Korea’s visa system looks intimidating from the outside: a wall of letter-number codes like D-2, E-7-4, F-2-7. It is actually a fairly logical filing system, and once you understand the logic you can find your own category in about two minutes.
This guide is the map. It explains what each letter means, walks through every visa family you are likely to encounter, and points you toward the detailed step-by-step guide for whichever one applies to you. It is deliberately not exhaustive on any single visa — each section links out to a full guide.
One warning before we start, and it applies to every page on the internet including this one: Korean immigration rules change constantly. Point thresholds, income floors, and quotas are revised most years, sometimes mid-year. Always confirm your specific requirements at HiKorea or by calling the Immigration Contact Center at 1345 before you file anything.
How Korean visa codes work
Every Korean visa is a letter plus a number, sometimes plus a second number.
- The letter is the broad purpose. A = diplomatic, B = visa-free entry, C = short-term stay, D = study, training, and business, E = employment, F = residency and family, G = other, H = working holiday and working visit.
- The first number is the specific status within that family. D-2 is a degree student, D-4 is a language student.
- The second number, where it exists, is a sub-type. E-7-1 is a professional; E-7-4 is a skilled worker on the points track. These sub-types matter enormously — they have different requirements and different futures.
Two rules follow from this, and violating either is an immigration offence:
- Your activity must match your status. Working on a tourist entry is illegal employment, even for one paid day. Holding a D-4 language visa and not attending class is a violation of purpose.
- Your status is not your identity. You can change it. Most long-term residents in Korea have held three or four different statuses over the years, and the sequence you choose early on determines what is available to you later.
Find your category fast
| Your situation | Likely status |
|---|---|
| Visiting for under 90 days | Visa-free (B) or C-3 |
| Enrolled in a Korean degree program | D-2 |
| Studying Korean at a language institute | D-4 |
| Graduated in Korea, looking for work | D-10 |
| Teaching English at a hagwon or school | E-2 |
| Hired for a professional or specialist role | E-7-1 |
| Working in manufacturing, agriculture, fisheries via EPS | E-9 |
| Long-term E-9 worker who wants to stay | E-7-4 |
| Care work in a nursing home or hospital | E-7-2 |
| Married to a Korean citizen | F-6 |
| Ethnic Korean with foreign citizenship | F-4 |
| Skilled professional wanting to drop employer sponsorship | F-2-7 |
| Remote worker for an overseas employer | F-1-D |
| Founding a company in Korea | D-8 |
| Spouse or child of a long-term visa holder | F-3 |
| Settled and want to stop renewing | F-5 |
Short-term stay: visiting, not living
If you are coming for under 90 days and not being paid by anyone in Korea, you probably do not need a visa at all. Korea has visa-waiver arrangements with a long list of countries, and citizens of those countries enter under a B-1 (waiver) or B-2 (visa-free) designation.
Two pieces of paperwork catch people out. K-ETA, the electronic travel authorization, is normally required for visa-free entrants — but a large group of countries, including the United States, has been temporarily exempted as a tourism measure. The Ministry of Justice extended that exemption again, and it now runs from 1 January to 31 December 2026. Nothing has been announced about 2027.
Separately, entry declarations moved to a digital e-Arrival Card. Note how these two interact: holding an approved K-ETA exempts you from filling in the arrival card. That is why travellers from exempted countries may still choose to pay for a K-ETA voluntarily — it buys a faster arrival. Check the current exemption list at k-eta.go.kr before you fly.
If you need an actual visa for a short visit, C-3 covers tourism, family visits, conferences, and short business meetings. C-4 covers short-term paid work — a modelling shoot, a temporary contract, a performance.
The critical thing about short-term status is that it does not permit employment, and it does not, as a general rule, convert cleanly into a long-term status from inside Korea. There are exceptions — the digital nomad visa now explicitly allows an in-country switch from short-term status — but plan on leaving and re-applying unless you have confirmed otherwise.
