Seoul National University

Post-study work visa

Job Seeker status (D-10), including the High-Tech Internship subtype . Up to 1 year
A status of stay for job-seeking activities, start-up preparation, or an internship in a high-technology field, granted to those who meet the relevant requirements. The Ministry of Justice's own official Visa Navigator guide states an initial period of 6 months for the general Job Seeker grant, extended to 1 year specifically for the High-Tech Internship subtype, and describes the status as 'Extendable' without stating a fixed lifetime cap in this document. The High-Tech Internship subtype (most relevant to StudyPath’s STEM audience) is open to enrolled students or graduates, within 3 years of their degree, of an overseas university ranked in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings' top 200 or the QS World University Rankings' top 500, planning an internship in a Ministry-designated high-technology field. General Job Seekers otherwise able to work part-time (D-2-to-D-10 converts who hold an associate degree or higher from a Korean university, obtained within the prior 3 years) face additional TOPIK-Korean-proficiency and social-integration-exam conditions not detailed here. Multiple South Korean and expatriate-advice sources report a Ministry of Justice reform effective 29 October 2025 that lengthened the overall permitted stay and changed renewal increments — see notes; StudyPath could not independently verify the post-reform figures against a primary hikorea.go.kr or immigration.go.kr document, so only the pre-reform figures stated in the Ministry's own guide are recorded as verified here.

Route to permanent residence

Time spent on a Student (D-2) or Job Seeker (D-10) status does not itself count toward the residence period required for permanent residence: the Ministry of Justice's own guide confirms directly, in an FAQ answering exactly this question, that time on a D-2 visa is excluded from the qualifying period for the F-5-1 (General Permanent Resident) status. The realistic route is to first move onto a professional/employment status — typically E-1 through E-7 (covering, among others, E-7 'Foreign National of Special Ability', which includes a points-based Skilled Worker track) — and, from there, accumulate the required years before applying for permanent residence (F-5) or, first, the intermediate Resident (F-2) status. The guide states F-5 General Permanent Resident eligibility as more than 5 years held with D-7 through D-10, E-1 through E-7, or F-2 status — but the D-2/D-10-exclusion FAQ specifically clarifies that within that list, D-7 through E-7 time counts while D-2/D-10 time does not, for at least the F-5-1 category. Separate, faster F-5 categories exist for doctoral-degree holders in high-tech fields (1 year of related full-time work after an overseas high-tech doctorate) and for bachelor's/master's-degree or technical-license holders (3 years' residence plus 1 year of full-time regular work).

Route to citizenship

South Korea's Nationality Act (국적법), administered by the Ministry of Justice, sets 'general naturalisation' (Article 5) as the standard route for someone with no prior claim to Korean nationality: at least 5 years of continuous, lawful address (domicile) in Korea, and — since a 20 December 2018 amendment — a residence status that itself permits permanent residence in Korea (in practice, F-5 permanent-residence status), plus adult status, good conduct, the means to support oneself or dependants, basic Korean-language ability and understanding of Korean customs, and a Ministry of Justice finding that naturalising the applicant will not harm national security, public order or public welfare. Separate, narrower tracks exist with no residence requirement at all: 'simplified naturalisation' (Article 6, 3 years for those with specific family ties to Korea) and 'special naturalisation' (Article 7, for a person with a Korean parent, someone who has rendered special merit to Korea, or someone with outstanding ability in science, the economy, culture or sport). On dual citizenship, Korea's general rule (Article 10) requires a newly naturalised citizen who holds a foreign nationality to renounce it within 1 year — but Article 10(2) creates a genuine exception for specific categories (a Korean-national spouse meeting set marriage-duration conditions, a special-merit or exceptional-ability naturalisation recipient, certain restoration-of-nationality cases, and an elderly overseas Korean who returns after 65 to settle permanently): these applicants may instead pledge to the Minister of Justice not to exercise the foreign nationality while in Korea, rather than formally renouncing it. This is a genuinely conditional rule, not a single clean yes/no on dual citizenship, and the general-naturalisation route (the one most relevant to an international graduate with no Korean family ties) falls under the renounce-within-1-year default rather than the exception.