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General Foreign Worker Selection/Invitation Procedure

Definition of Employment Permit System for Foreigners
- Deliberated and decided by the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee (FWPC: formed in the Office for Government Policy Coordination)
- Major issues regarding foreign workforce like the concerned industries, size of the inflow, sending countries, etc.
Signing memorandum of understanding (MOU) on sending workforce (the Korean Government ⇔ governments of sending countries)
- Signing MOU with a country accepting the recruitment process of Korea to prevent corruption related to sending foreign workers
- Evaluating on a regular basis the implementation of MOU to decide its renewal
Foreign workers who want to be employed (Government of sending country ⇔ Korean Government)
- Government (public institutions) of sending countries select workers to be sent (a certain number times the size of the selection number) based on objective standards such as the scores on Korean language test and experience.
- Preparing the foreign job-seeker list based on the selected workers to be sent (The Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRD Korea))
Application for employment permission (Employer ⇔ The Ministry of Labor (MOL))
- Those employers who failed to hire domestic workers despite their efforts (for seven days) to do that through the Employment Support Center (ESC) may apply for employment permission
Selecting the foreign workers and issuing employment permission (Employer ⇔ MOL)
- ESC recommends a plural number of candidates who satisfy recruitment requirements from the foreign job-seeker list.
- If the employer selects a best-qualified person from those recommended, the foreign worker’s employment permission is issued.
Signing labor contract (Employer ⇔ Foreign Workers)
- Employer signs the standard labor contract with the selected foreign worker
- Term of contract and other terms and conditions including wages, working hours, holidays, workplace, etc. are set forth.
- Employer may execute the labor contract directly or indirectly by entrusting this to HRD Korea.
Issuing the visa issuance certificate (Employer ⇔ The Ministry of Justice (MOJ))
- Employer submits the employment permission and the standard labor contract, while MOJ issues the visa issuance certificate (HRD Korea may do this on its behalf)
Receiving foreign workers (Employer ⇔ Foreign Workers)
- Employer sends the visa issuance certificate to the foreign worker, then the foreign worker is issued with the working visa from Korean embassies and enters Korea.
- Foreign worker who enters Korea completes employment training course within 15 days (at the relevant employment training institutions)
Managing employments of foreign workers (Employer ⇔ MOL)
Managing stays of foreign workers (Employer ⇔ MOJ)
- Providing grievance counseling and free training services (MOL, HRD Korea, industry associations, and so on)
- Allowing foreign workers to transfer to other workplaces in case of unavoidable causes like suspending or closing business and overdue wage occurrences (MOL)
- Strictly controlling the stays of foreign workers by means of reinforced immigration management and setting up a coordinated work system between MOJ and MOL.