Study and job-seeking: the D series
D-2 is the degree-seeking student visa: bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate, at an accredited Korean university. D-4 is everything else in education — language institutes, vocational training, non-degree programs. The distinction matters far more than most applicants realize, because D-2 time counts toward several later residency pathways in ways D-4 time does not.
D-2 students may work part-time after completing a minimum period of study and obtaining permission from immigration. The permitted hours depend on your Korean proficiency and your program level, and the caps have been loosened in recent years for students in designated fields. Working without that permission is a status violation, and it will surface when you apply for anything else later.
D-10 is the job-seeker visa, and it is the most under-used status in the Korean system. It lets a graduate — or someone who has finished a work contract — stay in Korea while looking for their next job, and it lets D-10 holders do internships in fields covered by E-1 through E-7. Time on D-10 counts toward the residency clock for the points-based F-2-7 in some pathways. If you are graduating and have not lined up an employer, D-10 is almost always the right move rather than going home.
Employment: the E series
This is the largest and most confusing family. Think of it as three tiers.
Professional and specialist work (E-1 to E-7)
E-1 professor, E-2 foreign language instructor, E-3 researcher, E-4 technical instructor, E-5 licensed professional, E-6 arts and entertainment, E-7 specially designated activities.
E-7 is the workhorse. It is not one visa but a bundle: E-7-1 is the professional track (managers, engineers, specialists in designated occupations), E-7-2 covers semi-skilled designated occupations including care work, E-7-3 covers designated skilled trades, and E-7-4 is the points-based skilled worker route for long-serving E-9, E-10, and H-2 workers.
Every E-series visa in this tier is sponsored by a specific employer. If you lose the job, you have a limited window to find another sponsor or change status. This is the single biggest structural constraint on foreign professionals in Korea, and it is the reason F-2-7 exists.
Non-professional employment (E-8, E-9, E-10)
E-9 is issued through the Employment Permit System (EPS / 고용허가제), a government-to-government program that recruits workers from partner countries into manufacturing, construction, agriculture, fisheries, and a growing list of service occupations. You cannot apply for E-9 at an embassy. You take the EPS-TOPIK exam in your home country, enter a roster, and wait for a Korean employer to select you.
E-9 has hard edges that intending applicants should understand before they commit:
- A single E-9 cycle caps at 4 years and 10 months — an initial period plus a re-employment extension. Workers who complete that term cleanly may re-enter under the Sincere Worker (성실근로자) track for a further cycle, so the practical maximum can reach roughly 9 years 8 months. Do not assume you will qualify; the track has conditions. See how to extend an E-9 visa, step by step — your employer, not you, has to move first.
- You cannot bring your spouse or children. This is a design feature of the program, not an administrative gap.
- You are tied to your employer and your sector. Workplace changes are permitted only on specific grounds — wage arrears, abuse, closure, contract expiry — and there is a numerical cap on how many times you may change. Changes caused by the employer’s fault generally do not count against that cap.
- Your labour rights are identical to a Korean worker’s. Minimum wage, overtime, annual leave, severance, and industrial accident insurance all apply to you. Wage theft against migrant workers is common and it is illegal; the Ministry of Employment and Labor helpline is 1350.
The E-9 quota has been cut two years running: 165,000 new entries in 2024, 130,000 in 2025, and 80,000 for 2026 (70,000 allocated by sector, 10,000 held back as a flexible reserve). The government cited post-pandemic demand normalising and falling vacancies in manufacturing and construction. For applicants this means one thing: the roster is more competitive than it was. The one real route from E-9 to a long-term future in Korea is E-7-4, which requires several years of accumulated E-9/E-10/H-2 time, current employment, a salary floor, an employer recommendation, and a passing score on the K-Point assessment.
E-8 is the seasonal worker visa for agriculture and fisheries; its quota has been expanding as E-9’s contracts. E-10 covers crew on ships.
Working holiday and working visit (H-1, H-2)
H-1 is the reciprocal working holiday visa for young people from partner countries. H-2 is the working visit visa for ethnic Koreans from specific countries, principally China and the CIS states — a status the government has been progressively merging with the F-4 overseas Korean visa.
