Almost every cohort of ours has one student who asks the same question in the first week: could I teach English here? It is a fair question. It is also a narrower road than the posters suggest, and it has been getting narrower. This article is about the E-2 foreign language teacher visa (회화지도), not about teaching Korean, and we want you to see both the pay and the problems before you spend money on documents.
Who can apply, and what is needed
The list of passports is short and fixed, and it is the first thing to check because everything else depends on it. After that, the paperwork is long and slow, so the order in which you start matters. Here is each requirement as we found it, with the source that backs it.
- Degree
- A bachelor's degree from an accredited university in a listed country, in any field. EPIK says teaching licence, education degree or similar holders skip the TEFL step.
- TEFL
- Others need a TEFL, TESOL or CELTA of at least 100 hours, which may be finished during application. Recruiters sometimes mention 120 hours. Without it you are Level 3, which EPIK is not hiring.
- Criminal record
- National-level, with an apostille, issued within six months of applying. Issuing takes between 2 and 20 weeks depending on the country.
- Health check
- A health and drug screening at a designated clinic within about 90 days of arrival, arranged by your employer.
- Visa processing
- A recruiter source gives 7 to 10 business days for the issuance certificate plus 5 to 10 at the consulate. EPIK's own page says consulates usually need at least 14 business days.
- Employer tie
- The E-2 is tied to your employer. Changing jobs needs permission, and a release letter from your old employer can become leverage.
EPIK also says Indian citizens apply only through a separate agreement and need an English-education teaching certificate, and that a TEFL, TESOL or CELTA does not count for that route. The official page asks for schooling from grade 7 through university in English, with letters for applicants from South Africa and Quebec.
Start the criminal record first. It can take twenty weeks.
A practical point about timing. The criminal record is issued in between 2 and 20 weeks depending on the country, and it must be issued within six months of applying. The official required-documents page lists a wet-ink signed application, a photo taken within six months, a passport valid within 1.5 years, an apostilled national-level criminal check, an apostilled bachelor's degree, sealed transcripts and two recommendation letters.
The public school route: EPIK
EPIK (English Program in Korea) places teachers in public schools through each province's education office. You sign a one-year contract, work eight hours a day on weekdays and teach up to 22 class hours a week. Class length is 40, 45 or 50 minutes by school level. Apartments are provided, though utilities are on you. The published schedule has two intakes: autumn-term applications run from February to July, and spring-term applications from August to January. The next realistic start is spring 2027, so watch the EPIK notice board.
The official process page gives the sequence. For the fall term, which starts in late August, interviews and documents fall between April and July and the visa is arranged in July and August. For the spring term, which starts in late February, interviews and documents run from October to January and the visa follows in January and February. The page gives no year-specific dates, which is why we say to watch the notices.
What it pays
The table below flattens the provincial columns of the official page, so verify your own region there. The ranges are monthly, in million won. Seoul uses a separate scale: a recruiter lists five grades from 2.3 up to 2.8, and we have not read the official file.
| Level | Entry rule (summary) | Monthly pay, million KRW |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Education or TESOL degree, or any degree plus TEFL 100h or licence | about 2.2 to 2.35 |
| 2+ | One year of teaching plus a Level 2 rule, or a relevant master's | about 2.3 to 2.4 |
| 1 | Two years of teaching plus a Level 2 rule | about 2.4 to 2.6 |
| 1+ | Two consecutive years as Level 1 with the renewing province | about 2.5 to 2.8 |
Provincial ranges from the official page, updated 4 May 2026. We flattened the columns from the page text, so verify your region there. Seoul (SMOE) uses its own scale: a recruiter lists 2.3 to 2.8 across five grades, as media report, and the official file was not read.
