Busan City Supports Long-Term Employment Visa Conversion for Foreign Skilled Workers... Recruiting Recommended Candidates

Recruitment and Recommendation of 159 People Planned, Prevention of Skilled Foreign Worker Outflow

Support for Stable Employment and Long-term Employment Visa Conversion for Skilled Workers

Busan City supports the conversion to long-term employment visas to ensure the stable employment and prevent the outflow of foreign skilled workers.

Busan City Hall.

In accordance with the Ministry of Justice's innovative expansion plan for foreign skilled workers, 'K-point E74,' the city is recruiting candidates for recommendation to convert to the Skilled Worker Visa (E-7-4) until December 12.

Implemented since October last year, 'K-point E74' is an innovative expansion plan for foreign skilled workers that allows foreign workers currently residing in Korea under simple labor visas (E-9, E-10, H-2) who have accumulated skills through long-term work in Korea to convert to a skilled worker visa (E-7-4) that permits long-term employment.

This plan is implemented by the Ministry of Justice to alleviate labor shortages in industrial sites and revitalize the local economy. This year, the annual quota for conversion to the skilled worker visa (E-7-4) is set at 35,000, the same as last year, and candidates for visa conversion will be selected based on a point system.

Among these, to select skilled workers needed by local communities, a quota of 5,500 is allocated for recommendations by metropolitan local governments, which grants an additional 30 points. Busan City has been allocated 159 of these spots.

This recruitment is conducted to recommend 159 candidates allocated to Busan City from the metropolitan local government recommendation quota of 'K-point E74' to the Ministry of Justice.

The city has established separate recommendation criteria for this purpose. The main criteria include ▲meeting the Ministry of Justice's K-point E74 conversion requirements ▲foreign workers who have been employed at companies located in Busan City for more than one year as of the application date ▲those who pledge to maintain their residence (address) in Busan City for more than two years after converting to the skilled worker visa (E-7-4) (movement between basic local governments within the metropolitan local government is allowed) ▲those scoring between 170 and 199 points on the K-point E74 conversion point system.

Candidates recommended are essential skilled workers who have sufficient qualifications and abilities and have received recommendations from their employing companies but can only meet the minimum conversion score (200 points) by receiving the metropolitan local government recommendation bonus (30 points).

▲The Ministry of Justice's K-point E74 conversion requirements include registered foreigners who have stayed in Korea for more than four years in the last ten years under E-9, E-10, or H-2 status, foreign workers with a certain level of Korean language proficiency, those scoring at least 200 points (including bonus points) out of 300 on the point system, those currently earning an annual salary of 26 million KRW (25 million KRW for agriculture, fisheries, and coastal shipping), those who have signed an employment contract for E-7-4 for more than two years, and those recommended by companies where they have worked for more than one year as of the application date.

Even without metropolitan local government recommendations, if the conversion score exceeds 200 points, applicants can apply through the company recommendation quota (12,000 people) or the central government recommendation quota (9,650 people, with separate criteria by department).

The city plans to redistribute the 159 recommendation quotas by industry (manufacturing, construction, agriculture and livestock, fisheries, coastal shipping) according to the proportion of registered foreigners in each industry to prevent any specific industry from monopolizing recommendations, and then proceed with recommendations.

The recruitment may close early if the industry-specific quotas are exhausted, and industries that have used up their allocated quotas may receive additional allocations within the reserved amount (21 people), operating flexibly and balanced among industries.

To receive a recommendation for conversion to the skilled worker visa (E-7-4) under the metropolitan local government recommendation quota, foreign workers and the representatives of their employing businesses must submit application documents via email to the city's department in charge of each industry.

The required documents and the email addresses of the responsible departments are posted in the announcement section on the Busan City website.

Once notified of selection as a recommended candidate, the foreign worker must apply for the skilled worker visa conversion through the Ministry of Justice's Hi Korea website.

Shin Chang-ho, Director of the Digital Economy Innovation Office of Busan City, stated, “The metropolitan local government recommendation system is expected to prevent the outflow of foreign workers whose skills and abilities have been verified and help maintain stable employment, contributing to resolving the chronic shortage of skilled workers in local industrial sites.” He added, “Our city will continue to promote institutional improvements to secure local skilled workers by gathering field opinions and consulting with related ministries.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.