Country guide · South Korea

Getting a job in South Korea, 2026

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On Korea's points based residence visa, your salary is worth 60 of the 80 points you need to pass, while a doctorate is worth 25 and fluent Korean 20. Here is that points table in full, the E-7 route that gets you there, and the one clause in a 2011 treaty that decides whether you ever see your pension contributions again.

Country guidePublished 20 September 2026·Every figure checked 20 September 2026·19 min read

10,320 won

Minimum wage an hour from 1 January 2026, up 290 won on 2025

Minimum Wage Commission

80 of 170

Pass mark on the F-2-7 points residence table, where income alone is worth 60

MOJ Notice 2025-408, 24 Oct 2025

33,000

Ceiling on E-7-4 skilled worker visas for the 2026 calendar year

Ministry of Justice, 10 Feb 2026

9.5%

National pension contribution rate in 2026, rising to 13 per cent by 2033

Health and Welfare, 24 Jun 2026

Read this before the visa section

Step one is not the visa. Step one is the interview call.

Everything in this guide about permits, thresholds and documents only comes into play after an employer in South Korea has chosen you. Nobody applies for a work permit without an offer letter, and nobody gets an offer letter without an interview. The order is fixed:

Step 1 · what EDZER does
A strong résumé, a strong LinkedIn, and a job search strategy
Step 2
Interview calls from employers in South Korea
Step 3
An offer, and the eligibility checks that come with it
Step 4
Only now: the visa, the permit and the documents below

The F-2-7 points table rewards income far more than qualifications, so the salary you can command decides your residence route, and that starts with how strongly the application presents you. Step one is the whole game, and it is the part almost everyone under-invests in.

How a résumé is expected to look in South Korea

Korean convention: photograph required, personal details common, a self-introduction letter (자기소개서) expected. English CV accepted at multinationals.

Where people actually apply

WorkNet (government) · LinkedIn · Saramin · JobKorea

What EDZER does for step one

Your résumé, rewritten for the country. In the format its recruiters expect, by a human writer, with a 90 to 100 ATS score guaranteed
Your LinkedIn profile, rebuilt. Every section written so recruiters searching there find you and read on
Profiles on that country's job portals. Set up and optimised to match, so every application reads the same
A job search strategy document. Which roles, which employers, which portals, in what order, for your profile
An interview prep kit. For the roles you are targeting, so the calls turn into offers
Guidance on where and how to apply for jobs. From our team, so you are not guessing which door to knock on

What EDZER does not do

Visa or work permit applications, or immigration advice of any kind
Document attestation or credential evaluation
Placing you in a job or promising an offer: the recruiter decides selection, on your profile

Our job is to make sure you are presented in the strongest way possible, so that the interview calls come. What happens in the interview is yours.

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Start step one for South KoreaRésumé, LinkedIn and the interview kit is the Premium plan. With the job portals, Premium Plus. Pick a plan and pay on the next page; the writer starts the same day.

Have a question first? Ask on WhatsApp. For starting the work, the button above is faster.

Section 01

The routes in, and the points table that decides most of them

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On the residence visa that most foreign professionals in Korea are actually aiming at, what you earn counts for more than everything you are. Income is worth up to 60 points. Your degree is worth 25 and your Korean is worth 20.

The visa is Residence (F-2-7), the points based residence status. It is not a work permit tied to one employer. It lets you change jobs, start a business, and it is the shortest honest path to permanent residence. The criteria were rewritten by the Ministry of Justice on 24 October 2025 and the current table is reproduced in full further down this page, because almost nobody publishes it properly in English. MOJ Notice 2025-408, 24 Oct 2025

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80 / 170The F-2-7 pass mark. A salary of 100 million won a year gets you 60 of those 80 on its own.

Before you can score anything, though, you have to be in one of five eligible groups, and for most readers that means holding a professional work visa for three years first. So the order of operations is: get an E-7, keep it for three years, then convert. Below is what each of those stages actually asks for.

E-7, the specially designated activities visa

E-7 is the main professional route into Korea. In the Immigration Control Act Enforcement Decree it appears in the long term residence status table as specially designated activities, which means an activity the Minister of Justice designates for a person working under a contract with a public or private body in Korea. The Decree itself says essentially nothing more than that. Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Control Act, long term residence status table, checked 20 Sep 2026

Everything that decides your case lives one level down, in the Ministry of Justice's visa issuance manual. That is an administrative document, not a statute and not a gazetted notice. It is revised without a formal amendment process, which is why E-7 rules move without warning and why the figures you read online age badly.

Section 02

Residence, language, the money in and the money out

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This section is free as well. It opens the moment you are signed in.Open it, free

Section 03

Licences, hours, severance and the Korean CV

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This section is free as well. It opens the moment you are signed in.Open it, free

Free ATS check for South Korea

Not ready to start yet? Get your résumé scored free, and we will tell you exactly what South Korea recruiters would change.

Takes a minute. Your score comes back on this page. A writer from EDZER reviews the file and follows up on WhatsApp about the résumé and LinkedIn work, nothing else.

Your name

WhatsApp number

Where you live now

Where you want to work (up to 5)

Target role or roles

Experience

Highest qualification

Current designation and employer (if working)

When do you plan to apply?

Your current résumé

Used to score your résumé and for our writers to contact you about the résumé and LinkedIn work for South Korea. We do not handle visas or immigration. Never sold or shared. Privacy.

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