South Korea Digital Nomad Visa

The threshold is a formula rather than a fixed sum: income must reach one to two times the previous year's gross national income (GNI) per capita as published by the Bank of Korea at the application date, with the multiple set by the applicant's age and region of stay. This tiered test applies from 30 June 2026, under the Ministry of Justice press release of 7 July 2026, replacing the single twofold test of the pilot period.

The release annex sets the tiers on 2025 GNI. Applicants aged 18 to 34 need 1 times GNI, or KRW 52.41 million a year, if they stay outside the capital region or in a population-decline or watch area, and 1.5 times, or KRW 78.62 million, if they stay in the capital region. Applicants aged 35 or over need 1.5 times outside the capital region and 2 times, or KRW 104.83 million, inside it. Applicants accompanied by family, meaning a spouse and minor children, need 2 times in the capital region and 1.5 times outside it, regardless of age.

Because the base is recalculated every year, no figure here can be read without the year attached to it. The Bank of Korea put 2025 GNI per capita at KRW 52.416 million on 10 March 2026 and revised it to KRW 52.57 million on 9 June 2026; the Ministry of Justice release that followed still works from KRW 52.41 million, and the immigration texts do not say which figure missions apply to applications filed after the revision.

Applicants claiming a lower tier for a stay outside the capital region must file proof of the intended stay, such as a lease of one month or more or a booking confirmation for a workation facility or lodging.

Income is evidenced by a certificate of employment, a salary statement and a bank transaction record; the mission in Ottawa requires those income documents to have been issued within the previous three months

What the route produces is a residence status with a code of its own: F-1-D, which the mission guidance calls 워케이션; the English page of the Korean Embassy in Singapore lists it as "F-1-D Workation Visa (Digital Nomad)".

The status is issued by a mission in the form of a visa, or by the immigration authority inside Korea through a change of status.

The term is one year from the date of entry, recorded at alien registration, extendable one year at a time to a maximum of three.

This is routinely compressed, so it bears stating plainly: three years is the ceiling reached through extensions, not the term first granted. That ceiling applies from 30 June 2026, when the Ministry of Justice moved the route from pilot to regular operation and raised the maximum stay from two years to three.

One note on where the code can be found, because it decides where a reader should look: F-1-D appears in a Ministry of Justice text, as the annex to the press release of 7 July 2026 is titled «디지털 노마드(워케이션, F-1-D) 비자제도 개요», an outline of the digital nomad (workation, F-1-D) visa system.

By contrast, the fifty-nine-page Visa Navigator published by the Korea Immigration Service does not name it once, and its F-1 section covers visits to relatives, family cohabitation and dependency rather than remote work

The route is no longer a pilot, and that is the date to read before reading the length of stay: the Ministry of Justice piloted the digital nomad visa from 1 January 2024 and has run it as a regular programme since 30 June 2026, under a press release issued on 7 July 2026.

Neither the release nor its annex gives an end date for the regular programme. Some mission pages abroad, such as that of the mission in Ottawa revised on 2 April 2026, still carry pilot-era text with an unfixed end date in 2026; that text predates the release of 7 July 2026.

The length of stay runs year by year: one year from the date of entry, then extensions of one year at a time up to a maximum of three years, applied for at the competent immigration office for the place of residence.

Documents in the file carry their own validity windows, and the mission in Ottawa names three: a passport valid for six months or more, a photograph taken within six months, and income documents issued within three months

The application may be filed in two places: at a Korean diplomatic mission abroad, or at a local immigration office if the applicant is already in Korea.

There is also an in-country change of status: a person in Korea on a short-term tourist visa of category B-1, B-2 or C-3 may switch to this route on meeting the requirements, so there is no need to leave and reapply.

Once inside, two administrative duties attach with dates on them, and those two are where the status is most easily lost.

Anyone intending to stay ninety-one days or more must register as a foreign national with the immigration office for the place of residence within ninety days of the date of entry.

Every change of the place of residence must be reported within fourteen days, at the immigration office for the new address or at the city, county or district authority.

Alien registration is also the point at which the one-year term is recorded, so it is not a secondary formality that can be left late

Accompanying family members fall within the eligible group: the annex to the Ministry of Justice press release of 7 July 2026, the text describing the route since it moved to regular operation, defines the applicant as a foreign national attached to a company abroad, able to work remotely and working in the same industry for a year or more, together with their family, and limits the family to a spouse and minor children.

The age condition is eighteen or older, and it does not apply to accompanying dependent children. Where dependants accompany the applicant, the file must include documents proving the family relationship.

Beyond those three points and the separate income level for applicants accompanied by family, set out in the capital threshold cell, neither the Ministry of Justice annex nor the mission guidance says what residence status the family members receive, whether they may work or study, or whether their term is tied to the term of the principal.

That is a gap in the sources rather than an answer: there is no basis for saying the family members receive the same code as the principal, and none for saying they must apply on some other route

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the South Korea passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a South Korea passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the South Korea passport reaches 204 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The annex to the Ministry of Justice press release of 7 July 2026, the text describing the route since it moved to regular operation, says nothing about tax — it does not say whether the holder is a tax resident, it does not say how foreign-source income is treated, and it does not point to the tax authority.

This is silence, not a statement of exemption, and the two are not interchangeable. That measurement now rests on two documents from two authorities rather than one: the mission guidance, revised on 2 April 2026, likewise carries no word for tax in any form, tested in the Korean spellings as well as the English.

Two documents silent at the same point is systematic silence, and it is still not an exempting provision.

What both documents do say, and what is often read as if it were a tax rule, is a restriction on activity: employment and profit-making activities in Korea are restricted for the duration of the stay, and the mission text adds that a breach is dealt with under the immigration legislation.

That restriction governs entry and residence; it is not a rule allocating income to a source for tax purposes

Individual medical insurance is compulsory, with cover of at least KRW 100 million spanning both hospital treatment and repatriation to the home country, valid for the whole period of stay; and the certificate of that medical insurance is itself a required item in the file, not something produced later.

The fee is where the reading has to be careful, because the Ministry of Justice notice lists a fee without naming an amount: the file consists of the visa application form No. 17, the passport, one standard-size photograph and the fee, and that is all.

The amount is set and published by each mission, so it varies with the place of filing rather than following a single national rate: the mission in Ottawa, in its text revised on 2 April 2026, gives a fee of CAD 121.5 and requires it in cash.

One further charge sits outside the fee and is routinely left out of the arithmetic: the criminal record certificate must bear an apostille or consular legalisation, and that is a separately priced step in the country of residence