Visas, taxes, healthcare, housing, and the practical mechanics of building a life in Korea.
Almost half of everything Korean employers failed to pay their workers this year was severance. Here is why the money is missing, what the law says you are owed, and what changes on 18 September.
From November, a state guarantor rather than a landlord will hold the deposit on some Korean leases. HUG invests the money in housing project-finance loans and pays the landlord the return as monthly income.
The 2026 tax reform package raises the optional flat rate for foreign employees by two points and extends the scheme to 2029. The rate rise pushes the salary at which electing it pays from about ₩133 million to about ₩154 million.
The Ministry of Employment and Labor finalised the 2027 minimum wage at 10,700 won an hour on 5 August. Anyone scheduled 15 hours a week or more is owed a fifth on top of that, which is why so many Korean part-time contracts stop at 14.
Eligibility for the National Pension lump-sum refund turns on your passport, not your contributions. Fifty countries are on the list. Seventeen of Korea's own treaty partners are not.
The contribution rate went up in January for the first time in three years. For foreign residents who are not employed, the bill is a flat ₩158,630 a month — whatever their income.
Korea opened up its skilled-migration system in 2026: an expanded Top-Tier visa, an E-7-1 experience waiver, a new manufacturing route, a regional residence track, and e-visa processing. What each one requires and who should use which.
