Non-Professional Employment (Employment Permit System / EPS)
비전문취업(E-9) — E-9 Work Visa (Employment Permit System / 고용허가제, general EPS)
At a glance
Foreign nationals from countries that have signed an EPS Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Korea, who are hired to do so-called ‘non-professional’…
Initial stay is granted in line with the labor contract, up to 3 years.
Yes – E-9 is a work visa, but only for the specific employer and sector allowed under the employment permit and the Standard Labor Contract.
Yes – passing EPS-TOPIK (the Employment Permit System Korean-language proficiency test, run by HRD Korea in the sending country) is a mandatory entry gate before an…
Fee: E-9 visa issuance at a Korean embassy/consulate is typically around USD 60 (single entry); alien registration in Korea is about KRW 30,000. Most other EPS costs (test fees, roster/administration, part of transport and insurance) are handled through the EPS program and vary by sending country. Fees change periodically – confirm current amounts on eps.go.kr and with the sending-country agency. (unverified for exact per-country breakdown) · Time: Varies widely by country and by how long it takes an employer to select a worker from…
Who can apply
- ✓Foreign nationals from countries that have signed an EPS Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Korea, who are hired to do so-called ‘non-professional’ (manual/low-skilled) work in Korea’s allowed EPS sectors: manufacturing, agriculture and livestock, fishery, construction, shipbuilding, and (a growing list of) services.
- ✓Applicants apply from their home country, not usually from inside Korea.
- ✓They must first pass the EPS-TOPIK Korean-language test, pass a health check, register as a job seeker, and then be selected by a Korean employer from the official job-seeker roster.
- ✓Applicants are generally aged about 18 to 39, with no serious criminal record and no record of past illegal stay/deportation from Korea.
- ✓This is a state-to-state labor program run by the Ministry of Employment and Labor (고용노동부) and the Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRD Korea / 한국산업인력공단).
Documents you'll need
- Passport
- completed visa application form with photo
- the Standard Labor Contract (표준근로계약서) signed with the Korean employer
- the Certificate of Visa Issuance / Confirmation (사증발급인정서) that the Korean employer obtained from immigration
- EPS-TOPIK pass result
- health examination result
- and other papers required by the sending country’s dispatch agency. Most of the paperwork is handled through the EPS system by the sending-country agency and the Korean employer rather than by the worker individually. Confirm the exact list on eps.go.kr and with the sending agency before departure.
How to apply
- Via the Employment Permit System (고용허가제/EPS), a state-to-state bilateral program: applicant’s country signs an EPS MOU with Korea, worker passes EPS-TOPIK and health check, is placed on the job-seeker roster, and a Korean employer (who first failed to hire a Korean) selects the worker.
- The employer then obtains a Certificate of Visa Issuance (사증발급인정서) from immigration, and the worker receives the E-9 visa at a Korean mission abroad.
- Administered by MOEL (고용노동부) and HRD Korea (한국산업인력공단) via eps.go.kr – not an open job-market visa.
- EPS (일반고용허가제) is a bilateral, government-run process, not an ordinary open job market.
- Typical steps:
- the worker’s country and Korea sign/maintain an EPS MOU;
- the applicant passes EPS-TOPIK (고용허가제 한국어능력시험) run by HRD Korea in their country;
- passers who clear a health check submit a job application and are placed on a job-seeker roster (구직자 명부) that the sending agency sends to HRD Korea, which verifies and registers it;
- a Korean employer who first tried and failed to hire a Korean worker gets an employment permit and selects a worker from the roster;
- the Standard Labor Contract is signed;
- the employer obtains a Certificate of Visa Issuance from immigration;
- the worker receives the E-9 visa at a Korean embassy/consulate, enters Korea, completes job/employment training, and starts work.
Selection on EPS-TOPIK is relative (graded on a curve) up to the planned intake number per sector.
Stay & extension
Initial stay is granted in line with the labor contract, up to 3 years. It is generally a single status; the worker cannot freely change jobs (workplace changes are limited and need approval, usually only for reasons not the worker’s fault, such as business closure).
After the first period, if the employer applies for re-employment (재고용) and it is approved, the worker can extend by up to a further 1 year and 10 months – a maximum of about 4 years and 10 months of continuous work in Korea on one entry. Workers who completed that period faithfully at the same workplace and left voluntarily may re-enter under the Committed/Re-entry Worker special program (재입국 취업 특례, formerly the Committed Worker Re-entry System, 성실근로자 재입국제도), applying through the local employment center within a set window before departure.
Stay-extension applications for the worker’s residence status are filed at an immigration office (booked via HiKorea).
Working on this visa
Yes – E-9 is a work visa, but only for the specific employer and sector allowed under the employment permit and the Standard Labor Contract. The holder may not freely take a second job or move to a different employer/sector without going through the limited, approval-based change-of-workplace procedure.
Working outside the permitted terms can lead to loss of status.
Requirements in detail
Yes – passing EPS-TOPIK (the Employment Permit System Korean-language proficiency test, run by HRD Korea in the sending country) is a mandatory entry gate before an applicant can be placed on the job-seeker roster. It tests basic Korean plus understanding of Korean workplace safety and daily life.
