The F-2-7 points system, explained properly

Why the F-2-7 is worth the effort

Every work visa in Korea has an employer's name on it. An E-7 specifies your company and your occupation code. Change either without permission and you are working unlawfully. Get made redundant and a clock starts running on your right to remain. For a lot of foreign professionals that dependency shapes far more than their career — it shapes whether they buy property, whether they start a family here, whether they argue with a bad manager.

The F-2-7 removes it. The points-based residence visa 점수제 거주비자 is a residence status rather than an employment status: you may work almost anywhere, change jobs without prior permission, take a second job, or found a company. Immigration stops caring who employs you and starts caring only that you are lawfully resident.

It is also the practical gateway to permanent residence. Time held on F-2 counts towards F-5, and the evidence pack overlaps heavily.

Who can even apply

Before any scoring, there is a gate that stops a lot of people — and it is the thing most guides get wrong.

You also need, separately from the points:

• Three years of continuous lawful residence on a qualifying status — waived if your annual income reaches ₩40,000,000. That waiver is a significant shortcut for higher earners and it is worth knowing about.
• Income at or above the statutory minimum wage. Below it scores zero and generally fails.
• No disqualifying grounds — see below.

Residence-requirement waiver threshold

₩40,000,000 annual income

Reach that figure and the three-year residence clock stops mattering. Below it, the three years are absolute — no amount of points substitutes for them, which is why this single number decides whether a strong applicant files this year or in three years' time.

The shape of the scoring system

Eighty out of 170 is 47% — a higher bar than the headline "only 80 points" makes it sound. And the distribution of those 170 points is the whole story.

Income: 60 of the 130 common points

This is the part that is routinely underplayed, and it changes how you should think about the entire visa.

Three things follow from this table, and they are more useful than anything else in this guide.

First: the jump from under ₩30m to ₩30–40m is worth 20 points. That is the single largest step anywhere on the scoring table — bigger than going from no Korean to TOPIK 5, bigger than adding a doctorate. If you are earning ₩29 million, a raise to ₩31 million is worth more than two years of language study.

Second: a highly qualified person with no income cannot pass. Max out age, education and Korean ability and you have 70 points. With zero income you are ten short of the mark and no bonus can be claimed against an unemployed profile in most cases. The F-2-7 is not a talent visa; it is an established-earner visa.

Third: a high earner needs very little else. Someone on ₩100 million scores 60 on income alone. Add a bachelor's degree (15) and being in their early thirties (23) and they are at 98 without a word of Korean.

If you are short of the mark, the honest advice is usually not "study Korean" — it is "change jobs or negotiate". That is unromantic, and it is what the table says.

The other three common items

Age — up to 25

Note how sharply this falls. The drop from 35–39 to 40–44 costs eight points, and from 40–44 to 45–50 another four. It is not actionable, but it is a reason not to defer an application you could file now — the same profile is worth twelve fewer points five years later.

Education — up to 25

A STEM (이공계) degree, or two or more degrees at the same level, scores higher than a single non-STEM one. Only the highest qualification counts.

The gaps here are small — a doctorate is worth only ten points more than a bachelor's. Given a doctorate takes four to six years, this is a poor return if points are your only motivation. Note also that a degree can score again under the bonus group, which is where a top-500 or Korean university matters.

Korean language ability — up to 20

Whichever of TOPIK and KIIP is higher counts — never both. TOPIK 4 is the realistic target for a working adult inside a year and is worth 15 points, which is genuinely significant. Completing KIIP stage 5 is worth 20 here and a further 10 as a bonus, making it the best-value language route by a clear margin. See TOPIK or KIIP.

Bonuses, and the 40-point cap

Two rules matter here.

Only the highest degree bonus applies. Holding a top-500 bachelor's, a top-500 master's and a Korean doctorate gets you 20 — the highest single one — not 37.

The total is capped at 40. A top-500 doctorate (30) plus a ministry recommendation (20) is 50 on paper and 40 in practice. Once you are at the cap, further bonuses are worthless, which is worth knowing before you spend a year chasing one.

Note that "top-500 university" means the Times or QS world rankings. A great many foreign graduates qualify for 15 to 30 points here without realising it — check where your university sat in the ranking for the year you graduated.

Penalties and disqualifying grounds

Separately, these are disqualifying grounds 결격사유 — they bar an application outright regardless of score:

• A sentence of imprisonment (금고) or heavier within the last five years.
• Three or more Immigration Act violations within three years with penalty notices totalling ₩5,000,000 or more.
• A conviction for a specified violent crime, intimidation, extortion, fraud, voice phishing, narcotics or a sexual offence.

The everyday relevance of this is the unreported address change. Moving without filing the report within 14 days is an Immigration Act violation, it attracts a penalty notice, and three of them within three years can disqualify you entirely. Students and young professionals move often and miss this constantly. Report every move at your local district office — it is free and takes ten minutes.

The quota nobody mentions

Reaching 80 points makes you eligible for consideration. It does not entitle you to the status.

Regional immigration offices work to an annual allocation, and when applications exceed it they are effectively ranked. An application at exactly 80 in a competitive office in a competitive year is a coin flip; one in the 100s is not.

The practical consequence: if you score 80 or 81, do not file yet. Given the income table, the fastest route upward is usually a salary band rather than a qualification. A refusal costs you the fee, the wait, and sometimes a worse position next time.

Three worked examples

The mid-career engineer

Thirty-three, non-STEM bachelor's from a top-500 university, ₩65 million salary, TOPIK 3, four years in Korea on an E-7.

Age 23 + education 15 + Korean 10 + income 50 = 98 common. Bonus: top-500 bachelor's 15. Total 113. Comfortably clear, and this person frequently has no idea they already qualify.

The language teacher

Thirty-eight, non-STEM bachelor's from a non-ranked university, ₩33 million salary, TOPIK 4, six years in Korea on an E-2.

Age 20 + education 15 + Korean 15 + income 30 = 80 common. Exactly at the mark — and therefore exactly where you should not file. The realistic lever is income: moving to a ₩40 million role adds ten points in one step. Two years of volunteering adds five. KIIP stage 5 would add five to the language item and ten as a bonus.

The highly qualified recent arrival

Twenty-nine, STEM doctorate from a top-500 university, TOPIK 5, but currently between jobs.

Age 25 + education 25 + Korean 20 + income 0 = 70 common. Bonus: top-500 doctorate 30, capped contribution fine at 30. Total on paper 100 — but with no income and no qualifying status they cannot file at all, and the income condition is a baseline requirement as well as a scored item.

This is the case that surprises people most. The F-2-7 rewards being established in Korea, not being impressive on paper.

Before you file

Four things worth doing in the week before you submit, each of them drawn from the sections above.

• Re-check the current table. The notice is reissued without a fixed schedule, so confirm the bands on HiKorea rather than trusting any secondary source, including this one.
• Look up your university's ranking for your graduation year. A place in the Times or QS top 500 is worth 15 to 30 bonus points, and a great many graduates never check.
• Make sure every address change was reported within 14 days. Unreported moves are Immigration Act violations, and three within three years can disqualify you outright.
• If you are at 80 or 81, raise the score first. A refusal costs the fee, the wait, and sometimes a worse position next time.

Source: Ministry of Justice — HiKorea · Last reviewed 30 July 2026