E-7 Visas Are About Job Codes First, Not Your Degree — The Four Types and How to Check If Your Role Qualifies

With the E-7 (Specific Activities) visa, the first gate you have to clear isn't your education — it's your occupation. Article 20 of Attached Table 1-2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act (amended May 27, 2025) defines E-7 only as a person "who intends to engage in activities specially designated by the Minister of Justice under a contract with a public or private organization in the Republic of Korea." Not a single line of the statute says which jobs qualify.

That's why the occupation list lives in the Ministry of Justice's internal guidelines, not in legislation. It's exactly why you'll never find it no matter how hard you dig through the Korea Law Information Center. The list appears in the Ministry of Justice's visa application manual organized by status of stay, and the January 30, 2026 edition lists 94 occupations on p.181 under "Status of Permitted Occupations for Specific Activities (E-7)."

And here's where a wall goes up for foreigners specifically. This manual is distributed only as a 471-page Korean-language PDF/HWP, with no English version. The English pages on HiKorea don't carry the occupation list at all, and if you search for it, 2022 and 2023 editions redistributed by local government foreigner portals come up first. Just figuring out which file is current is a barrier in itself.

The second wall is the codes. Job codes follow the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations, and they don't map 1:1 onto job titles from your home country. Even if your business card says "Software Engineer," whether that's a Systems Software Developer (2222), an Applications Software Developer (2223), or a Web Developer (2224) is not something you get to decide.

E-7 Isn't a Job Title — It's a "Designated List"

A lot of people start their preparation thinking, "I have a master's degree, so I should qualify for E-7." That's backwards. The occupation gets determined first, and education and experience are requirements attached to that occupation. If the work isn't on the designated list, you won't get an E-7 for it even with a PhD.

There isn't one gate — there are three. ① Does my role fall under a designated occupation? ② Do I meet that occupation's qualification requirements (education, experience, salary)? ③ Does the company sponsoring me meet the employer requirements? And even after clearing all three, discretionary review remains at the end. That's why you won't see the phrase "meet these conditions and you'll get it" in this article. Precisely speaking, these are the conditions you have to meet just to be considered for review.

The general flow and common documents for the status-of-stay change procedure itself are covered in How to Apply for a Change of Status of Stay, so this article sticks to the gates unique to E-7.

Four Branches — E-7-1 Through E-7-4

E-7 isn't a single thing; there are four types. Different types mean different target job groups, different salary requirements, and different application routes.

The total is 94, and that figure is based on the January 30, 2026 edition of the manual. Any information stating "there are X E-7 occupations" without specifying the edition date is hard to trust on its face. I'll explain later why you'll see 87, 91, and 94 floating around.

Beyond the four types, there are also supplementary sub-codes: E-7-S (negative-list professional personnel), E-7-Y (domestically grown talent), E-7-T (top-tier talent), and E-7-91 (FTA independent professionals). Each has its own separate requirements, so you'll need to look directly at the relevant section of the manual.

How to Read Job Codes — What the Digit Count and the "S" Mean

Each occupation on the list has a number attached, and it's not an arbitrary serial number. It follows the classification levels of the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations exactly.

• Three-digit codes are minor groups. Designer (285), for example, is a broad bucket.
• Four-digit codes are unit groups. Mechanical Engineer (2351), Overseas Sales Representative (2742), and Ship Welder (7406) fall here.
• Five-digit codes are sub-unit groups and are the narrowest. Think Sales Clerk (31215), Ship Electrician (76212), and Ship Painter (78369).
• When an "S" is prefixed to a code, that's an occupation newly created by splitting off from an existing one. It's formed by putting an S in front of the most similar occupation's code, giving you entries like S110 (Senior Executive of Economic Interest Organizations), S2743 (Technology Management Specialist), S3922 (Medical Coordinator), and S740 (Skilled Worker in Root Industries).

Why does the digit count matter? Because the narrower the code, the more specific the documentation required. The real standard isn't the job title in the job posting — it's the code your company will write on the Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance or the status-change application. Before you join, always ask: "Which job code does the company plan to apply under for me?"

Four Steps to Check Whether Your Role Qualifies

Just go in order. You can do steps 1 through 3 on your own; step 4 you can't finish alone.

There's a reason step 4 stands on its own. Employment may be permitted under the occupation most similar to the one applied for, but the authority to make that call doesn't rest with the applicant. For professional occupations falling under major groups 1 and 2 of the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations, the head of the immigration office and others may permit it at their discretion; for semi-professional, general skilled, and skilled technical occupations falling under major groups 3 through 8, the Minister of Justice's approval is required.