Business and investment: D-7, D-8, D-9
D-8 is the corporate investment visa: you establish a company in Korea with qualifying capital and you run it. The traditional D-8-4 startup route required academic credentials; newer startup pathways evaluate the business idea, the team, and market fit instead, with recommendation rights extended to local governments and accelerators.
D-7 is the intra-company transferee visa, for staff moved from an overseas parent to a Korean branch. D-9 covers international trade.
D-8 has a genuine permanent residency route attached to it: maintain the investment, the employment, and the revenue for a qualifying period and you become eligible for an investor category of F-5.
Residency and family: the F series
This is where Korea stops being a place you work and becomes a place you live.
F-1 is a general visiting or dependent status. F-3 is the accompanying family visa for spouses and minor children of long-term visa holders. F-3 does not carry work rights on its own; an F-3 spouse who wants to work must obtain separate permission or their own status.
F-4 is for ethnic Koreans holding foreign citizenship, and it grants broad freedom to live and work.
F-6 is the marriage migrant visa, for the foreign spouse of a Korean national. It involves an interview, income and housing requirements on the Korean sponsor’s side, and a Korean language or KIIP requirement in most cases.
F-2 is the resident visa, and its most important sub-type is F-2-7, the points-based route. You score yourself across age, education, income, Korean language ability, and bonus categories such as KIIP Level 5 completion, registered volunteer hours, top-ranked university degrees, and government recommendations. Deductions apply for fines and immigration violations. You need 80 points out of a possible 170 — 130 from the common categories plus up to 40 in bonuses — and separately an eligibility pathway, typically a qualifying period of continuous residence on a professional visa, waivable at higher income levels, or a Korean-university-graduate track.
Understand where the weight sits before you plan around it. Annual income alone is worth up to 60 points, more than any other single category; age and education are capped at 25 each, and Korean language ability at 20. Completing KIIP Level 5 is unusually efficient because it scores twice — 20 points for language, plus a further 10 as a bonus. We break the whole table down, band by band, in how to calculate your F-2-7 score.
F-2-7 is the single biggest quality-of-life change available in the Korean system, because it severs the tie between your visa and your employer. You can change jobs, freelance, or start a business without an immigration consequence. Note that E-7-2, E-7-3, and E-7-4 holders are generally excluded from the standard professional track into F-2-7; other routes may apply.
F-5 is permanent residency. It removes renewals, and it is the only status that lets a foreign resident vote in local elections. There are many F-5 sub-categories, each with its own qualifying route — several years of continuous lawful residence, an income floor tied to per-capita GNI, a Korean language or KIIP requirement, and a good-conduct requirement. F-5 is not citizenship, and it does not require you to renounce your original nationality. Naturalization is a separate, further step.
What changed in 2026
Three developments are worth knowing about even if they do not apply to you directly.
The digital nomad visa became permanent. After a pilot that ran from January 2024, the F-1-D “workation” visa was formalized on 30 June 2026. It lets people employed by, or owning, a foreign company live in Korea while working remotely. The standard income threshold is twice Korea’s per-capita GNI. With the 2025 figure at ₩52,416,000 (Bank of Korea), that is roughly ₩104.8 million. Applicants aged 18 to 34 who base themselves outside the greater Seoul area, or in a designated population-declining region, need only one times GNI — an explicit regional-revitalisation measure. Maximum stay rose from two years to three. Private medical insurance and a bar on Korean-sourced income still apply.
Keep the scale in perspective: 743 of these visas were issued between January 2024 and May 2026, and only 398 holders were resident in Korea as of May 2026. This is a small programme, and the overwhelming majority of holders settled in the capital region — which is precisely what the new income rules are trying to change.
