Returning to Korea on D-2 After a Leave of Absence

If you took approved leave from a Korean university, came home to Nepal, and now need a visa to go back, you are not making a student application again. You are making a different and much shorter one — and the reason the list is shorter is worth understanding, because it tells you where to put your effort.

Compare it against the full D-2 undergraduate list and five things disappear:

• Embassy verification of your academic documents is no longer listed
• The Grade 11 mark sheet is gone
• Character certificates are gone
• The language test — IELTS, TOEFL, TOPIK or equivalent — is gone
• The one-year provisional graduation certificate rule no longer applies to you

Two things appear in their place, and between them they do the work that all five of those used to do:

• An enrolment certificate from your Korean university
• A mark sheet for the semester you completed there

That substitution is the whole logic of this route. A first-time applicant has to prove on paper that they are a real student who will genuinely study. You have already proved it by actually studying. Your Korean transcript is better evidence than any Nepali document could be, so the apparatus built to assess an unknown applicant is replaced by two documents from the institution that already knows you.

The question has changed. It is no longer "is this a genuine student?" It is "did you actually study, and is the university taking you back?"

For the requirements shared across all twelve routes — the A-level bank rule, validity windows, translation and notarisation — see Korean visa documents from Nepal.

Who this route is for

Students re-applying after returning home with a leave of absence certificate, for a stay of more than ninety days.

The eligibility turns on the leave having been approved by your university and your return being to the same programme. If any of the following apply, this is not your route:

• You withdrew rather than taking leave, or your enrolment lapsed → you are a new applicant on the full D-2 undergraduate list, with the embassy verification and the provisional certificate rule back in force
• You are switching university or programme → a new admission means a new application
• You never actually enrolled or completed a semester → you have no Korean enrolment certificate or semester mark sheet, which are the two documents this route is built on
• Your absence has run long enough that the university has deregistered you → confirm your status with them before assembling anything

Check your standing with the university first. Everything below assumes they will issue an enrolment certificate, and if they will not, no amount of Nepali paperwork compensates.

What your Korean university supplies

The source list is unusually explicit about originals and copies here, marking each item, and the reason is the rule underneath: documents originating in South Korea must be originals. A scanned attachment is not the document. Build postage time into your plan.

• Standard admission certificate — original and copy
• University's business registration certificate — original and copy
• If applicable: scholarship certificate — original
• If applicable: financial affidavit from a professor, where a professor is supporting your tuition or living costs — original
• If applicable: the professor's job certificate, under the same condition — original and copy

And the two documents that define this route:

• Enrolment certificate from your Korean university
• Mark sheet for the semester you completed at your Korean university

Request all of these in one go, naming the leave of absence, so the office handles it as a single request rather than four.

What you supply from Nepal

• Visa application form, with your original signature on page 5 matching your passport
• A recent passport-size photograph, taken within the last six months
• Passport, original and photocopy
• Visa cover letter
• Statement of purpose (SOP)
• Tuberculosis medical report from one of only four hospitals designated by the embassy
• Family relationship certificate — photocopy
• Marriage certificate — photocopy
• A copy of the business registration certificate, notarised PAN and ID (passport) of the consultancy representative
• Balance certificate
• Bank statement for the last six months, accepted only from an A-level bank, issued within one month of your visa application date

All Nepali-language documents translated into English and notarised by an authorised notary public.

The originals contradiction, and how to handle it

The list has an internal inconsistency you should know about before you go to the counter.

It asks for the family relationship certificate and marriage certificate as photocopies. Then, further down, it states: "All original documents: Educational documents, Relationship and Marriage certificate."

Those two lines disagree. One reading is that photocopies are submitted while originals are brought for inspection; another is that the later line supersedes the earlier one.

Do not try to resolve it by choosing. Bring both the originals and the photocopies. It costs you nothing, it satisfies either reading, and the alternative is a return trip. This is the same principle that governs the validity windows across every route: where two rules could apply, satisfy the stricter one.

The four designated hospitals

The tuberculosis report is accepted from only four hospitals, named by the embassy:

• Patan Hospital, Patan
• Civil Service Hospital, New Baneshwor
• Korea Nepal Friendship Hospital — also known as Korea Thimi Hospital — Bhaktapur
• Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku

Four facilities serve every long-stay applicant in the country, and the queues lengthen around university intake deadlines. Because your return is tied to a semester start date you do not control, this is the item to book first.

Note that the TB requirement did not disappear with the rest of the first-time apparatus. Everything about proving you are a student was dropped; nothing about public health was. That distinction is consistent across all the long-stay routes.

Writing the SOP for a return application

A first-time SOP argues that you will be a good student. Yours cannot — the file already contains your Korean semester mark sheet, which either supports that or does not. So the SOP has a different job, and applicants who recycle their original one miss it entirely.

Three things it needs to do.

Account for the leave, plainly. Why you took it and what you did during it. Illness, family circumstances, finances, military or family obligation, a necessary break — all of these are ordinary and none of them is damaging when stated clearly. What damages an application is a gap the reader has to guess at. If the leave was for medical reasons and you have recovered, say so. If it was financial and the position has changed, say what changed, because that connects directly to your bank documents.

Account for the result you already have. If your completed semester went well, point at it. If it went badly — and leave of absence is often taken by students for whom it did — do not pretend otherwise. Explain what went wrong, what you did about it, and why the outcome will differ. A reviewer holding a weak transcript and a candid explanation is in a much better position than one holding a weak transcript and a cheerful SOP that ignores it.

