Visa guide
Quick verdict
Korea is a fit only for high earners: the official income floor is twice the Bank of Korea's prior-year GNI per capita, which Korea Immigration Service's own published table still lists as KRW 84.96 million/year (about USD 4,600/month at current exchange rates) using the 2022 GNI baseline. Treat this as a floor, not a ceiling — the formula is meant to rise every year, and at least one other official consulate page already recalculates it near KRW 104.8 million using 2025 GNI data.
This is still a pilot, not a permanent visa category. Korea's Ministry of Justice extended the test-operation period again from January 1, 2026 'until the announcement is made later' — there is no fixed expiration, but there is also no guarantee the program continues in its current form.
A May 2026 Ministry of Justice reform round left the nationwide 2x-GNI formula untouched; it separately let Jeju Province propose halving its own local workation income bar to 1x GNI. That Jeju-specific change is not yet implemented and does not apply to the national F-1-D visa covered in this record.
- Best fit: remote employees or overseas business owners with at least one year in the same industry, a foreign-registered employer or business, and income comfortably above twice Korea's GNI per capita.
- Main hurdle: the income figure is a moving target tied to an annually-announced GNI statistic, and Korea's own consulates do not agree on which year's GNI currently applies — this record discloses that conflict rather than picking a single number.
- Stay: 1 year on entry/foreigner registration, extendable once for 1 more year, for a hard maximum of 2 years. No further extension or renewal path is documented.
- No local work: employment or profit-making activity inside Korea is explicitly restricted; this is a remote-work-only, non-employment residence status.
- Real-world uptake has been very low and concentrated in Seoul/Gyeonggi: reporting citing Ministry of Justice figures put total applications at 309 from launch (Jan 2024) through September 2025, with zero applications in Jeju, Sejong, Ulsan, North Chungcheong, and North Jeolla.
Who this is for
Korea's official Immigration Service summary frames eligibility as 'overseas business owners or foreigners affiliated with international companies who can work remotely and have worked in the same industry for at least one year,' plus accompanying family. Applicants must be 18 or older (dependent children excepted).
This is not a route into the Korean labor market. Every official source reviewed states that employment or profit-making activity inside Korea is restricted, and violations are handled under the Immigration Act.
The income bar is a formula, not a fixed number
Every official source agrees on the rule: income must exceed twice the Gross National Income per capita of the previous year, as announced by the Bank of Korea. Where sources disagree is which year's GNI is currently being applied. Korea Immigration Service's own English-language summary document and four MOFA consulate pages still show the math using the 2022 GNI figure (KRW 42.48 million), giving KRW 84.96 million/year. One Canadian consulate page instead recalculates using the confirmed 2025 GNI (KRW 52.416 million), giving roughly KRW 104.8 million/year — about 23% higher.
Practically, this means an applicant should not treat KRW 84.96 million as a safe ceiling. It is the lowest figure any official source currently states, and the formula is designed to increase with Korea's GNI every year. Applicants close to the floor should confirm the current-year figure directly with their consulate before relying on this record's number.
Insurance, work history, and family
Applicants need individual medical insurance covering at least KRW 100 million for medical treatment and repatriation to their home country during the stay — this figure is consistent across the Immigration Service summary and the Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto consulate pages. (One Seattle consulate page states a EUR-denominated figure that does not match the KRW/USD pattern used everywhere else; this record treats that as a likely page error rather than a real second insurance standard.)
Work-history evidence centers on at least one year in the same industry, backed by an employment verification letter; some consulate pages additionally ask for evidence of at least three months of remote work performed from Korea specifically. Eligible accompanying family is limited to a legal spouse and unmarried children under 18.
Still a pilot, with weak early uptake
The program began January 1, 2024 as a one-year pilot and has been extended repeatedly rather than made permanent; the most recent extension notice found (covering the period from January 1, 2026) sets no new end date. Korea's Ministry of Justice has said it plans to review pilot results and announce a revised, more permanent framework, but no such announcement was found as of this record's verification date.
News reporting citing Ministry of Justice application data (309 total applications from launch through September 2025, roughly 80% concentrated in Seoul and Gyeonggi, zero in five other regions including Jeju) suggests the income and insurance bar has meaningfully limited uptake outside the capital region. This is useful context, not an official policy source, so it is not used to override the official eligibility figures above.
A pending, narrower proposal — not yet in effect
In an April 24, 2026 Ministry of Justice-chaired visa and residence-policy council meeting, Jeju Province's own proposal to lower its local workation income standard from 2x to 1x GNI per capita (about KRW 50-52 million/year) was accepted in principle and announced May 4, 2026 alongside other regional visa easing measures (Jeju's separate visa-free workation stay was extended from 30 to 90 days in the same round).
As of this record's last-verified date, that lower threshold has not been institutionalized and applies to a Jeju-specific arrangement, not the nationwide F-1-D visa documented here. Do not present the nationwide income floor as already lowered.
What is still unknown
This record verifies eligibility, the income formula (though not a single confident current KRW figure — see source conflicts), insurance requirement, work-history requirement, stay duration/extension, family eligibility, the no-local-employment restriction, and the ongoing pilot status from Korea Immigration Service and multiple MOFA consulate pages.
It does not verify tax residency or home-country tax treatment, a single universal government fee (fees are stated per-consulate and in local currency), a stable online application portal (applications route through individual overseas missions or local immigration offices, not a single e-visa system), or any path to permanent residence.