Vessel Crew / Maritime Crew Employment (Seafarer)

Who can apply

• ✓Foreign nationals hired as ‘ordinary crew’ (부원, i.e. ratings below officer level under the Seafarers Act (선원법)) who have signed a seafarer employment contract of at least 6 months with a qualifying Korean vessel operator.
• ✓The vessel and business must fall into one of the allowed E-10 categories: (1) domestic/coastal shipping crew (내항선원), (2) fishing-vessel crew (어선원), or (3) cruise passenger-ship crew (순항여객선원).
• ✓This is not an open job-market visa: the Korean shipowner/employer must first obtain a Certificate of Visa Issuance (사증발급인정서) from the head of an immigration office, after which the worker applies for the E-10 visa at a Korean embassy/consulate abroad.
• ✓Officers such as captains, deck officers and engineers (선장, 항해사, 기관사 등) are generally not covered by E-10.

Documents you'll need

• Passport
• visa application form with photo
• the Certificate of Visa Issuance (사증발급인정서) that the Korean employer obtained from immigration
• the seafarer employment contract (선원근로계약서, 6 months or longer)
• the employer/vessel’s business and registration documents (e.g. shipping-business or fishing-business license, vessel registration/tonnage certificate)
• seafarer’s book / seaman qualification papers where required
• health certificate
• and any documents on the Korean employer’s foreign-crew mixed-boarding labor-management agreement (혼승 노사합의) where applicable. Exact lists differ for coastal shipping, fishing, and cruise categories – confirm the current checklist on the HiKorea status-by-status guide manual (체류자격별 안내매뉴얼) or call 1345 before filing. (some items unverified)

How to apply

• Via employer-obtained Certificate of Visa Issuance (사증발급인정서).
• The Korean shipowner/employer signs a seafarer employment contract of 6 months or longer with the foreign ‘ordinary crew’ (부원), secures a foreign-crew allocation under the annual mixed-boarding labor-management agreement (혼승 노사합의), then applies to immigration for the Certificate; the worker then applies for the E-10 visa at a Korean mission abroad.
• Not an EPS/eps.go.kr route and not self-applied.
• Typical flow:

1. the Korean shipowner/manning agent secures a foreign-crew allocation under the annual mixed-boarding labor-management agreement (선원 노사합의) – reviewed by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (해양수산부) and finalized by the Ministry of Justice (법무부);
2. the employer signs a 6-month-or-longer seafarer employment contract with the worker;
3. the employer applies to immigration for a Certificate of Visa Issuance (사증발급인정서);
4. once issued, the worker applies for the E-10 visa at a Korean mission abroad, enters Korea, and registers as a foreign resident.

   E-10 is administered jointly with the maritime authorities (선원법/해양수산부) rather than through the EPS/eps.go.kr system used for E-9.

Working on this visa

Yes – E-10 is a work visa, but only as crew on the specific vessel/employer and category (coastal shipping, fishing, or cruise) for which the Certificate of Visa Issuance and seafarer contract were granted. The holder may not freely change to a different employer, vessel type, or take unrelated side work without going through the proper change/permission procedure.

2025–2026 policy updates

• 2025 skilled-worker (E-7-4) and region-specific (E-7-4R) reforms that directly affect E-10 seafarers, announced by the Ministry of Justice as follow-up to the ‘New Immigration Policy’ (press release (보도자료) 2025-02-20; reflected in the 2025 skilled-worker guide manual (숙련기능인력 안내매뉴얼) effective 2025-03-01): (1) Korean-language requirement RELAXED – instead of holding TOPIK 2 (or KIIP stage 2) before the change, applicants may obtain it within 2 years AFTER converting to E-7-4.
• (2) Applications made year-round / on a standing basis (상시 신청) rather than in fixed windows.
• (3) The region-specific E-7-4R track was expanded to newly INCLUDE E-9 non-professional employment (비전문취업) and E-10 seafarer employment (선원취업) holders (previously excluded), letting seafarers who have held E-10 for 2+ years and meet the points convert to E-7-4R; the required domestic stay for non-capital regions was shortened (about 5 years -> 3 years).
• (4) Salary floor relaxed to KRW 25 million (from 26 million) for agriculture/livestock and fishery/coastal-shipping (내항상선) workers, which covers E-10-1 and E-10-2 seafarers. 2025 E-7-4R regional-government recommendation intake: 160 persons, recruited 2025-03-17 to 2025-12-19.
• Foreign-seafarer intake numbers themselves are set through the annual mixed-boarding labor-management agreement (Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (해양수산부) review, Ministry of Justice (법무부) final decision), not a fixed published EPS-style national quota.
• Specific 2025-2026 numeric seafarer intake figures were not found in official sources and are left blank.
• (E-7-4/E-7-4R numeric conversion quotas and any 2026-specific updates unverified)

Common mistakes

• Assuming E-10 works like E-9/EPS and applying through eps.go.kr – it does not; E-10 runs through a Certificate of Visa Issuance obtained by the shipowner and is tied to the maritime authorities.
• Thinking officers such as captains, deck officers and engineers (선장/항해사/기관사) qualify – E-10 is for ratings / non-officer crew (부원), not officers.
• Assuming the visa can be freely extended past 4 years 10 months, or that jobs/vessels can be switched freely.
• Confusing the three sub-codes and their vessel/tonnage rules (coastal vs fishing vs cruise).
• For the E-7-4 route, using outdated pre-2025 rules (e.g. believing TOPIK 2 must be held BEFORE converting, or that E-10 is barred from the region-specific E-7-4R track – both changed in 2025).
• Confusing E-10 with E-9 or the seasonal-work (E-8) programs.

Where this leads

Official source ↗  Official manual ↗