F-2-7 — points-based residence

What the F-2-7 actually gives you

Every work visa in Korea ties you to an employer. An E-7 names your company and your occupation code; leaving requires a change-of-workplace report, and being made redundant starts a clock. The F-2-7 removes that. It is a residence status rather than an employment status, which means you may work for almost any employer, change jobs without telling immigration first, take a second job, or start a company.

It is also the natural step before permanent residence. Time held on F-2 counts towards F-5, and the document set overlaps heavily.

Who can apply

Beyond the points, these baseline conditions are assessed separately:

• Three years of continuous lawful residence on a qualifying status — waived where annual income reaches ₩40,000,000.
• Income at or above the statutory minimum wage. Below it scores zero and generally fails.
• No disqualifying grounds (see below).

How the 170 points break down

Common items — up to 130

Bonuses — capped at 40

Only the highest degree bonus applies — they do not stack. And the group total is capped at 40, so anything beyond that is worth nothing. Check whether your university was in the Times or QS top 500 for your graduation year; a great many applicants are entitled to 15 to 30 points here and never claim them.

Penalties

Disqualifying grounds

These bar an application 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 is the unreported address change. Moving without filing within 14 days is an Immigration Act violation. Three of them can end your F-2-7 prospects entirely, and each one is avoidable in ten free minutes at a district office.

The strategy, briefly

1. Check the top-500 university bonus. Ten minutes, potentially thirty points, frequently unclaimed.
2. Look at your income band. Crossing one is usually worth more than any qualification you could earn in the same period — and the ₩40 million line also waives the three-year residence requirement.
3. Do KIIP rather than TOPIK if you have a year or more. Stage 5 scores 20 under the language item and another 10 as a bonus, and it is free.
4. Start volunteering now. It is scored in years, so the clock only runs once you begin.

Full detail in how to close an F-2-7 points gap.

Documents

• Application form, passport, current registration card, and the fee.
• Evidence for every point item you claim. Unevidenced items score zero — there is no benefit of the doubt.
• Degree certificates and transcripts, apostilled or consular-legalised.
• TOPIK certificate or KIIP completion certificate.
• Income certificate (원천징수영수증) and certificate of tax payment (납세증명서).
• Proof of continuous residence on a qualifying status.
• Volunteer activity record from the 1365 system, if claimed.

Everything must be valid on the filing date. A TOPIK result that arrives the following week does not count.

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 rank applicants within it, so 80 in a competitive office is a coin flip and a score in the 100s is not.

If the calculator puts you at 80 or 81, spend another six to twelve months buying points before you file. Given the income table, that usually means a salary conversation rather than a qualification.

After you have it

F-2-7 is granted for up to three years and renewed. Renewals look at whether you still meet the income condition and still hold enough points, so a long period of unemployment is a genuine risk. Time on F-2 counts towards F-5 permanent residence, which is the point of the exercise for most holders.