There is no separate general TOPIK level required, but a higher EPS-TOPIK score improves selection chances.
No fixed salary floor to enter; the standard labor contract must guarantee at least the Korean statutory minimum wage for the sector/hours worked.
2026: 80,000 total (sector allocation (업종별 배정) 70,000 + flexible allocation (탄력배정) 10,000). Officially confirmed by the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee (외국인력정책위원회) (2025-12-22).
Sector breakdown: manufacturing (제조업) 50,000, agriculture/livestock (농축산업) 10,000 — both explicitly stated in the official press release. Fishery (어업) 7,000, construction (건설업) 2,000, services (서비스업) 1,000 are the widely-reported figures that sum exactly to the official 70,000 sector total, but the official press-release text only itemizes manufacturing 50,000 and agriculture/livestock 10,000 (제조업 5만·농축산업 1만), with an ‘etc.’ (등); the fishery/construction/services sub-figures are cross-checked from multiple news reports of the same meeting (treat as near-official).
Shipbuilding (조선업): NO separate quota in 2026 — the temporary separate shipbuilding quota (조선업 별도 쿼터) (Apr 2023–2025) was abolished and folded back into manufacturing. For reference, 2025 quota was 130,000 (2026 is a ~50,000 reduction).
Yes – Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL/고용노동부) runs EPS with HRD Korea; sector policy and quotas set by the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee. Sector authorities (e.g.
MAFRA for agriculture, MOF for fishery) participate in allocation. Employer needs an employment permit before selecting a worker.
E-9 -> E-7-4 (Skilled Technical Personnel, points system): normally ~5 years of legal E-9 (or H-2/E-10) work within the last 10 years (some cases 4 years with KIIP stage 3+); job offer with expected annual salary >= ~KRW 26 million (relaxed to ~KRW 25 million for agriculture/livestock and fishery/coastal-shipping); Korean at TOPIK 2 or equivalent KIIP stage (since 2025 obtainable within 2 years after conversion); and >= ~200 of the 300-point skilled-worker scale. E-7-4R region-specific track (shortened non-capital stay ~3 years) now includes E-9 holders.
Sub-types
Not split into lettered sub-codes. Organized by allowed sector under EPS: manufacturing (제조업), agriculture/livestock (농축산업), fishery (어업), construction (건설업), shipbuilding (조선업), services (서비스업, most fluid – e.g. hotel/condo cleaning & kitchen, restaurant kitchen/hall-serving, parcel sorting).
Generally not allowed. E-9 carries no accompanying-family (F-3) entitlement; workers come without dependents.
Mobile alien registration card (외국인등록증) launched in 2025 for registered foreign residents; E-9 holders who complete alien registration can in principle use it. E-9-specific rollout details not separately confirmed (unverified).
2025–2026 policy updates
- 2025 EPS (E-9) intake plan (decided by the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee on 2024-12-20, for 2025): total 130,000 – down about 21% from 2024’s 165,000.
- Reported new sector allocation of about 98,000 within that total: manufacturing 72,000; agriculture/livestock 10,000; fishery 8,500; services 3,000; shipbuilding 2,500; construction 2,000 (remainder held as flexible allocation).
- Sending countries expanded from 16 to 17 with the addition of Tajikistan (from 2025).
- Service-sector expansion: hotel and condominium (호텔·콘도업) added on a pilot basis for cleaner and kitchen-assistant roles in the main tourism regions of Seoul, Busan, Gangwon, and Jeju; the restaurant (음식점업) pilot was widened nationwide and to more cuisine types (including Chinese and Japanese food), with hall-serving (홀서빙) tasks added to the earlier kitchen-assistant role; parcel/delivery (택배) sorting and loading tasks allowed as simple-labor roles. 2026 EPS (E-9) intake plan: total 80,000 (about 70,000 by sector + about 10,000 flexible) – manufacturing about 50,000; agriculture/livestock about 10,000; fishery about 7,000; construction about 2,000; services about 1,000.
- For 2026, restaurant hall-serving was formally added nationwide, and non-capital-region manufacturers’ extra foreign-hiring cap was raised (about 20% to 30%) with the previous 50-worker add-on limit removed.
- Exact effective dates for individual service-sector items are set in the underlying notices – confirm on eps.go.kr / moel.go.kr.
- (some sub-item effective dates unverified)
Common mistakes
- Assuming E-9 is a normal open work visa that a student in Korea can switch into – it is not; it is a from-abroad, government-to-government EPS program tied to your home country’s MOU and roster.
- Thinking you can freely change employers or take side jobs – workplace change is tightly limited.
- Overstaying the 3-year / 4-years-10-months limits, or expecting automatic renewal.
- Skipping or underestimating EPS-TOPIK.
- Using outdated quota or sector lists (the numbers and allowed services change every year).
- Confusing E-9 with E-7 (skilled/professional) or with the E-7-4 skilled-worker conversion route.
Where this leads
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