I. Necessity of employing professional foreign personnel
What companies need as they prepare for global competition is to provide world-class cutting-edge products and services at competitive prices. For this purpose, most Korean companies have used highly qualified Korean personnel, but in a world becoming one integrated market, maintaining world-class competitiveness is proving more and more difficult with such a limited supply of personnel. Accordingly, companies feel the need to hire from overseas those professional personnel that they cannot employ easily inside Korea. In addition, small and medium sized companies need to hire those highly qualified personnel at a reasonable cost. Employing such professional foreign personnel requires an E-7 visa.
Korean use of foreign personnel has been mostly focused on using them to solve a shortage of labor for small and medium-sized companies. As of the end of December, 2012, the number of foreigners staying in Korea is 1.44 million people, and is increasing every year. Of this number, 529,690 are eligible for employment, with at least 90% working manual jobs. The visas involved include E-9 (non-professional employment), H-2 (working visit for overseas Koreans), and E-10 (seafarer employment). Most of the remaining 10% hold E-1 through E-7 visas for professional employment: university professors (E-1), native speakers for foreign language studies (E-2), researchers (E-3), technicians for technology transfer (E-4), certified profession holders (E-5), art workers (E-6), and other professional job holders (E-7).
Generally, the E-7 visa is granted to personnel employed for professional positions, which covers various fields. In their plans to hire these overseas personnel, companies need to confirm whether visa issuance is possible, and then obtain eligibility from the Immigration Office for those personnel to stay in Korea, before initiating the hiring process. In this article, I would like to look into this employment process for hiring professional personnel, and government support systems for such hiring.


[Source: Ministry of Law, as of December 31, 2012]
Division Scope of Eligible Activities



Professional personnel (50,264) Professor
(E-1) (2,631) As foreigners qualified in accordance with the Higher Education Act, those who are engaged in education or research and instruction activities in technical colleges or higher, or equivalent institutions.
Language teaching (E-2)
(21,603) As foreigners qualified for conditions stipulated by the Minister of Justice, those who are engaged in teaching foreign languages at foreign language institutes, elementary level or higher schools, their language institutes, or equivalent institutions.

Research
(E-3)
(2,820) Those who are engaged in research and development of natural sciences or industrial cutting-edge technology at various laboratories, due to invitations from public or private institutions.
Technology instruction (E-4) (160) Those who are engaged in providing professional knowledge regarding the natural sciences or technologies regarding specialized industrial fields due to invitations from public or private institutions.
Professionals (E-5) (694) As foreigners with certification as foreign lawyers, public accountants, doctors, and other nationally recognized professionals, those who are engaged in such professional fields in accordance with Korean law.
Artistic work (E-6)
(4,528) Those who are engaged in arts activities such as music, painting, and literature, or in entertainment, performances, plays, sports, advertising or fashion modeling, etc. for the purpose of earning money.
Particular activities
(E-7) (17,451) Those engaged in activities specifically designated by the Minister of Justice, in accordance with contracts with public or private institutions.
Simple manual working personnel
(479,426) Non-professional
(E-9) (230,237) Those eligible for employment in Korea according to the Act on Foreign Workers’ Employment.
Seafarer employment (E-10) (10,424) Those who have seafarer employment contracts on the condition of providing labor for 6 months or longer in companies that do business in accordance with the Maritime Transport Act or the Fishing Industry Act.
Working visit (H-2)
(238,765) Those of foreign nationality in accordance with the Act on the Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans and who are 25 years or older.


II. Process for Hiring Professional Foreign Personnel (E-7 Visa)
1. E-7 Visa holders (for specific activities)

Professional foreigners eligible for E-7 visas need to have the following characteristics in general. Firstly, the specialty, qualifications, technological and other skills of the corresponding foreigners shall be directly related to the companies where they are to work. Secondly, those foreigners shall not become engaged in simple labor, but professionally skilled or technical jobs. Thirdly, it shall be necessary to hire those foreigners because of the difficulty involved in finding Korean citizens to fill those positions. The E-7 visa encompasses 79 jobs, broken into two categories: 1) job activities determined by contract with public or private institutions and 2) cutting-edge technology jobs such as information technology.

Fields Eligible Applicants for E-7 Visa
Job fields based on contract with public or private institutions - Foreign school teacher, foreign language editor at a public or private institution
- Those who provide technology, skills and professional knowledge necessary for positions at a public or private institution
- Those who are expected to contribute to the reinforcement of national competition in special positions at a public or private institution
- Directors or coaches expected to contribute to the promotion of sports by instructing athletes at sports organizations
- Foreign staff hired at embassies or foreign-government organizations
- Professional foreign personnel hired by foreign-invested companies, domestic branches of foreign companies and foreign individual companies
- Crew members hired by domestic ferry companies such as passenger liners and Mountain Diamond tourist boats
Cutting-edge technology jobs like IT - Those who will be engaged in e-business such as information technology and electronic transactions, biotechnology, nanotechnology, advanced materials (metal, ceramic, and chemical), transportation machinery, digital electronics and environmental and energy fields, and have obtained recommendations from relevant ministers
• E-business for online commerce, and six other fields: Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy
• Information technology: Ministry of Information & Commerce

2. Issuance of the E-7 Visa
In order to hire professional foreign personnel in Korea, the company shall need to have issued an E-7 visa from the Immigration Office of the Ministry of Justice. Generally, the company can hire professional foreign personnel from abroad after receiving the Certificate of Eligibility for Visa Issuance for those personnel, and in some cases, it is possible to hire professional foreigners already staying in Korea by changing their visa status to E-7. The typical occurrence in cases like this is for foreign students graduating from Korean colleges with D-2 visas to have their visa status changed to E-7 after employment. The necessary documents for an E-7 visa are described in the following table.

Company Foreign Employees
1. Application for the Certificate of Eligibility for