South Korea's nomad visa left its pilot, bar is lower
South Korea's digital nomad visa stopped being a pilot on 30 June 2026. The income bar now depends on your age and where in Korea you will live, and the stay runs to three years instead of two. You can apply today. The English notice on the immigration service's own site still shows the old rules, though, so read the Korean one.
What was actually announced
A Ministry of Justice press release dated 7 July 2026, headed ‘연봉 1억’ 문턱은 낮추고 체류기간은 최대 3년으로 (“the ‘100 million won salary’ threshold comes down and the stay goes up to three years”). You can read it, with the full rules attached, on the immigration service’s own site: immigration.go.kr/bbs/moj/182/496858/download.do.
It says the Digital Nomad (Workcation) visa, F-1-D, which has been piloted since January 2024, has been in regular operation since 30 June 2026. Unlike Azerbaijan’s, this is not a promise of a visa to come. The category already exists, missions already issue it, and the ministry says 743 were granted between January 2024 and May 2026. In May 2026, 398 holders were registered in Korea, and 340 of them lived in Seoul, Gyeonggi or Incheon.
Two things changed. The rest of the programme carries on as it was.
The income bar is now four bars
In the pilot, everyone had to earn twice Korea’s GNI per capita, whatever their age and wherever they lived. Now the multiple depends on your age and on whether you will live in the capital region (수도권). Population-decline areas count as outside it even where they sit inside it. The annex prices each tier from the 2025 GNI figure of about KRW 52.41 million a year:
| Age | Capital region | Outside it, or a population-decline area |
|---|---|---|
| 18-34 | 1.5x, KRW 78.62M a year | 1x, KRW 52.41M a year |
| 35 and over | 2x, KRW 104.83M a year | 1.5x, KRW 78.62M a year |
Bringing a spouse or minor children fixes the multiple, whatever your age: 2x in the capital region and 1.5x outside it.
The ministry states these figures in won. It gives no figure in any other currency, so neither do we here. The South Korea page converts them into yours.
Two details matter more than they look:
- The base is “the previous year’s GNI per capita as announced by the Bank of Korea, on the date you apply”. The won amounts above are a 2025 snapshot, and they will move when the Bank of Korea publishes the next figure. That is the problem we wrote about here.
- The lower rate has to be proved. To claim a non-capital tier you must show you will actually live outside the capital region, with a lease of at least a month or a booking at accommodation or a workcation facility. The notice does not say what happens if you qualify on the lower tier and later move to Seoul. Ask the mission before you rely on it.
Three years, and still no permanent residence
You get one year from entry when you register as a foreigner. You can extend it a year at a time, now up to three years, where the pilot stopped at two. You still may not take a job or earn money from anyone inside Korea.
The minister says the ministry will “prepare a settlement model”, so that people who come on this visa can choose to stay. That is a stated intention, not a rule. Nothing in the notice or its annex links F-1-D to permanent residence, and the country page still grades its permanent residence pathway No. We will change that grade when a rule appears, and not before.
The English page is still the pilot
The English notice at immigration.go.kr, [Notice] Digital Nomad(Workcation) Visa, is dated 22 February 2024 and was last modified 26 April 2024. Its attachment was still the pilot sheet when we checked on 29 September 2026. It gives a flat twice-GNI bar (KRW 84.96 million, from the 2022 figure) and a two-year maximum. Both figures are out of date.
One wording difference is worth checking if it applies to you. The 2024 English sheet names “overseas business owners” as well as employees of foreign companies. The 2026 Korean annex describes applicants as foreigners who belong to an overseas company (해외기업에 소속된 외국인) and have worked in the same industry for a year or more. If you work for your own company, confirm with the mission that you still count.
How you apply
At a Korean embassy or consulate abroad. If you are already in Korea on a B-1, B-2 or C-3 short-stay status and meet the requirements, you can change status without leaving.
The annex lists the documents:
- the application form (Form No. 17), your passport, one photograph and the fee;
- proof of income: an employment certificate, payslips and bank transaction records;
- a criminal record certificate;
- private health insurance covering at least KRW 100 million for treatment and repatriation;
- proof of family relationship, if family is coming;
- proof of a stay outside the capital region, if you are claiming that rate.
Everything above is taken from the Ministry of Justice notice and its annex, read in Korean. If the English page is updated, or you find that a mission is applying the old rules, tell us.
The row behind this
Every figure this post relies on lives on a country page with its source and its confidence grade beside it. That is where it gets corrected, and where it stays current after the post stops being news.
- South Korea — Workcation Visa (F-1-D)
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