Korean visas explained: the FAQ nobody gives you at the airport
10 min read
Korea has around forty visa categories. Almost nobody needs to understand all of them — you need to understand the three or four that describe your life, and the paths between them.
This is written as the questions people actually ask, with the kind of examples you hear in a Saturday language exchange rather than in a government pamphlet.
The examples are composites. Your case will differ in the details that matter, so treat this as orientation, not as advice.
Start here: what is your visa actually for?
Every Korean visa answers one question — what are you permitted to do here? — and the letter tells you the category.
| Letter | Broadly |
|---|---|
| A | Diplomats and officials |
| B | Visa-free entry and transit |
| C | Short stays, usually under 90 days |
| D | Study, training, investment, job-seeking |
| E | Employment, by profession |
| F | Living here — family, residence, permanence |
| G | Everything that fits nowhere else |
| H | Working holiday |
The single most useful thing to internalise: D and E visas tie you to an activity or an employer. F visas untie you. Nearly every long-term plan in Korea is, in the end, a plan to reach an F.
"I'm coming to study"
Which visa?
D-2 for a degree at a university — associate through doctorate. D-4 for language school and non-degree training.
The difference matters more than it looks. D-2 counts toward long-term residence points later; D-4 is weaker in almost every respect. If you can enter a degree programme, do.
Can I work?
Yes, but only with a part-time employment permit you apply for separately — typically after six months, with hours tied to your TOPIK level and your school's sign-off. Working without it is the most common self-inflicted visa wound among students.
Case. Minh arrives on D-4 for a year of language school, then moves to D-2 for an undergraduate degree. He waits out the six months, gets TOPIK 3, and takes a permitted café job. Four years later his D-2 time counts toward the points that get him F-2-7. His friend who worked unpermitted for two semesters spends those same years explaining it at every renewal.
"I've just graduated here. Can I stay?"
D-10, the job-seeker visa
This is the bridge, and it is underused. D-10 lets you stay in Korea to look for work or prepare to start a business, without an employer sponsoring you.
It buys time — generally six months at a stretch, extendable up to a couple of years — and it is far easier to convert into a work visa from inside Korea than to apply from abroad after your student status lapses.
If you are graduating and do not yet have an offer, ask about D-10 before your D-2 expires. Once you have left, your options narrow sharply.
"I want to work here. Which visa is mine?"
This is where the alphabet gets dense. The honest summary: your visa is decided by what the job is, not by what you would prefer.
The professional visas
- E-1 Professor — university teaching posts
- E-2 Conversation Instructor — the classic English-teaching route; requires a degree from a country where your language is native, plus a criminal record check
- E-3 Research — research institutes, often with a graduate degree
- E-4 Technical Instruction — transferring specific technical expertise
- E-5 Professional — licensed professions: law, medicine, accountancy, where Korean qualification usually applies
- E-6 Culture & Entertainment — performers, athletes, models
- E-7 Specially Designated Activities — the big one, below
E-7 is the visa most skilled workers end up on
E-7 covers a long, specific list of designated occupations — IT, design, engineering, marketing, cooking, translation and many more. If you are a professional who is not a professor, teacher, researcher or licensed practitioner, this is probably your visa.
Two things define it:
- It is tied to your employer. Change jobs and you must report and often re-apply. It does not travel freely with you.
- Your degree or experience must match the occupation code. A computer science graduate applying for a designated IT role is straightforward; the same person applying for an unrelated role is not.
Case. Aisha finishes a design degree in Seoul on D-2, switches to D-10 while interviewing, and gets an offer from an agency. Because her degree matches the designated occupation, her E-7 goes through. Two years later she wants to move agencies — the new employer has to sponsor the change, so she negotiates her start date around the paperwork instead of resigning first.
The labour visas
- E-8 Seasonal — short agricultural and fishery seasons, arranged through local governments
- E-9 Non-professional Employment — the EPS system, by agreement with sending countries, in manufacturing, agriculture, construction and fisheries
- E-10 Maritime — crew
E-9 is the visa the largest number of foreign workers in Korea actually hold. It comes with real constraints on changing workplaces, and a defined maximum stay — but it is not a dead end. Long-serving E-9 workers with Korean ability and a supportive employer can move toward E-7-4, a skilled-worker route, and from there toward residence.
Case. Bikash comes on E-9 to a manufacturing job. He stays with the same employer, passes TOPIK, and qualifies for the skilled-worker change after several years. His visa stops being a countdown and starts being a foundation.
C-4, the short one
C-4 covers short-term paid work — under 90 days. It exists, it is legitimate, and it is not a way to do a long job in short slices.
"I want to start something of my own"
- D-8 Corporate Investment — you invest capital in a Korean company you are involved in running. There is a minimum investment, and it is checked.
- D-9 Trade Management — running trade or import/export operations.
- D-10 also has a start-up preparation track, which is how a lot of founders legally spend the year before they have a company at all.
Founders routinely underestimate how much the structure of the investment matters, not just the amount. This is one of the categories where paying an administrative scrivener (행정사) for an hour is cheaper than a rejection.
