F-2-7 Points Visa: How to Calculate Your Score

The F-2-7 is the visa that stops your life in Korea from being attached to one employer. You can change jobs, freelance, or start a business without an immigration consequence. It is also the standard stepping stone to permanent residency. If you are not yet sure which visa category applies to you, start with our complete guide to Korean visas.

To get it you need 80 points. This guide shows you exactly how those points are counted, using the Ministry of Justice’s own scoring table.

One thing to settle immediately, because the internet is full of wrong numbers: the maximum score is 170 points, not 135. It breaks down as 130 points across four common categories, plus up to 40 points in bonuses. Deductions are applied separately.

Everything below is drawn from the Residence Application Manual by Status (체류민원 자격별 안내 매뉴얼), July 2026 edition. Rules change. Verify at HiKorea or by calling 1345 before you file.

Before you count points: are you eligible at all?

This is where most people waste their time. The 80-point threshold is only half the test. You also have to fall into one of five eligibility categories, and each has its own conditions.

1. Employees of listed companies. You work for, or have a signed contract with, a company listed on KOSPI or KOSDAQ, in an occupation classified as manager, professional, or related worker.

2. Workers in promising industries. You work in one of the advanced-technology fields designated by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy — IT, technology management, nano, digital electronics, bio, transport and machinery, new materials, environment and energy. Your previous year’s income must be at least 1.5× per-capita GNI. For applicants in 2026, working from the 2025 figure of ₩52,416,000, that is roughly ₩78.6 million.

3. Professionals. You hold E-1 through E-7-1, or D-5 through D-9. You must have lived in Korea legally and continuously for three years on one of those statuses.

Two things about that three-year rule. First, it does not apply to the other four categories — people routinely assume it is universal, and it is not. Second, it is waived entirely if either of the following is true:

• your certified annual income is ₩40 million or more, or
• you were invited under a government STEM talent programme and recommended by the head of a central government agency.

Note the exclusions: E-6-2 (hotel and entertainment) and E-7-2, E-7-3, and E-7-4 do not qualify through this track. If you are a skilled worker who came up through the E-9 → E-7-4 route, this door is closed to you, and you should look at the other F-2 subcategories instead — see the F series overview.

4. Graduate talent. You earned a master’s degree or higher from a Korean institution, and within five years of graduation you took, or were confirmed for, a job in the E-1 to E-7-1 or D-5 to D-9 range. Your original visa does not matter — you do not need to have held D-2.

There is a second, narrower branch: nationals of Korean War participating countries who hold a Korean bachelor’s degree or higher and are recommended by a central government agency. They receive 20 points as participating-country talent plus 20 points as a government recommendation, hitting the 40-point bonus ceiling, and are granted three years of stay even without a confirmed job.

5. Potential talent (F-2-7S). If you hold, or are about to hold, a master’s or doctorate from a designated STEM university or research institute — KAIST, GIST, DGIST, UNIST, the government-funded research institutes, and others on the official list — and your university president recommends you, the points requirement is waived entirely. You get two years initially, extendable to five. After five years, normal point scoring resumes.

Your spouse and minor children can accompany you under F-2-71.

The 170-point structure

Look at that table for a moment before reading further. Income is worth 60 points — more than age and education combined. Every strategy for reaching 80 points starts there. This is the single most important fact in this article, and it is the one most guides bury.

Common category 1: Age (max 25)

Measured from your date of birth on your passport, as of the application date.

The cliff is at 40. You lose eight points crossing from 39 to 40, and another eight from 44 to 45. If you are 39 and close to the threshold, the arithmetic of waiting is bad. File.

Common category 2: Education (max 25)

“Two or more degrees” means you hold two or more degrees at that level, regardless of field.

Only conferred degrees count. A certificate of completion (수료) without the degree is worthless here, and the issuing institution must be verifiable.

Common category 3: Korean language (max 20)

Here is a widely repeated error worth correcting. Many guides state that completing KIIP Stage 5 is worth 23 points. It is not. KIIP Stage 5 scores 20 points in this category and a further 10 points as a bonus — 30 points in total.

That makes KIIP the most efficient single action available to most applicants. Thirty points is more than a doctorate. It is half the distance to the threshold.

TOPIK certificates expire two years from the test date. KIIP completion does not expire.

Common category 4: Annual income (max 60)

Read the definition carefully. Income means the taxable income figure on your certificate of income amount (소득금액증명), issued by the tax office, for the most recent year available. It is not your contract salary. It is not your gross pay. Bonuses and untaxed allowances do not appear on it.

