🇰🇷 South Korea · Permanent Residency
Permanent residency and golden-visa paths: eligibility, required years, investment thresholds, and official checklists.
Permanent residence in South Korea is the F-5 visa, granted through many sub-categories — long-term residents, points-based skilled workers, investors, professionals, and family of Korean nationals or other PR holders. Common requirements include a qualifying period of prior residence, income (often tied to a multiple of GNI per capita) and social integration (KIIP completion or the comprehensive exam). Applications are made by appointment through HiKorea / immigration offices.
- F-5 has many sub-types; the route, prior-residence period and documents depend on your category.
- Common requirements include income criteria (often a multiple of GNI per capita) and social-integration evidence (KIIP completion or the comprehensive exam).
- A criminal-record check and Korean-language proficiency (TOPIK or KIIP) are usually required.
- Book an appointment through HiKorea — F-5 applications are not accepted as walk-ins.
Official authorities
- HiKorea (Korea Immigration Service)
Official e-government immigration portal for applications and appointments.
Official-information aggregation, not legal advice. Always verify on the authority's own site.
Government portals
- Government of Korea — Korea's integrated government portal — policy, administrative services, e-government
- Korea Immigration Service (HiKorea) — Visas, residence status changes, work permits, and alien registration in Korea
- National Tax Service (NTS) — Korean income tax, corporate tax, VAT filing; annual comprehensive tax return for foreigners (May); foreign taxpayer incentive lookup