, illness, pregnancy or childbirth.

If your situation matches the right-hand column, say so explicitly when you apply — the Employment Center doesn't automatically read your file that way, and a change that should have been free can otherwise quietly use up one of your five.

The two approvals you actually need

Getting matched with a new employer isn't the same as being allowed to start working for them. EPS routes every change through two separate agencies, and both have to say yes before your first day at the new job.

Changing workplace needs two separate approvals: an application at your local Employment Center to be matched with a new employer, and separate permission from the Ministry of Justice through immigration before you can actually start work there 1. Employment Center 고용센터 — apply within 1 month of your contract ending 2. Immigration Separate Ministry of Justice permit, before your first day Starting after step 1 but before step 2 clears is not a shortcut — it's an unauthorized change of workplace under the Immigration Control Act.
Matching with an employer and being legally allowed to work for them are two different approvals, from two different offices.

The first step is the Employment Center application under the Foreign Worker Employment Act. The second is a separate permit from the Minister of Justice under Article 21 of the Immigration Control Act, which exists specifically because your visa ties your legal right to work to a named employer — changing who signs your paycheck without that second approval is a status violation, not a paperwork delay, and can put your stay itself at risk. The exact fine and prison-term figures attached to that violation have moved between amendments, so rather than print a number that may already be out of date, check the current penalty on the Immigration Control Act's text at the National Law Information Center or ask your Employment Center directly before assuming you know it.

The clock that doesn't wait for you Once your contract ends, you have one month to file the Employment Center application — later if a work injury, illness, pregnancy or childbirth kept you from doing it sooner, in which case the month starts once that reason ends. Miss it with no such reason, and the law requires you to leave Korea. After you're on file and searching, there's a further window to actually land and start at a new employer before the same consequence applies — the exact length of that window has changed with past reforms, so confirm the current one with your Employment Center or the 1350 Ministry of Employment and Labor hotline rather than assume last year's number still holds.

What Soo House sees, across two very different job searches

Soo House runs meetups, classes and campaigns for expats and foreign residents across Korea — including a Career in Korea workshop, the one pictured above, where an HR and recruiting coach walks members through résumés, interviews and the general shape of a Korean job search. The members who show up there are almost always on E-7, F-series or student-track visas, where switching jobs is stressful but administratively simple: hand in your notice, sign the next contract, done.

That's exactly the gap that trips people up when they're trying to help a friend, a partner, or a coworker who's on an E-9 or H-2 visa instead. The instinct is to give them the same job-search advice — polish the résumé, negotiate the offer — when the actual bottleneck for them was never the interview. It was whether they'd already used up three changes, whether their reason for leaving would have qualified as employer-caused if they'd said so at the time, and whether the Employment Center paperwork was filed before that one-month clock ran out. Good career advice and a compliant EPS filing solve two completely different problems, and only one of them is optional.

Your next hop: if you're on E-9 or H-2 and weighing a move, count your changes first — the Employment Center can tell you exactly how many you have left before you spend one on a reason that might have qualified as free.

Checked in September 2026 against easylaw.go.kr's plain-language page on 근무처(사업 또는 사업장) 변경, which cites Article 25(3) and 25(4) of the Foreign Worker Employment Act (외국인근로자의 고용 등에 관한 법률) directly, and the Immigration Control Act text at the National Law Information Center for the Article 21 permit requirement. Change limits, deadlines and penalties are set by law and enforcement decree and have been amended before — confirm your own count and current deadlines with your local Employment Center or the 1350 Ministry of Employment and Labor hotline before relying on any figure here. For what happens to the money side of a job that's ending, see Korea's severance pay rules and unemployment benefits for foreign workers.

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