The Top-Tier visa expanded. Korea’s fast-track status for very high-end talent, launched in April 2025 for staff at companies in eight advanced industries, was extended on 1 June 2026 to professors and researchers in science and technology. Successful applicants and their families receive F-2 resident status immediately, and the residence period required for F-5 permanent residency drops from the usual five years to three. The government’s target is 350 Top-Tier holders by 2030 — this is a deliberately narrow door.
A large structural reform was proposed, not enacted. In March 2026 the Ministry of Justice published a long-range immigration strategy whose headline item is consolidating dozens of employment visa sub-categories into three skill tiers. As of this writing it remains a proposal with no implementation date and no enabling legislation. Do not plan around it. Existing categories remain in force.
The routes people actually take
The visa system rewards people who think two moves ahead. These are the common sequences:
- Student route: D-4 → D-2 → D-10 → E-7 → F-2-7 → F-5
- Professional route: E-7 → F-2-7 → F-5
- EPS route: E-9 → E-7-4 → longer-term F-2 route → F-5
- Overseas Korean route: H-2 → F-4 → F-5
- Investor route: D-8, sustained → F-5
- Marriage route: F-6 → F-5
Notice that almost everything funnels through F-2 or straight to F-5, and that the two things which most reliably unlock both are income and Korean language ability. Nothing else you can do in your first three years in Korea moves your position as much as passing TOPIK or finishing KIIP.
Practical mechanics everyone needs
HiKorea (hikorea.go.kr) is the portal for immigration appointments, status changes, extensions, and — since January 2026 — mandatory online employment reporting. Appointment slots for busy offices disappear within minutes of release.The ARC (Alien Registration Card, 외국인등록증) is your Korean identity. You need it for a bank account, a phone contract, health insurance, and almost every online service. Long-term visa holders must register within 90 days of arrival.1345 is the Immigration Contact Center, multilingual, weekdays. When a blog and an immigration officer disagree, the officer wins. When two blogs disagree, call 1345.
Overstaying carries fines and entry bans that scale with the duration, and it poisons every later application through the points deduction system. If you have overstayed, the situation is usually fixable, but it gets worse every day.Leaving Korea temporarily may require a re-entry permit depending on your status and the length of the absence. Long absences can also break the continuity of residence that F-2-7 and F-5 depend on.
Frequently asked questions
Can I switch from a tourist entry to a work visa without leaving Korea?
Sometimes. Some categories permit an in-country status change; many do not. Working before the change is approved is illegal employment regardless. Confirm with your local immigration office before you assume.
My spouse has an E-7. Can I work?
Not on F-3 status alone. F-3 grants residence, not work rights. Your spouse’s status does not transfer to you; you need your own permission or your own visa.
How far in advance do I renew?
Extension applications open ahead of expiry and the window is narrower than most people expect. Book the HiKorea appointment the moment the window opens, not when you remember.
Does time on a student visa count toward permanent residency?
It depends on the pathway. Some F-2-7 routes explicitly count D-2 and D-10 time; F-5 routes count only specified statuses. This is exactly the kind of question to take to 1345 with your own dates in hand.
Is F-5 the same as citizenship?
No. F-5 is indefinite residence. Citizenship (귀화) is a separate application, and Korea does not generally permit naturalized citizens to retain their original nationality.
Before you file anything
Every number in this guide — every point threshold, income floor, quota, and time limit — is revised on a schedule set by the Ministry of Justice, not by us. Treat this page as a map of the territory, not as the territory.
Verify at:
- HiKorea — hikorea.go.kr (appointments, status changes, official manuals)
- Korea Immigration Service — immigration.go.kr (policy announcements, visa navigator)
- Immigration Contact Center — 1345 (multilingual, weekdays)
- Ministry of Employment and Labor — 1350 (E-9 and labour rights)
The point tables and document lists in this guide were checked against the Ministry of Justice / Korea Immigration Service Residence Application Manual by Status (체류민원 자격별 안내 매뉴얼), July 2026 edition. That manual is revised regularly. Where a blog and the manual disagree, the manual wins; where the manual and the officer at your window disagree, the officer wins.
Last reviewed: July 2026.