(1) Part-time employment for foreign students (part-time job)

• Basic principle: Limited to part-time employment (simple labor, etc.) activities normally performed by students.
  • There are separate qualification guidelines for each type of jobs (e.g., Presidential English Service Scholarship student, conversation instructor, professional interpretation/translation, etc.) when foreign students wish to engage in employment activities falling under the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Control Act [Appendix 1-2].
  • Private tutoring activities could be strictly restricted with matters used as factors of restriction, like the location and target customers.

• Permission-granting procedure

(2) Eligibility

• Persons possessing a certain level of proficiency in Korean language and who have been verified by the university's office of foreign student affairs.
  • Those who are holders of D-2-1 ~ D-2-4, D-2-6, D-2-7 visas as sub-categories of the student visa.
  • Persons for whom more than 6 months have passed (date of arrival for visa holders) since changing their visas to language training (D-4-1, D-4-7) or visiting student (D-2-8) visas.
• Those who failed to meet the graduation requirements due to insufficient GPA and received an exceptional residence permit after their period of study (2 years for an associate's degree, 4 years for a bachelor's degree) has passed are ineligible to apply for permission to work part-time.
  • However, master's degree and PhD candidates who have completed their programs and who are preparing their thesis will be permitted to work part-time. In such cases, persons whose graduation has evidently been delayed due to poor academic performance such as low GPA or low attendance rates will be excluded.
    • The abovementioned permission to work part-time is limited to 30 hours per week, and the regulation allowing work on days off, public holidays, or during vacation periods does not apply.

(3) Number of working hours permitted

(4) Application documents

• Passport, alien registration card, application form
• Confirmation of compliance with international student part-time employment requirements (only in applicable cases)
• Copy of business registration certificate, standard employment contract
• Confirmation of compliance with international student part-time employment requirements (only in applicable cases)

(5) Special exemptions in part-time work permit system (no permission needed)

• Activities undertaken by persons in their daily lives for which they are compensated, such as receiving remuneration for one-time job, prizes, or other compensation, do not require separate permission as long as such activities do not violate the core purpose of residing in Korea as foreign students.

(6) Penalty standards for those who work part-time without permission

• In the case of the construction sector, foreign students will be deported with no exceptions when they are caught for the first time working part-time, regardless of the number times they were caught in the past. They will be granted a reprieve on regulations prohibiting them from entering the country.

• For further information, refer to the Hi Korea (https://www.hikorea.go.kr) or Korea Visa Portal website (https://www.visa.go.kr)