D-7 Visa Requirements in Korea: What Immigration Actually…

Your transfer got approved. Then the file came back.

Immigration did not reject you. It asked for one more company document, then another, and your start date slipped twice. That is what a D-7 problem usually looks like. Not a dramatic refusal. A slow gap in paperwork that belongs to your employer, not to you.

So here is what officers are actually looking at, in the order they look at it.

Why a job offer alone will not get you a D-7

D-7 is a transfer visa, not a hiring visa. Korea grants it to someone already employed by a foreign head office, branch, or affiliated company, who is then dispatched to that same group’s Korean entity. There is no open labour market route inside D-7. If a Korean company simply wants to recruit you from abroad, the correct status is E-7, not D-7.

The status splits into two subtypes. D-7-1 covers the classic intra-company transferee: you work for a foreign company overseas and move to its Korean branch, liaison office, or subsidiary. D-7-2 covers staff of a Korean listed corporation’s overseas office who are sent to work in Korea. The document sets differ, so confirm your subtype before anyone starts scanning certificates. The Korea Immigration Service publishes the current status classifications, and HiKorea is the portal where the applications are actually filed.

One detail trips people constantly. The company relationship has to be provable on paper. A shared brand name is not enough. Immigration wants shareholding records, a group structure chart, or a branch establishment filing that ties the two offices together. Verbal group membership means nothing at the counter.

That corporate link is only the first gate. The second one is about you, and it has a number attached. E-7 visa requirements

The one-year rule that decides most D-7 cases

The minimum employment period for D-7 Korea applications is one year of continuous service at the overseas entity, immediately before the dispatch. Officers read that as unbroken employment with the same company group, not one year of career history added together. A six-month contract, a gap, then another eight months usually fails. The clock is checked against the certificate of employment you submit.

Continuous is the operative word. Here is where it gets tricky.

Internships, probation periods logged under a separate contract, and freelance months invoiced rather than salaried are frequently excluded. If your first three months were a trial contract, your effective start date may be later than you think. Pull your own employment records before your HR team submits anything, and check the exact start date printed on them.

The certificate of employment must state your start date, position, and duties. Because it is issued abroad, it normally needs an apostille or consular legalisation before a Korean consulate will accept it. Korea is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so for most member countries an apostille from the issuing country’s competent authority is enough. Documents in other languages need a Korean or English translation.

The Ministry of Justice visa manual lists a small number of narrow exemptions to the one-year rule, including certain cases tied to a degree earned at a Korean university. These exemptions are read strictly. If you think you fall inside one, call the 1345 Immigration Contact Center and get it confirmed before you build an application around it.

Pass the one-year test and the file moves on. Then it stops being about you at all.

What your Korean office has to prove before you can apply

Korean subsidiary requirements to sponsor D-7 come down to legal existence and real operation. The receiving office must be one of three things: a subsidiary incorporated under Korean law, a jijeom (branch), or a yeollak samuso (liaison office). Each proves itself differently. A shared desk with no filings, no tax record, and no staff will not sponsor anyone.

A subsidiary is a Korean corporation. It registers with the court registry and holds a business registration certificate issued through the National Tax Service. That certificate, plus recent tax payment records, is the core proof.

A branch or liaison office is different. Under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, it files a branch establishment report with a designated foreign exchange bank. A liaison office does not sell anything in Korea, so it never receives a business registration certificate. It gets a unique number certificate instead. Officers know this. Submitting the wrong certificate type for your office structure is one of the most common single-document rejections.

Expect the receiving office to also produce an office lease, a list of current employees with insurance enrolment records, and its corporate registry extract. If the Korean entity was set up with registered foreign direct investment, there is a separate question worth asking: D-8 may fit the situation better than D-7, and the two are not interchangeable. Invest Korea, run by KOTRA, handles foreign investment registration.

A foreigner who stays in the Republic of Korea for more than 90 days from the date of entry shall register with the head of the competent regional immigration office.

That line from the Immigration Act, published in English by MOLEG, is the obligation that follows you after arrival. We will come back to the deadline.

First, money. This is the part almost nobody prepares for.