Pull the certificate before you calculate anything else. Applicants routinely score themselves ten points too high because they used the number in their employment contract.

Notice also the gap between ₩30M and ₩40M: twenty points below thirty million, thirty points at thirty, forty points at forty. A ₩1 million raise across the ₩40M line is worth ten points. A ₩1 million raise inside a band is worth nothing.

Bonus points (max 40)

The 40-point ceiling is real. You cannot stack a doctorate bonus and a government recommendation and reach 50. Everything above 40 is discarded.

“Top-ranked university” has a precise definition: within the top 500 of the QS World University Rankings, or the top 200 of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, at any point in the five years before your application. Meeting either one is enough. If you hold Korean degrees at several levels, only the highest bonus applies.

Volunteer service has hour requirements, not just year counts:

• 3+ years: at least 18 sessions and 150 hours → 7 points
• Under 3 years: at least 12 sessions and 100 hours → 5 points
• Under 2 years: at least 6 sessions and 50 hours → 1 point
• Under 1 year: nothing

Register through the official 1365 volunteer portal. This is the one bonus you cannot acquire quickly — it has to be started years before you need it, which is exactly why so few applicants have it.

Deductions

Two separate ledgers.

Immigration Act violations

Notification dispositions count if paid within three years of your application. Departure orders and deportations count for five years.

Criminal record

There is a hard stop hidden in that first row. If the conviction became final within three years of your application, you are not eligible at all — the application is refused rather than scored. Only after three years does it become a 40-point deduction. Suspended sentences count.

Fines under ₩3 million are deducted regardless of when they were imposed.

A note on the manual. The summary table in the July 2026 manual prints the deduction ceiling as −80, while the detailed section immediately below is titled “Deductions (maximum −70),” and the itemised figures add up to −70. We are not going to guess which is correct. If you are close enough to the threshold for this to matter, call 1345 with your specific record.

How long you actually get

This is the part almost every guide omits, and it changes how you should plan.

Your stay period is set by whichever is more favourable: your total score, or your income score alone.

Read the middle column again. An income score of 50 means five years, on its own. Fifty income points means earning ₩60 million or more. A person earning ₩60M with a total of 95 points receives five years, while a person with 125 total points but a ₩45M salary receives three.

If you are near a band edge, income is the lever. It is the only category that can single-handedly set your stay length.

The manual writes the bottom row’s income condition as “30 points or below,” which looks like a drafting slip until you notice that income scores are not continuous. The only possible values are 0, 10, 30, 40, 45, 50, 53, 56, 58, and 60. Nothing sits between 31 and 39. The four bands therefore partition the scale exactly:

• 50, 53, 56, 58, 60 → five years
• 45 → three years
• 40 → two years
• 30, 10, 0 → one year

Which means the income thresholds translate cleanly into salary figures. ₩60 million buys five years. ₩50 million buys three. ₩40 million buys two. Below ₩40 million, your total score is the only thing that can lift you above one year.

Renewal: the part that surprises people

Getting F-2-7 is not the end of scoring. Every renewal re-scores you, and your age points fall over time. Someone who scraped in at 30 with 82 points will have lost two points to age by 35 and eight more by 40.

The manual is not merciless about this. There are cushions:

If you drop below 80 but are employed at or above minimum wage, you get a one-year grace extension. Your spouse and minor children keep F-2-71 for the same period.

If you are unemployed, or your documented income is at or below minimum wage, you get two six-month extensions after signing an acknowledgement — and if you still fail the income requirement on the third attempt, the extension is refused. You are then permitted to change to D-10 job-seeker status for up to one year, and your family moves to F-3.

Pregnancy, childbirth, and parental leave get a one-year grace extension, and family members are extended alongside you.

Certain applicants are extended regardless of income: Korean War participating-country talent (3 years), F-2-7S potential talent (5 years), and confirmed hires at listed or promising-industry companies who submit an employment contract (1 year).

Your family’s status depends on your income

For your spouse and minor children to hold F-2-71, two conditions must be met by you:

• your total score is 80 or above, and
• your annual income is at or above per-capita GNI — ₩52,416,000, based on the 2025 figure published by the Bank of Korea.

If you meet the points but not the income, your family holds F-3-18 (visiting/cohabitation) instead. They can upgrade to F-2-71 later if your income rises, but it requires filing a change-of-status application rather than a simple extension.

