Korean Visa Types

Korea labels every permission to stay with a letter and a number, and the letter decides what you may do while the number narrows it. Getting this vocabulary straight early saves a great deal of confusion later, because every form, office and employer will refer to you by your code.

This page is the map. The procedures sit on their own pages and are linked from each section.

The categories you will actually meet

Code	For	Work
C-3	Short visits, tourism, business trips	No
D-2	Degree study at a university	Part-time, with permission
D-4	Language and other non-degree training	Part-time, with permission, more limited
D-8	Running a company you have invested in	Within that business
D-10	Looking for work after study	Limited activity only
E-2	Foreign language instructors	The sponsoring institution
E-7	Specific skilled occupations	The sponsoring employer
E-9	Non-professional employment under the Employment Permit System	The assigned workplace
F-2	Longer-term residence, including the points route	Broadly unrestricted
F-3	Dependent family of certain visa holders	No
F-4	Overseas Koreans	Broad, with some exclusions
F-5	Permanent residence	Unrestricted
F-6	Spouse of a Korean national	Broadly unrestricted
H-1	Working holiday, by bilateral agreement	Limited
H-2	Work and visit, for eligible ethnic Koreans	Designated sectors

The line worth noticing is F-3. Family brought in as dependants of a work visa generally cannot work, which is the single most common unpleasant surprise for couples. Family and marriage covers the alternative routes.

Visa and status are not the same thing

Worth untangling early, because offices use the terms precisely and most newcomers use them interchangeably.

Your visa is permission to enter Korea. It is used once, at the border, and then its job is done. Your status of stay is permission to be here and to do a particular thing, and it is what actually governs your life: it is what your residence card records, what you extend, and what limits your work.

So you do not extend a visa; you extend your permission to stay. And you do not get a new visa to switch from study to work while inside Korea; you apply for a change of status. The distinction matters at the counter, where asking for the wrong thing sends you to the wrong queue, and it explains why the sticker in your passport can be long expired while you are entirely lawful.

Employer-tied versus not

This is the distinction that matters more than the letter. On D-2, D-4, E-2, E-7, E-9 and H-2 your permission is attached to a named institution or employer, and leaving means immigration approval rather than simply resigning.

On F-2, F-5 and F-6 it is not. That independence is the real prize of the residence track, and it changes your bargaining position at work completely. Foreign workers covers what to do when an employer uses that leverage, and jobs and education covers what each status permits in practice.

The points-based residence route

F-2 includes a scored route rather than an interviewed one. Points come from income, Korean language ability, education, age, time in Korea and community integration, measured against a published threshold.

Two of those cost almost nothing and are routinely skipped. A TOPIK level and completion of the national integration programme both add points, and the programme is subsidised and also brings exemptions later. TOPIK and KIIP cover both, and long-term residence covers the ladder upward.

Age is weighted, so the same person scores better applying earlier. That is the argument for reading this in year one rather than year five.

How you get one in the first place

Two routes, and they work differently.

From outside Korea. You apply at a Korean embassy or consulate. For most employment categories the sponsor in Korea first obtains a confirmation of visa issuance, and you then present that at the mission, which makes the process much faster than a cold application.

From inside Korea. If you are already here on another status you apply for a change of status at an immigration office rather than leaving and coming back. Whether that is possible depends on both the status you hold and the one you want, and some combinations are simply not permitted from inside the country.

Short-stay visitors generally cannot convert to work or study status from inside Korea, which catches people who arrive as tourists intending to find a job. Immigration covers the offices and the appointment system.

What every category has in common

Whatever your letter, three obligations follow:

• Register and collect your residence card within 90 days of arrival. Residence and ARC covers it.
• Report changes of address, and of workplace or school where your status requires it.
• Extend before your permission expires. Visa extension covers the window and the documents.

And one entitlement: Korean labour law applies to you on the same terms as a Korean national, regardless of category. Worker rights covers it.

Where this goes wrong

• Assuming a dependent visa permits work. F-3 generally does not.
• Arriving as a tourist expecting to convert to a work status from inside Korea.
• Working outside what your category approves, even for the same employer.
• Discovering the points system late. Age and language both reward starting early.
• Resigning from an employer-tied job before checking the immigration consequence.

Where to go next

Visa extension covers keeping the status you have, and long-term residence covers moving up to one that is not tied to an employer.