"I'm young and just want to try living here"
H-1 Working Holiday. Available to citizens of partner countries, usually aged 18–30, once in a lifetime, typically for a year.
It is the most permissive visa Korea issues to newcomers: you can work in most jobs without a separate permit. Restrictions apply to certain sectors, and it is not renewable.
If you are eligible and undecided about Korea, this is the cheapest possible way to find out. Plenty of long-term residents started here and converted to D-10 or an E visa before it expired.
"I have Korean heritage"
F-4 Overseas Korean. For ethnic Koreans holding foreign nationality — and it is dramatically more generous than any D or E visa. Broad work rights without employer sponsorship, long validity, easy renewal.
The main exclusion is unskilled labour, which the category is not intended for.
Case. Jenny, a Korean-American, arrives assuming she needs an E-2 to teach. She qualifies for F-4 instead, which means she can teach, freelance, take side projects and change jobs without asking anyone. Her colleague on E-2 needs permission for each of those.
If there is any Korean ancestry in your family, check F-4 before anything else. People spend years on restrictive work visas without realising.
"I married a Korean citizen"
F-6 Marriage Migrant. Full work rights, no employer sponsorship, and the fastest ordinary route to permanent residence.
Expect scrutiny at application — evidence of a genuine relationship, income requirements for the Korean spouse, and sometimes a Korean-language requirement. It is intrusive; it is also the same for everyone.
"How do I stop having to think about visas?"
F-2-7, the points visa
F-2-7 scores you on age, education, income, Korean ability, and time in Korea. Pass the threshold and you get residence that is not tied to an employer.
This is the target for most skilled workers, and the scoring rewards exactly what you would expect: study here, earn well, learn Korean, stay put. TOPIK is usually the cheapest points anyone is leaving on the table.
F-2-R is a regional variant — commit to living and working in a designated area outside the capital region, and the bar is lower. For people whose job is portable, it is a genuine shortcut that few consider.
F-5, permanent residence
F-5 is the destination: indefinite stay, near-complete work freedom, no renewals treadmill. Routes in include long residence, F-2 held for a qualifying period, marriage to a citizen, and high-value investment.
You keep your nationality. You do not get the vote in national elections.
F-3 and F-1, the family visas
F-3 is for dependants accompanying a D, E or F-2 holder — spouse and children. Note carefully: F-3 does not carry work rights by default. A spouse who wants to work needs their own permission or their own visa, which is a nasty surprise for couples who assumed otherwise.
F-1 covers visits and cohabitation that fit nowhere else — including, in some cases, parents of a Korean child.
The questions people actually ask
Can I do paid side work on my visa?
Assume no unless your visa says otherwise or you have permission.
Broad freedom
F-2 · F-4 · F-5 · F-6 · H-1
Work without an employer sponsoring you, change jobs freely, take paid side projects.
Permission required
D-2 · D-4 · most E visas
Students need a part-time permit; E holders need permission for anything outside the sponsored role.
This applies to short, informal-feeling work too — a paid campaign, a weekend event, a modelling shoot, a translation gig. The fee is income, the tax record exists, and immigration can see it. Getting permission is usually easy; explaining an unpermitted record later is not.
What happens if I change jobs?
On E visas, the change must be reported and often approved — sometimes before you start. On F visas, generally nothing to do.
Never resign before the paperwork is understood. The gap between jobs is where status problems begin.
Does time on one visa count toward the next?
Often, but not equally. Time on D-2 and E visas typically counts toward residence requirements; time on short-term C visas does not. This is a strong argument for regularising your status early rather than accumulating years that will not count.
Can I switch visas without leaving Korea?
Frequently yes — D-2 to D-10 to E-7 is a well-worn path done entirely inside the country. Some changes do require leaving and re-entering. Ask before you book anything.
What actually gets applications refused?
In practice: a mismatch between your qualifications and the occupation code, missing or unapostilled documents from your home country, an employer who does not meet the sponsorship requirements, and unexplained gaps in status.
Almost none of these are about you being unwelcome. They are about the file being incomplete.
Three habits that make everything easier
Keep a document folder from day one. Apostilled degree, criminal record check, transcripts, every contract. You will need them repeatedly, and getting a fresh apostille from another country takes weeks.
Diarise your expiry date minus 60 days. Extensions are routine when early and stressful when late.
Pay a professional for the hard cases. A licensed administrative scrivener handles change-of-status and E-7 applications daily. For a category change that decides the next three years of your life, one consultation is cheap.
Where to get the real answer
- Hi Korea (hikorea.go.kr) — the official portal: current requirements, document lists, appointments
- 1345 — the immigration contact centre, free, with interpretation in around twenty languages
- Your local immigration office — requirements vary in practice, and theirs is the answer that counts
- Your university's international office, if you are a student — they process these every week
Checked in August 2026. Visa categories, eligibility criteria, point thresholds and permitted activities change regularly, and every case turns on individual detail. This is general orientation and not immigration advice — confirm anything you plan to act on with Hi Korea, 1345, or a licensed administrative scrivener.