Monday, June 15, 2015

Korean F5 Visa (permanent residency) for foreigners graduated from Korean Universities.


Sharing my experience of applying Korean F5 VISA under newly formed category (Feb, 2015) for foreigners graduated in Korea.

Yes, now foreigners graduated from Korean Universities can directly apply for permanent residency (F5 visa). Korean immigration relaxed the rules for foreign graduates in Korea.You don't have to be a holder of  F2 visa (point systems)  in this case. So after hearing this announcement, I thought of give it go.

Basic eligibility:
1. Foreigner who are degree holder from Korean Universities and working in Korea.
 - Bachelors degree (only 9 high tech stream and Science, Engineering majors ) + 3 years full time work
- Masters degree (no requirement for major) + 3 years full time work
- PhD degree (no requirement for major) + 1 years full time work.
2. One should be hired as full time "Regular employee" that means, you don't renew contract with your company  on yearly basis. (This is must)
3. Annual salary is above Korean GNI (~30 million KRW or more)

NOT required things: 
- To get differentiate  what is stand out here is one DO NOT need to provide a proof for Korean language proficiency (TOPIK certificate NOT required)
- Financial Asset proof (30 million KRW in Bank account ) in NOT required.

Documents Required
Employment Contract (clearly stating you are a regular employee)
- Certificate of Income (to prove your last year's salary , usually obtained from NTS)
- Copy of degree certificate of your Korean University
- Police Clearance Certificate (issued in your home country and based on your country of citizenship, you may need to get it "apostille")
- Guarantee Certificate signed by Korean citizen (신원보증서)
- Certificates of all kinds of insurances and pension plans your company has registered you in. (Your HR will provide you this).
- Fees 200,000 KRW in stamps + 30,000 krw in cash you give it to officer you are dealing with.


Being graduated from master program in Korea and having worked for 3.5 yrs as regular employee here, I have decided to give it a go. I visited immigration office  last week. Among all the documents I have submitted what I was missing an employment contract clearing stating I am a regular employee. Officer I was talking to raised an objection on it. Even from my employee certificate he understood I have been hired as a regular employee, he still insisted on, me to provide the same in the form of employment contract. I went back to office and requested my company's HR , he quickly sent me revised contract as per requirement. Next day morning I went to immigration office again.  Same officer was at the window. He quickly looked at my employment contract, he seemed happy based on what he read there. He asked me to pay the fees and told it will take ~9 months process time. All in all 10 min max. interaction.

*** I have been receiving lots of queries for F5. To say the truth, I am not the expert in the subject matter, nor I know any details on different kinds of way to apply for F5. I wrote this blog to share my experience and let aware others. Most important, I'm not closing following my own F5 application process. I just applied as I happen to qualify to apply, if its comes through that's good.***