Korea Herald/Asia News Network
SEOUL – The South Korean government will introduce a new visa category, the E-7-S, in October to attract more international professionals to the country’s high-tech industries.
The current E-7 visa is an employment visa for foreign nationals in white collar industries, but complaints are growing because workers in 92 specified occupations are eligible for the visa.
The new E-7-S visa will be issued regardless of occupation, as long as the applicants are considered professionals working in high-tech industries. However, manual workers or office workers in non-tech sectors are not eligible.
“Companies have complained that the current work visas for foreign workers do not cover new industries such as smart farming, drones and e-sports,” said Lee Seung-hyun, an official at the Ministry of Justice’s visa division.
“We expect the new visa program to help them hire more global talent.”
Lee added that the new visa program will be implemented through a quota system to measure early stage demand.
Under the program, applicants must show evidence that their most recent annual income is equal to or greater than 70 percent of South Korea’s gross national income per capita. They are also required to provide a bachelor’s degree and at least one year in a specialized field or a total of five years of work experience.
Along with the new work visa, the Ministry of Justice plans to launch a new domestic visa called D-10-3, which will facilitate foreign students studying in high-tech fields to work as interns in Korean companies.
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