And a hard consequence worth knowing before you plan a family’s move: if your own extension is refused, your spouse’s and children’s extensions are refused at the same time.

Three worked examples

The engineer. 31 years old, non-STEM bachelor’s from a QS-400 university abroad, TOPIK 3, ₩65 million income, no volunteering.

Age 23 + education 15 + language 10 + income 50 = 98 common points. Bonus: bachelor’s from a top-ranked university, 15. Total 113.

Comfortably over 80. And her income score of 50 alone grants five years, better than the two years her 113 total would give. She gets five.

The teacher. 34 years old, non-STEM bachelor’s from an unranked university, KIIP Stage 5, ₩38 million income, two years of registered volunteering.

Age 23 + education 15 + language 20 + income 30 = 88 common points. Bonus: KIIP Stage 5, 10; volunteering, 5. Total 103.

He clears the threshold on the strength of Korean alone — without KIIP he would sit at 73. But note what his income costs him: an income score of 30 reaches no income-based band, and 103 total falls in the 80–109 row. He gets one year, and will be back at the immigration office next summer.

The near-miss. 41 years old, Korean master’s (non-STEM), TOPIK 2, ₩42 million income.

Age 12 + education 17 + language 5 + income 40 = 74 common points. Bonus: master’s from a Korean university, 7. Total 81.

Eligible — barely. And note the income rule rescuing him again: 81 total points would give one year, but his income score of 40 grants two.

The problem is renewal. At 45 he loses four age points and drops to 77. He should spend the intervening years on TOPIK: moving from level 2 to level 4 is worth ten points and would carry him through his forties.

Why your stay length decides your route to permanent residency

There is no separate point test for permanent residency. The manual defines F-5-16 in one line: a person who has held points-based residence status for three years or more. The scoring already happened, at the F-2-7 stage. F-5 then adds residence duration, good conduct, and livelihood requirements on top.

So the stay period you are granted is not an administrative detail. It is the shape of your next three years.

Get five years, and you sit still and apply. Get one year, and you must renew at least twice before you are eligible — each renewal a fresh assessment, at which your age points are lower than they were before. The person on a one-year grant is running up a down escalator.

This is the strongest practical argument for pushing income over the ₩60 million line before you file, rather than after. Fifty income points is worth more than any number of bonus points.

What to do if you are short

Ranked by points gained per unit of effort:

1. Finish KIIP. Stage 5 is 30 points, counted twice. Nothing else comes close. Register at socinet.go.kr.
2. Check your income certificate against the band edges. If you are ₩1 million under ₩40M or ₩50M, a raise or a bonus restructuring at the right time of year is worth ten or five points.
3. Sit TOPIK one level higher. Level 3 to 4 is five points; 4 to 5 is another five.
4. Start volunteering now. Seven points, but you cannot rush it. Two years of 1365-registered service is the minimum meaningful commitment.
5. Do not file at 79. A refusal is not neutral. Wait, score, and file once.

And check the eligibility route before any of it. Being at 95 points is worthless if you hold E-7-4.

Documents

Basic set: application form, passport, ARC, photo, fee, proof of residence, employment contract. A foreign criminal record certificate is required only if you have spent six or more consecutive months abroad since obtaining your current status.

Scoring set: the official score sheet with your self-assessed points, plus documentary evidence for every line you claimed. In practice that means your income certificate (소득금액증명), degree certificate, TOPIK or KIIP certificate, employment certificate, and volunteer record.

Foreign documents need an apostille or consular authentication, with a Korean or English translation, and are valid for three months from issue.

Since April 2026, the initial change-of-status application must be filed in person at an immigration office. Book through HiKorea; slots at busy offices disappear within minutes of release.

The honest summary

F-2-7 rewards two things: earning well and speaking Korean. Age and education are fixed by the time most people read a guide like this. Bonus points are capped at 40 and mostly require credentials you either have or do not.

Income and language are the two categories you can still move. Income is worth 60 points and sets your stay length by itself. KIIP Stage 5 is worth 30. Between them, that is 90 of the 80 you need.

Everything else is arithmetic.

Sources: Ministry of Justice / Korea Immigration Service, Residence Application Manual by Status (체류민원 자격별 안내 매뉴얼), July 2026 edition. Per-capita GNI figure: Bank of Korea, provisional 2025 national income statistics, published 10 March 2026. Last reviewed: July 2026.

This is a guide, not legal advice. Point tables and income thresholds are revised regularly. Confirm your own situation with the Immigration Contact Center at 1345, or with a licensed 행정사, before you file.