Korea Digital Nomad Visa (F-1-D): 2026 Requirements

Korea’s digital nomad visa stopped being a pilot on June 30, 2026. The Ministry of Justice had run the F-1-D since January 1, 2024, and since 2024 it has issued 743 of them, then made the category permanent with two changes that rewrite the math. Income is no longer measured against one flat number. It now scales from one to two times Korea’s per-capita national income depending on your age and which part of the country you settle in, and the ceiling on how long you can stay moved from two years to three. Everything else the F-1-D visa asks of a Korea digital nomad held steady, namely a year of remote work for a company based abroad, private medical insurance bought before you land, and a clean record.

Quick answers

• The income requirement now runs between one and two times Korea’s per-capita gross national income, which the Bank of Korea put at ₩52.57 million ($36,963) for 2025. The top band lands near ₩105 million, roughly $74,000.
• Applicants aged 18 to 34 who base themselves outside the Seoul capital area qualify at the single-GNI band, about ₩52.57 million.
• The permit is issued a year at a time up to a three-year total, and a spouse and children can be included as dependents.

What Is Korea’s Digital Nomad Visa (F-1-D)?

The F-1-D is Korea’s digital nomad visa, opened on January 1, 2024 for foreigners who want to live in Korea while working remotely for an employer or clients based abroad. It sits in a different bucket from a work visa (E-series) or a long-term residency visa (F-2, F-5). It is explicitly temporary, it is tied to income you earn outside the country, and it does not lead directly to permanent residency. The Ministry of Justice moved it out of pilot status in its notice on formal operation of the digital nomad (workation) visa, and framed the loosened terms as a way to keep remote workers living, and spending, in Korea for longer.

F-1-D Workation Visa Korea Requirements: What Actually Gets Checked

The core F-1-D workation visa Korea requirements are income, an employment history abroad, insurance, and a clean record. Consular checklists ask for at least one year of work in the same industry for a company based outside Korea, evidenced by a certificate of employment plus recent pay slips or bank statements. Private medical insurance is the item applicants most often under-buy. The standard is coverage of ₩100 million or more, valid for the whole stay, and it has to cover both hospital treatment in Korea and repatriation to your home country. A criminal background certificate rounds out the file, and income documents generally need an apostille or consular notarisation, which is the step that quietly adds two or three weeks to a timeline.

How Much Do You Actually Need to Earn?

Here is the number that catches most applicants out. The income floor is not a fixed dollar figure written into law. It is pegged to Korea’s per-capita gross national income for the previous year, so it moves whenever the Bank of Korea publishes a new figure. In the 2025 national accounts release, the Bank of Korea put per-capita GNI at ₩52.57 million, or $36,963.

Until the 2026 revision every applicant was measured against twice that, which is why older guides still quote a single dollar figure. Doubled against the current GNI, that top band sits near ₩105 million, about $74,000. The revision left two times GNI at the top of the range but dropped the bottom to a single multiple for applicants aged 18 to 34 who live outside the Seoul capital area, a spread of roughly ₩52 million between the easiest and hardest band. Per-capita GNI is also the figure behind most arguments about whether the Korean economy is stalling, and it is revised annually, so read the current band table on the ministry notice rather than a dollar amount from an old blog post.

Is It Actually Competitive With Other Digital Nomad Visas?

Compared with Portugal’s D8 visa or Indonesia’s Bali digital nomad permit, Korea still asks for a higher income floor at the top band and still does not open a path toward longer-term residency. The three-year ceiling narrows the gap that used to be the F-1-D’s weakest point, and for applicants under 35 the single-GNI band now undercuts several European nomad visas outright. What Korea trades for the paperwork is infrastructure: gigabit apartment internet as standard, a rail network that makes renewal trips trivial, and healthcare that is cheap even before insurance. The real friction turns out to be domestic rather than immigration. Foreign residents will tell you that getting Naver Pay or Kakao Pay working on an overseas card takes longer than the visa file did.

Can You Really Live in Korea While Working for a US Company?

Yes, and this is the part the eligibility bullets explain badly. US citizens and green card holders owe US tax obligations regardless of where they live. Korea has its own tax residency rules that generally engage once you have been physically present more than 183 days in a calendar year, at which point Korean tax residency starts to matter and the US-Korea tax treaty is what stops the same income being taxed twice. None of that is handled by the visa itself. With the cap now at three years rather than two, the tax question is no longer something you can outrun by leaving on schedule, which is what makes an early conversation with an accountant who knows both systems worth the fee.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Which income band applies if I am over 35 and living in Seoul?

The top of the range, twice per-capita GNI, which on the Bank of Korea’s 2025 figure works out near ₩105 million a year. The June 2026 easing lowered the bottom of the range rather than the top, and the ministry assigns your band by age and region, so confirm the published table before assuming where you land.

Q: How much medical insurance do I need, and when must I buy it?

Coverage of at least ₩100 million, active for your entire stay, covering hospital treatment in Korea and repatriation. It has to be in place before you file, because the certificate of insurance is one of the documents submitted with the application rather than something you arrange after arrival.

Q: Can I work for a Korean company on the F-1-D visa?

No. The F-1-D requires that your income come from an employer, clients, or contracts based outside Korea. Taking a domestic Korean job breaks eligibility.

Q: Does the F-1-D lead to permanent residency?

Not directly. It is a temporary sojourn category rather than a residency track, and the 2026 revision extended how long you can stay, not what the stay converts into. Anyone aiming at settlement generally has to switch onto a work or residency visa at some point.

Q: Can my spouse and children come with me on the F-1-D visa?

Yes. A spouse and children can be included as dependents on the same application, provided the insurance and documentation requirements are met for each of them.