Show the return is real and funded. The enrolment certificate shows the university expects you. Your SOP should match it: which semester you are returning for, which programme, how the remaining study is paid for, and consistently with whatever your financial documents show.

A shape to adapt rather than copy:

I enrolled at [university] in the [programme] in [month, year] and completed [number] semesters, as shown in the enclosed mark sheet. In [month, year] I was granted a leave of absence because [specific reason], and returned to Nepal. During the leave I [what you did]. [The circumstance] has now [resolved/changed], and I am enrolled to resume study from the [semester] term, as confirmed by the enclosed enrolment certificate. My remaining tuition and living costs will be met by [source], as shown in the enclosed balance certificate and bank statement. I intend to complete the remaining [number] semesters and graduate in [year].

Write it yourself, and do not reuse the original. A reviewer comparing an SOP that ignores both the leave and the existing transcript against one that addresses both is making an easy decision.

Sequencing a return application

Your semester start date is fixed and not yours to move, so work backwards from it.

1. First, before anything. Confirm with your university that your leave is in order and that they will issue an enrolment certificate. If they will not, nothing else matters.
2. Immediately. Request all university documents by post — admission certificate, business registration certificate, enrolment certificate, semester mark sheet, and any scholarship or professor documents. Originals, so allow for postage.
3. At the same time. Book the tuberculosis test at one of the four hospitals.
4. At the same time. Confirm your A-level bank account has six months of deposit history. If the leave was financial and the account has been dormant, this is the constraint that will bite.
5. Four to six weeks out. Notarised English translations. Write the SOP. Request your consultancy's documents.
6. Early and safely. Ward documents — relationship and marriage certificates. Get the originals as well as the photocopies.
7. Last two weeks only. Balance certificate and six-month bank statement. One month validity.
8. Finally. Cover letter, page 5 signature, originals clipped, file in the published order.

Full reasoning in the validity clock section of the main guide.

Where return applications come apart

The university will not issue an enrolment certificate, because the leave lapsed or the student was deregistered. Check this before anything else.

Using the full first-time list by mistake, and spending weeks and money on embassy verification, a language test and character certificates that this route does not ask for. Expensive, and entirely avoidable.

Using this shorter list when you are not actually eligible — you withdrew rather than took leave, or you are changing university. A new admission is a new application.

Korean documents submitted as scans or email attachments. Originals.

An SOP that ignores the leave, or worse, the original SOP resubmitted unchanged.

No TB appointment, because the four hospitals were full close to the semester start.

A dormant bank account that cannot produce six months of deposit history, which is a common consequence of a long leave.

Resolving the originals-versus-photocopies contradiction by guessing. Bring both.

After you return

Your previous alien registration will not simply resume. Check with your university's international office and your local immigration office what your status requires on re-entry — re-registration, a new card, or an address report. Getting your Alien Registration Card in Korea covers how the document works, and immigration offices and overstay covers the reporting obligations.

Two things people returning from a long leave often need to redo: National Health Insurance, where coverage may have lapsed, and housing, if you gave up your room — jeonse, wolse and key money and housing in Korea.

For getting back into the rhythm of it: Nepali student life in Korea, learning Korean if the language has gone rusty, and the Nepali community in Korea.

Questions people actually ask

Do I really not need embassy verification of my academic documents? It is not on this list, while it is on the first-time undergraduate list. The reason is that your Korean enrolment certificate and semester mark sheet now evidence your academic standing. Confirm with the embassy for your specific case before skipping it — the saving is weeks of work, which makes it worth one confirming question rather than an assumption.

Do I need to sit IELTS or TOPIK again? No language test appears on this list. You are returning to a programme you were already admitted to and have already studied in.

My completed semester results were poor. Does that end it? Not by itself. The enrolment certificate is the university deciding to take you back, which carries weight. Address the result honestly in the SOP rather than leaving the reviewer to interpret it.

My leave was for medical reasons. Does that affect the TB test or the visa? The TB report is required of every applicant on this route regardless of why you took leave. If your leave was for a condition that remains relevant, discuss it with the embassy rather than assuming it is either fatal or irrelevant.

How long can a leave of absence last before this route closes? That is set by your university's regulations, not by the visa list, and it varies by institution. Your university's academic office is the only reliable answer.

Can I come back on a tourist visa and sort the student visa out in Korea? No. Treat that as a route to losing both. A C-3-9 is a ninety-day visitor status with no employment and no study, and changing status from inside the country is not something to plan around — see extending your stay in Korea.

Do I still need the consultancy documents if I applied through a consultancy years ago? The item is on the list. If your current application does not involve a consultancy, raise it with the embassy rather than leaving it blank.

Sources and accuracy

Requirements above are drawn from the trilingual visa document lists published by DAGACHI and World DAGACHI at worlddagachi.com, working from the English versions. The internal inconsistency over photocopies and originals noted above is present in the source list and is reported here rather than resolved, because resolving it is the embassy's call.

The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Nepal sets and changes these requirements without notice, and student routes change more often than most. Because this list is materially shorter than the first-time list, confirm with the embassy that it applies to your circumstances before relying on the omissions. Check the date on this page. Nothing here is legal, immigration or education advice.

If something here is out of date, tell us.