Guide · as of 2026-08-08
How the F-2-7 points system is built
F-2-7 is the points-based route to residence (거주, F-2) status: a holder of a qualifying work or business visa scores themselves against a Ministry of Justice points table, and an application passes at 80 points or more. The table’s exact cell values change by MOJ notice (current per-item numbers belong on the points-table page, not in prose), but the structure below is stable.
Who can enter the system
The base pool is foreigners already in Korea on qualifying statuses: the professional employment series E-1 through E-7 and the business/management series D-5 through D-9 (certain subtypes excluded, e.g. E-6-2; the skilled-worker track E-7-4 has its own separate points system and is not an F-2-7 base). A minimum prior-stay period on the base status applies (unverified: published summaries conflict between 1 year and 3 years; a high-income waiver, reported at annual income ₩40,000,000+, is described as bypassing the stay requirement).
The scoring categories
Points accrue in a fixed set of categories; each has a cap, and the caps sum well above the 80-point pass line, so no single category is mandatory-maximal:
- Age: banded, peaking in the early 30s.
- Education: highest degree, with extra weight for degrees earned at Korean universities.
- Korean ability: TOPIK level or KIIP (사회통합프로그램) completion stage.
- Income: previous-year annual income bands; the heaviest single category.
- Bonus items (가점): central-ministry recommendation, study in Korea, volunteering, and similar; capped as a group.
- Deductions (감점): immigration-law violations, fines and criminal records subtract points, with a large maximum deduction.
The current cell values, band edges, and caps are maintained on the points-table page rather than restated here; MOJ revises them by notice.
What passing gets you
- Employer-independent stay: F-2-7 is not tied to one workplace. Job changes and self-employment do not require a new sponsorship, subject to the residence status’s general limits.
- Family: spouse and minor children can be sponsored into accompanying F-2 status with work access after permit.
- Path to F-5 (permanent residence): F-2-7 time counts toward the residence requirement for F-5; published summaries state 3 years on F-2-7 as the standard F-5 track (unverified: current F-5-16 requirements).
Mechanics
- Applications are filed at the jurisdictional immigration office (change of status) with documentary proof for every claimed point: degree certificates, income tax records (소득금액증명), TOPIK/KIIP certificates.
- Points are assessed as of application; income means the previous tax year’s declared income.
- The change-of-status fee is ₩100,000 (출입국관리법 시행규칙 fee schedule).
- Grants are typically issued with multi-year periods of stay and extended against continued point-consistency (income maintenance) (unverified: current grant/extension periods).
What F-2-7 is not
It is not a labor-market visa (no employer files anything), not the marriage route (F-6), not the overseas-Korean route (F-4), and not the E-7-4 skilled-worker points system. E-7-4 has a separate table administered with annual quotas.