Paperwork after the offer

The offer letter is the happy part. Then comes a quieter week of forms, counters and phone calls, and it is in this week that new hires in Korea tend to feel most alone. Which status do you hold on your first day? Who tells the immigration office? Why did your health insurance bill change? Nobody asks you these questions in the interview, and most of the answers are not in the contract.

We are Korean teachers, not immigration lawyers or tax advisers, so this is a map and a vocabulary list, not advice. We read public pages and press reports, and we could not open several primary documents, which we say each time. Where our sources disagree, we show both. Rules change, so check HiKorea or call 1345 before you act. Korean words come with their meaning, because the forms will use them.

Step one: from D-2 or D-10 to E-7

Most international graduates arrive at a job on a student status (D-2) or a job-seeking status (D-10). The working status for many professional jobs is E-7 (특정활동, teukjeong hwaldong, specific activity). Moving from one to the other is called a status change (체류자격 변경, chaeryu jagyeok byeongyeong), and your employer plays the lead role: a company hires you and applies with you, and an individual cannot apply alone for E-7.

There is a difference worth understanding. A visa in the narrow sense (사증, sajeung) is permission to enter Korea. A status change is done inside Korea, at the immigration office, for someone who is already registered as a foreign resident. Our research did not find a source that explains this difference side by side, so this is our plain explanation and not a quotation from an official page. If you are already in Korea as a D-2 or D-10 holder, a status change is the route in most guides, and a visa abroad is the route for people hired from outside.

As for timing, the guides we read advise applying for the change after the job is confirmed and before you start work. We could not confirm this wording on an official page, so ask your employer’s HR team and the immigration office whether you can begin working on the contract date or must wait for approval.

Pay attention to the salary. For 2026 (1 February to 31 December), a community source citing a Ministry of Justice notice gives floors of 31.12 million won for E-7-1 and 25.89 million won for E-7-2 and E-7-3, and 26 million won for E-7-4. We did not open the notice itself. One agency also reports that tax-free meal allowances were not counted toward the salary in some cases, so ask your employer how the pay in your offer is split.

As for how common the route is, press reports quoting the Ministry of Justice say that approved changes from D-10 to E-7 rose from 1,528 in 2021 to 3,090 in 2025, with an approval rate of about 90 percent, and that D-2 to E-7 direct changes were 499 in 2021 and 599 in 2025. These are media figures from a 2026 article. We do not publish a total count of E-7 holders because we could not verify one.

Your employer applies with you. Your job is to be early with the documents.

Step two: tell the immigration office

After the change, your foreign registration details need to be updated. Employers must report changes in employment, and workers who change workplaces must report that too. Our sources give a deadline of 15 days, while some say 14. Because they disagree, we say only this: report within two weeks, and check HiKorea for the exact day. The official page we found is written for E-9 workers, and a private guide adds that since 2 January 2026 job information (job type and a band of annual income) is reported online through HiKorea.

Step three: pay, insurance and pension

Open a salary account (급여계좌, geubyeo gyejwa) at a bank. We have no source for what each bank requires, so the following is a checklist and not a promise: ask the bank in advance which documents it wants, and bring your passport, registration card and contract. Tell HR the account number in writing.

From here, four insurance deductions appear on your pay slip. As reported in 2026, the employee share is 4.75 percent for the national pension (총 9.5 percent), 3.595 percent for health insurance (총 7.19 percent), and 0.9 percent for employment insurance, plus a long-term care charge that is a share of the health premium. Media and community sources give these rates, and we have not compared them with the official agency pages, so treat them as reported rates.

Health insurance works differently once you are employed. A student or job seeker usually pays the regional rate (지역가입, jiyeok gaip). When you start at a company that is covered by the system, the rule says you become a workplace member (직장가입, jikjang gaip) on the day you become an employee, and that your membership ends the day after your stay period ends, according to a 2025 notice. We read this in a search summary of the agency’s legal text. How the regional-to-workplace switch is handled step by step, and whether a D-2 to E-7 change affects it, we could not confirm. Call the NHIS on 1577-1000.

The pension (국민연금) deserves a note. If you leave Korea, a lump-sum refund can be claimed, and the agency says you can claim within five years after you leave. Whether you can receive it depends on your country’s agreement with Korea, and country lists in the sources we found disagree. We therefore do not list countries. Check with the NPS (call 1355) before you decide.

Step four: year-end tax, address and phone

In January the company handles 연말정산 (yeonmal jeongsan, year-end tax adjustment) for you, and you hand in documents for deductions. A foreign employee can choose a flat 19 percent tax rate (단일세율) instead of the usual system. Press reports of National Tax Service guidance say that if you choose it, tax-free items, deductions and tax credits do not apply, that the condition is that you started work in Korea before 31 December 2026, and that it applies for 20 years instead of five. Rules change, so check the latest tax rule with your company or the tax office before choosing.

전입신고 (jeonip singo) is the address report you may have heard of. For foreigners, the report on moving is made to immigration, and our sources again split between 14 and 15 days. We could not find a source that explains how the address report and the immigration notice relate, so we say only this: after you move, report within two weeks and ask at the immigration office or on HiKorea which form applies to you.

For a phone plan, we have no source, so this is a checklist: ask the shop which documents it needs, expect to show your registration card, and ask whether the plan can be kept if you change jobs. Your employer may help with a business plan. Treat everything above on bank and phone as unverified.

Step five: when you leave a job

Leaving a job (퇴직, toejik) triggers its own steps. Your employer reports the change in employment, and a private guide gives 15 days, so again, say within two weeks. If you are changing to another company, you report the new workplace. If you are leaving Korea, you should check how long you may stay on your current status after your last day. We could not find a source for how many days E-7 holders are allowed, so call 1345 before your last day.

Unemployment benefit (실업급여, sireop geubyeo) is the hardest question. One summary says holders of F-2, F-5 and F-6 are covered automatically, that most E statuses, including E-7, are voluntary, and that the usual conditions are 180 days of insurance in the 18 months before leaving and a non-voluntary exit. It may be out of date, and we could not find a rule for D-10 at all. We have not verified eligibility for E-7 or D-10 holders. Ask your employment center before you rely on it.

The first-month table

This is why we keep dates beside numbers and tags beside dates. If you read this in a year, some of it will be out of date, and we want you to know which parts to check first.

Try Level 2BLevel 2B gives you the polite requests, numbers and dates you need at a counter or a bank. We make no promise about visas or jobs.