On top of salary, EPIK pays allowances, some of which behave like loans. The entrance allowance is repayable if you leave within six months, and the completion bonus is not paid at all in Seoul, Jeju or Gyeonggi, which have other exit payments. Read the notes beside each figure, because the exceptions are where people get surprised.
| Allowance | Amount (KRW) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Settlement | 300,000 one time | |
| Entrance | up to 1,800,000 | Loan-style: repay if you leave within 6 months; some regions pay after 6 months |
| Completion | about 1,300,000 per contract | Chungbuk 1.8 million; none in Seoul, Jeju or Gyeonggi, which have other exit payments |
| Renewal | 700,000 | Gyeonggi 2.0 million, Jeju 1.3 million |
| Severance | about one month of pay | For a full-year contract |
Official EPIK page. Health insurance is about 5.89 percent of pay split 50/50. A recruiter lists 26 paid vacation days, but the official page gives no number and says vacations are set by each school.
Hagwon and university jobs
Private academies (학원, hagwon) usually pay about KRW 2.1 to 2.8 million, ask for 30 or more teaching hours and offer around 11 paid days off, based on one recruiter's comparison. Housing may be provided or replaced by an allowance. University posts pay more, around KRW 2.5 to 4.0 million with 10 to 16 teaching hours, but most want a master's degree, and housing is usually not included.
Compare the hours as carefully as the pay. A hagwon at the top of its range with 30 teaching hours is a different job from a school at the bottom of the EPIK range with at most 22. The sums look closer when you divide by hours, and the contract is where the real differences hide.
These are the warning signs worth printing and taking to any interview. If a recruiter or an employer waves one away, that is information. The point is not that every hagwon is a trap; the point is that most of the checks cost nothing to ask.
A shrinking market, not a uniform one
The number to start with is E-2 visas issued: 2,448 in 2020 against 1,286 in the first quarter of 2026, as reported by JoongAng Daily. Those are different periods, a full year and a single quarter, so we do not read them as a clean halving. They do point the same way as the next figure.
A city council member said Seoul's native English assistants fell from over 1,000 in 2009 to about 400, and 59 of 240 eligible teachers declined to renew in the first half of 2025. That is a claim by one official, reported by a newspaper, and we label it that way. On the other side, Jeonbuk added 35 positions to reach 220 in 2024, so the picture differs by region.
It is a job you can still get, but it is not growing.
Taken together: it is a job you can still get, with predictable terms through EPIK, but it is not growing, and teachers describe pay as flat for years.
A visa that belongs to your employer
The E-2 is tied to your employer. Changing jobs needs permission, and a release letter from your old employer can become leverage. That is why the contract and the sponsoring school matter more than the recruiter's smile. It is also why students who already hold a student visa should not be tempted by private tutoring: our research found that conversation-lesson and private-tutoring work is listed among the jobs a student cannot take under a part-time permit.
Two routes that use Korean
Graduate school. A master's can open university teaching, and it can be a path to D-10 and sponsors. The Global Korea Scholarship graduate programme is reported to offer KRW 900,000 a month, tuition, airfare, insurance and a year of Korean, for applicants under 40, but the sources we found conflict on grade requirements. We did not read the official guide, so check Study in Korea before relying on any of it.
Teaching Korean. The Korean language teacher qualification (한국어교원) grade 2 is earned through a relevant degree, or a double major, plus required subjects at approved institutions. The qualification office is reachable at 02-2669-9775, then press 2.
On the foreigner question our sources differ in what they show. The outline page we first read shows no special rule for foreigners and we could not confirm a TOPIK 6 requirement. A later check of the official application-process page says foreign nationals taking the degree route add a TOPIK 6 transcript, and lists three routes in all: the degree, a 120-hour training course with an exam, or 800 or more hours of career. It also lists 387 degree-course institutions and 270 non-degree institutions, and a 2026 calendar with applications for the third review from 4 to 11 December 2026 and results on 29 January 2027. Confirm the requirement with the office by phone before you plan around either version.
A note on Korean
Teaching English asks for no Korean, but daily life, your school office and your landlord will not be in English. Starting early makes the first year easier. We cannot say how much Korean any employer wants, because that is the employer's choice and not a visa rule. What we can say is that the first month goes better when you can read the signs, order dinner and understand the notice taped to your door.