The salary question officers ask, and the number nobody publishes

D-7 salary conditions Korea are not set as a single published won figure. Officers assess three things instead: what the dispatch order says you will be paid, whether the Korean entity can demonstrably pay it, and whether the amount matches the seniority claimed for your role. A senior manager title attached to an entry-level salary raises a flag immediately.

Compare this with E-7, where the guideline benchmark is tied to a percentage of gross national income per capita, a figure the Bank of Korea publishes annually. D-7 does not use that formula. That absence confuses applicants who read E-7 guides and assume the rules carry over. They do not.

What matters is documentary consistency. Your dispatch order or assignment letter should name the payer, the gross amount, and the currency. If the overseas head office keeps paying your salary while you live in Korea, say so plainly in the application. Split payroll is normal for transferees, but it creates a tax residency question, and the National Tax Service treats residency by days present, not by which bank sends the money. Sort that out with your company’s tax adviser in your first month, not in May the following year.

The Korean entity’s own financial health is reviewed too. Tax payment certificates showing arrears, or a payroll with zero Korean employees, weaken the case that a real assignment exists.

Now the mechanics. This is where timelines break.

Where D-7 applications actually get stuck

Most delays happen at the Certificate of Visa Issuance stage, before you ever see a consulate. The Korean entity applies for the certificate at its local immigration office on your behalf. Immigration reviews the corporate file there. Only after the certificate is issued do you apply at a Korean embassy or consulate abroad, which is usually the fast part.

The two routes work like this.

1. Certificate route (most common). Your Korean office files for a Certificate of Visa Issuance with the regional immigration office, using its corporate documents plus your employment proof. Processing commonly runs a few weeks and depends heavily on how complete the first submission is.
2. Direct consulate route. You apply abroad using Application Form 34, the standard visa application form, with the full document set attached. The consulate may still refer the corporate questions back to Korea, which is exactly what the certificate route avoids.
3. Entry and registration. After you arrive, you apply for an oegugin deungnokjeung (ARC, the alien registration card) within 90 days. The registration fee is 30,000 KRW. Appointments are booked through HiKorea, and in busy districts the calendar fills weeks ahead, so reserve on your first week, not your eleventh. ARC renewal
4. Extension. D-7 is granted for up to two years per period. Extensions are filed before expiry, with a 60,000 KRW fee, and the same corporate proof gets re-examined. If the Korean branch closed or restructured during your stay, the extension is where that surfaces.

One practical warning. Immigration officers hold discretion over every one of these decisions, and a complete file is a strong case, not a guaranteed one. Anyone promising you an approval is selling something.

And if you are not moving alone, there is one more status to line up.

Can your family come with you?

D-7 family dependent visa eligibility runs through F-3, the dependent family status. It covers your spouse and unmarried minor children. Their permitted stay is tied to yours, so an F-3 cannot outlast the principal’s D-7 period. Parents and adult children are not covered. Applications are usually filed alongside yours or shortly after you register in Korea.

The restriction that surprises families most: F-3 holders may not work without prior permission from immigration. A spouse who wants a job needs either that permission or a change of status in their own right. Plan for this before anyone resigns overseas.

Health coverage arrives faster than people expect. Registered foreign residents staying six months or longer are enrolled in national health insurance, and the National Health Insurance Service bills monthly premiums to the household. If your company covers you under workplace insurance, dependents are added to that subscription instead. Check which category you fall into during your first payroll cycle.

There is a longer game here too. Years spent on D-7 count toward the residence history used for F-2-7, the points-based residence visa, and later for F-5 permanent residency. Korean language study through KIIP adds points on that track. Transferees who assume they are temporary often discover, three years in, that they were building eligibility the whole time. F-2 points system visa

What to do this week

Ask your HR team for two things today: your certificate of employment with the exact start date, and confirmation of which legal form the Korean office takes. Those two documents decide whether D-7 is even the right status for you.

Then check the current document checklist on HiKorea and, for anything ambiguous, call 1345. Requirements are revised through the annual visa manual, and the version your colleague used two years ago may already be out of date. General civil procedures and certificate issuance are handled through Government24.

Start the corporate file first. That is the part that takes weeks.