South Korea

Korea is the one country in the region where the visas are built as a sequence rather than a menu. Almost every long stay status feeds a points-tested residence permit, and that permit feeds permanent residence on a published clock. The catch is the entry point: the ladder is real, but the bottom rungs need a Korean employer, a Korean company, or a large sum of money.

Can you stay in South Korea long term?

Yes, and you can name the date. The standard professional path is E-7 skilled employment for three years, then F-2-7 points-based residence for three more, then F-5 permanent residence. Call it six years from arrival, assuming the employer holds, the salary holds, and the points land.

The F-2-7 stage is the hinge. It is the first status that unties you from a single employer, and it starts the permanent residence clock. Most people who fail, fail here rather than at the visa stage: the points table is weighted hard toward age, Korean ability and Korean taxable income, so a 50-year-old with no TOPIK score and an overseas salary history can hold a perfectly good E-7 job for a decade and still not qualify.

The digital nomad visa is not part of that chain. F-1-D runs one year at a time to a three-year maximum, prohibits Korean employment, and its years count toward nothing. It is a good way to live in Busan or Daegu for two years on a foreign salary. It is not a way to move to Korea.

There is no retirement visa. The nearest thing is F-5-13, permanent residence for people aged 60 or over who received a foreign pension of about KRW 104,820,000 in the prior year, roughly USD 77,400. That is a high bar and it is measured on pension payments already received, not on projected income or savings.

Ways to move to South Korea

Read the settlement column before the threshold column. Four of these routes reach permanent residence, one of them only after five years of holding an investment, and one leads nowhere at all.

The programmes

F-1-D digital nomad. One year at a time, three years maximum, for remote employees and owners of overseas businesses with at least a year in their industry. The income floor is a grid, not a single number: KRW 52,410,000 to KRW 104,830,000 depending on your age and whether you actually live in the capital area. The regional discount is where applications fail, because a Seoul address removes it and the lease has to prove residence.

E-7-1 skilled work. The main door. A Korean employer sponsors you into one of roughly 87 designated occupations at a fixed salary of at least KRW 31,120,000. The occupation list is closed and your degree has to match the code, which is why generic management titles are refused. Once you are in, three years of E-7 can feed F-2-7.

D-8-1 corporate investment. Five years per issuance for investors putting KRW 100,000,000 of their own overseas money into a Korean company they will manage. Since 2026 immigration audits physical substance, so co-working memberships and virtual addresses no longer pass. The investment also counts as a professional status for the F-2-7 clock after three years.

F-2-7 points residence. Eighty points out of 170 buys one to five years of residence with the right to work for any employer. It is the only status in the ladder that removes the sponsor, and three continuous years on it opens F-5. Age, TOPIK level and documented Korean income do most of the work in the scoring.

F-5 permanent residence. The endpoint, in three flavours: F-5-1 for long-term residents with five years, 2x GNI household income and KIIP level 5; F-5-16 for F-2-7 holders after three years; and F-5-13 for overseas pension recipients over 60. Permanent residence is not citizenship, and the language requirement is real work rather than paperwork.

IISPB investor scheme. KRW 500,000,000 into a government public fund through the Korea Development Bank, or KRW 300,000,000 for an investor over 55 who also holds KRW 300,000,000 of separate assets. The deposit is principal-guaranteed and interest-free, so the real cost is five years of returns. Five years of holding it leads to F-5.

What South Korea is bad at

Retirement. There is no retirement visa, and the only retirement-shaped instrument asks for a foreign pension above USD 77,000 a year, which excludes most retirees who live on savings, rent or dividends. Remote work is a dead end by design: three years, no PR credit, no switch into F-2. Skilled work is narrow, since E-7 is a closed occupation list and the degree must match the code. Investment is expensive and illiquid, at KRW 500,000,000 interest-free or KRW 1,000,000,000 for resort property. And the whole system runs on apostilled documents, tax certificates and Korean-language integration, so the administrative cost is a second rent.

Guides

• F-1-D digital nomad: the age and region income grid, the insurance rule, and why the years count for nothing
• E-7-1 skilled work: designated occupations, the fixed salary floor, and the F-2-7 handoff
• D-8-1 corporate investment: source of funds, the 2026 substance audit, and the five-year renewal
• F-2-7 points residence: the scoring table, the three-year waiver, and the F-5-16 review
• F-5 permanent residence: F-5-1, F-5-16 and F-5-13 side by side, with the KIIP requirement
• IISPB investor scheme: the real KRW 500,000,000 floor, the retiree rate, and what the fund does with the money

Sources

• Ministry of Justice, Korea Immigration Service, status of sojourn guidance and 2026 programme pages, checked 2026-10-22
• Invest Korea, foreign investment and startup visa pages, checked 2026-10-22
• Ministry of Justice Public Notice No. 2025-406, 2026 E-7 wage floor, cited but not opened

Last updated 2026-10-22.