South Korea has turned its digital nomad visa from an experiment into a standing programme. According to the Ministry of Justice, the digital nomad (workation) visa, F-1-D, which had been piloted since 2024, has operated formally since 30 June 2026. The ministry announced the change on 7 July.
The formal version is not just the pilot with a new label. It lowers the income threshold for younger applicants and for anyone willing to live outside the Seoul region, and it extends the maximum stay from two years to three. What it does not do is say anything about tax. For a remote worker deciding whether to spend a year or more in Korea, both halves matter.
What the pilot showed
The ministry published unusually frank numbers with the announcement. Between January 2024 and May 2026, it issued 743 digital nomad visas. In May 2026, 398 holders were registered as living in Korea.
Of those 398:
- 278 (about 70%) were nationals of OECD member countries;
- 340 (about 85%) lived in the capital area, meaning Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon;
- 206 (about 52%) were in their thirties, and 74 (about 19%) in their forties.
The ministry said it reviewed the pilot with seven regional governments and the Seoul Tourism Organization in February 2026, and in a visa and residence policy council in April 2026. The redesign follows directly from the numbers: almost everyone went to Seoul, and the government would like some of them to go elsewhere.
The new income tiers
During the pilot, every applicant needed income of at least twice Korea's gross national income per capita, regardless of age or where they planned to live. The ministry puts 2025 GNI per capita at about KRW 52.41 million.
Under the formal programme, the threshold is still based on the previous year's GNI per capita as published by the Bank of Korea at the date of application, but it now varies with age and region. The table in the ministry's annex, on 2025 figures:
| Age | Capital area (excluding population-decline areas) | Outside the capital area, and population-decline areas |
|---|---|---|
| 18 to 34 | 1.5x GNI (KRW 78.62 million) | 1x GNI (KRW 52.41 million) |
| 35 and over | 2x GNI (KRW 104.83 million) | 1.5x GNI (KRW 78.62 million) |
For applicants bringing family, meaning a spouse and minor children, the threshold is 2x GNI in the capital area regardless of age, and 1.5x GNI outside it or in population-decline areas.
The ministry's terms are precise. The capital area is Seoul, Gyeonggi and Incheon, but parts of it designated as population-decline or population-concern areas are treated like the rest of the country. An applicant claiming a lower tier must prove the plan: the annex lists a lease of at least one month, or a booking confirmation for a workation facility or accommodation, in a qualifying area.
That makes the regional tier a real commitment, not a box to tick. The visa is issued for a place as much as for a person.
Who qualifies
The annex sets out the basic conditions:
- The applicant is a foreign national employed by a company abroad, able to work remotely, and has worked at least one year in the same field.
- The applicant is at least 18; accompanying children are the exception.
- Family members who can accompany the applicant are a spouse and minor children.
- The applicant holds private medical insurance with cover of at least KRW 100 million for hospital treatment and repatriation for the whole stay.
The documents listed are the visa application form, passport, a standard photo and the fee; proof of employment and income such as an employment certificate, payslips and bank statements; a criminal record certificate; proof of insurance; and documents proving family relationships where relevant. Applications are made at Korean embassies and consulates abroad.
The annex also allows a change of status inside Korea: someone who entered on a short-term visitor status (B-1, B-2 or C-3) can switch to F-1-D if they meet the requirements.
How long you can stay, and what you cannot do
On registration as a foreign resident, the holder receives one year from the date of entry. The stay can be extended one year at a time, up to three years in total. During the pilot the ceiling was two.
The ministry gives two reasons for the longer ceiling. One is to let foreign talent experience Korea long enough to choose it as a place to settle. The other is economic: a longer stay means a longer period of spending, which supports domestic demand. It also notes that at least eight of the 38 OECD members run digital nomad visas, and that Germany, Spain and Greece allow stays of up to three years.
The most important restriction is short. The annex states that employment and profit-making activities in Korea are restricted. The visa is for people working for a foreign employer or business, not for people who want to take Korean clients or a Korean job.
The tax question the visa does not answer
The press release and its annex say nothing about tax. Korea's Income Tax Act does, and anyone planning more than a short stay should read three of its provisions before booking a lease.
Who is a resident. Article 1-2 defines a resident as an individual who has a domicile in Korea or a place of residence for 183 days or more. A digital nomad who spends a year in Korea will usually cross that line. A three-year visa is, in practice, a visa for a person who is likely to become a Korean tax resident.
The five-year rule for foreigners. Article 3 taxes residents on all their income, with one exception that matters here: a foreign resident whose domicile or residence in Korea adds up to five years or less in the ten years before the end of the tax year is taxed on foreign-source income only to the extent it is paid in Korea or remitted to Korea. Since the F-1-D visa now lasts at most three years, its holders will normally fall inside this rule.
Where salary comes from. The trap is in the word "foreign-source". For non-residents, Article 119 treats as Korean-source employment income the pay for work performed in Korea. A remote worker sitting in Busan or Gangneung is doing the work in Korea, whoever pays them and wherever the money lands. Whether that salary counts as foreign-source income for the five-year rule, and how a tax treaty between Korea and the worker's home country allocates it, are the questions that decide the real cost of the stay. The visa rules do not answer them, and the employer's payroll department usually has not asked.
There is a second side. A worker who becomes resident in Korea may stop being resident at home, or may become resident in both countries at once, which is where treaty tie-breaker rules come in. The Brief's piece on proving tax residency explains why the answer depends on evidence rather than on what the visa is called. And countries that tax only income brought in, like Korea's five-year rule, are covered in the Brief's list of countries that do not tax foreign income, with the same warning about money earned while physically present.
Who the new rules suit
The redesign has a clear target: a worker under 35 with a stable foreign employer, earning around Korea's average income, who is willing to live outside Seoul. For that person the threshold has halved compared with the pilot. For a family, or for an applicant over 35 who wants to live in the capital, little has changed.
A worked example makes the tiers concrete. On the ministry's 2025 figures, a 31-year-old employed abroad and planning to live in a coastal city outside the capital region needs to show income of about KRW 52.41 million. If the same person wants a flat in Seoul, the requirement rises to about KRW 78.62 million. A 40-year-old bringing a spouse and a child needs about KRW 104.83 million for Seoul and about KRW 78.62 million elsewhere. Because the threshold follows the previous year's GNI per capita at the date of application, the figures will move each year with the Bank of Korea's publication, and an applicant close to the line should check the current number before applying.
It also suits someone who treats the visa as a trial. Three years is enough time to learn whether a country works for a household. The Brief's advice in the off-season test applies here too: a coastal town that charms in October should be judged again in February before signing anything longer than the one-month lease the visa requires.
What it does not offer
Two limits are worth stating plainly. The F-1-D visa does not allow local work, and nothing in the ministry's announcement turns the time spent on it into a route to permanent residency. The minister said the government would prepare a settlement model for talent that chooses to stay, but no such model has been published.
Second, a visa that permits remote work is not a tax position. The Brief made the general point in The End of Nowhere: the countries hosting remote workers and the countries they left both keep their own tax rules, and a visa from one does not switch off the other.
Korea's formal programme is a well-designed visa with honest numbers behind it. Used for what it is, a long, legal stay for someone employed abroad, it works. Used as a substitute for a tax plan, it does not.
Work with Sebastian
If you are planning a year or more in Korea, or comparing digital nomad visas across Asia, and want the visa, your home-country residence and your tax position to fit together from the start, that is the kind of cross-border planning Sebastian works on with internationally mobile clients. Book a consultation.
