All countries → Asia-Pacific → South Korea
🇰🇷 South Korea visa and residence routes
A new workation visa with a high bar, plus solid work and working-holiday routes.
The lowest published bar starts from €2,200 a month in income, or from €2,500 in savings or capital. Documented routes cover remote work / self-employment, youth mobility and employer-sponsored. Naturalisation becomes possible after roughly 5 years of qualifying residence.
How South Korea compares
Living costs sit mid-table for this list, at roughly €1,700 a month for one person. English will not carry you far in daily life or administration — expect to need the local language. Healthcare is among the strongest on this list.
Who these routes are built for
Based on the routes currently included in our database for South Korea, these options suit people earning from remote work or their own foreign clients; young applicants from eligible countries, through youth mobility.
They are a poor fit for retirees, since no passive-income route is published.
What the bar means in practice
The lowest income requirement, €2,200 a month on the E-7 Skilled Work Visa, sits against living costs of about €1,700 a month. That is close to what one person actually spends here, so qualifying and living comfortably amount to much the same thing. If that is out of reach, the nearest lower bar in Asia-Pacific is 🇯🇵 Japan, which starts at €2,000 a month.
Routes at a glance
| Route | Built for | Financial bar | Processing | Leads to residency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workation (Digital Nomad) Visa | Remote work / self-employment | €5,500/mo | 1–2 mo | No |
| Working Holiday (H-1) | Youth mobility | €2,500 saved | 1–2 mo | No |
| E-7 Skilled Work Visa | Employer-sponsored | €2,200/mo | 2–3 mo | Yes |
The financial bar is the main money test for that route — a monthly income floor, or the savings to show where no income floor applies. Figures are for a single applicant; most programmes scale upward for a partner or children.
Which of these would actually take you?
This page lists the routes currently included in our database for South Korea. The free 3-minute check compares those rules against your own passport, income, savings, age and family, and stamps each route clear, stretch or blocked — with the reason.
No account, no card, results in 3 minutes.
Routes in our database, in detail
Workation (Digital Nomad) Visa
~2× Korean GNI per capita (~$66k/yr); up to 2 years, no local employment.
Working Holiday (H-1)
18–30s from partner countries; 1 year of open work.
E-7 Skilled Work Visa
Employer-sponsored professional visa; leads to F-2 residency via the points system.
Before you rely on any of this
Visa and residence requirements on this page are compiled from the linked official sources and current as of 2026-08-07. Cost of living, English, healthcare and cross-country comparison indicators are ExpatSuccess estimates, not government figures. Governments change immigration rules without notice and consulates apply them with discretion, so confirm on the linked official portal before making decisions or spending money. This page is research, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
Other Asia-Pacific destinations
🇹🇭 Thailand · 🇯🇵 Japan · 🇲🇾 Malaysia · 🇮🇩 Indonesia (Bali) · 🇸🇬 Singapore · 🇦🇺 Australia · 🇳🇿 New Zealand · 🇵🇭 Philippines