This is the stretch that's especially frustrating for foreigners. There's essentially no counter where you can ask "Is 2223 the right code for my role?" before applying and get a definitive answer. ☎1345 (the Immigration Contact Center) provides multilingual guidance on the system, but questions about the code for an individual role or whether a specific company meets requirements will likely be answered with "that's a matter for review by the competent office." Still, using 1345 to confirm where the latest edition is and which office has jurisdiction over you will save you a wasted trip.

Requirements for You as the Worker — Three Routes, and the Forks in the Road

Once the occupation is settled, next come your own requirements. The general requirement is met by satisfying one of the three below.

• Master's degree or higher: A master's or above in a field related to the target occupation
• Bachelor's + 1 year of experience: A bachelor's degree related to the target occupation plus 1 year or more of experience in that field. Only experience gained after obtaining the degree or certification counts
• 5 or more years of experience: 5 or more years of work in a field related to the target occupation

That third route means the door is open even without a degree. That said, there are special provisions here where outcomes diverge based on nationality, country of degree, and company size.

• Holders of a bachelor's degree or higher from a Korean university are exempt from the 1-year experience requirement regardless of major.
• Graduates with Work-Study Linked Study Abroad (D-2-7) status are exempt from the Korean national employment ratio requirement.
• Those taking a job at an SME, venture company, or mid-sized company outside the Seoul metropolitan area who have no E-7 experience or 3 years or less of it get the salary requirement eased from 80% of the previous year's GNI to 70%.
• Japanese nationals holding certifications recognized by CAIT/JITEC under the Japan Information Processing Development Corporation (Software Development Engineer, Fundamental Information Technology Engineer) may be issued a Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance and the like regardless of the qualification criteria.

In other words, with the same résumé, the requirements shift depending on which country granted your degree and how large the company is. Check with 1345 or your competent office about your own case to see whether one of these forks applies to you.

Salary Requirements — The 2026 Figures Take Effect February 1

Salary levels are reset each year by Ministry of Justice notice. The 2026 figures were set by Ministry of Justice Notice No. 2025-406 (dated 2025-12-29, under Article 7(7) of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act).

This timing gap is easy for foreigners to miss. If you get advice in January and apply in March with the same numbers, the threshold may have changed. Before finalizing your contract salary, re-check the notice amount that's valid at that point in time.

The Company-Side Gate — A Stretch You Can Neither See Into Nor Control

Even if you meet every requirement yourself, nothing is issued if the company falls short. The employer gates set by the manual go roughly like this.

• Companies with fewer than 5 Korean national employees that are primarily domestic-demand oriented are, as a rule, restricted from sponsoring. Headcount here is counted as people listed on the employment insurance subscriber roster for 3 months or more at or above minimum wage.
• Occupations protected for national employment allow foreign hiring only within 20% of the number of Korean national employees.
• Companies already employing above that 20% are, as a rule, denied not only new and replacement sponsorships but also status changes, workplace changes, and workplace additions.
• Companies with delinquent national or local taxes are also restricted.

The problem is that all four of these are pieces of information a worker has no right to access and no way to change. There's no route for an applicant to check a company's employment insurance roster or its tax delinquency status. It's a structure where you can meet every personal requirement perfectly and still be rejected because of the company.

So the questions to ask at the interview stage are set. ① Has this company sponsored an E-7 foreign national before? ② How many foreign nationals are currently employed, and how many Korean national employees are there? ③ Which job code do you plan to apply under for me? Confirming these three will spare you a lot of wasted effort. And if the company dodges these questions, that itself is a signal.

The Path Up from E-9, E-10, and H-2 — E-7-4 Is a Separate Track

This part gets misread a lot, so let's put both pieces side by side. Two rules hold at the same time.

First, general status changes to E-7 are restricted. Holders of short-term stay (B and C series), industrial trainee (D-3), seasonal work (E-8), non-professional employment (E-9), vessel crew (E-10), and miscellaneous (G-1) status are subject to the restriction. If you stop reading here, you conclude "so E-9 can't become E-7."

But Skilled Technical Worker (E-7-4) is a different track operated under separate guidelines. It targets currently registered foreign nationals who have stayed 4 years or more on E-9, E-10, or H-2 status within the past 10 years. So "E-9 is restricted from general changes to E-7" and "E-9 can move to E-7-4" are both true. Giving up after reading only the first sentence means closing a door that's actually open.

There are four basic E-7-4 requirements.

• Residence history: A currently registered foreign national who has stayed 4 years or more on E-9, E-10, or H-2 status within the past 10 years, and is working normally at their current workplace
• Employment contract: At the current workplace, an annual salary of 26 million KRW or more for 2 years or more going forward (eased to 25 million KRW for agriculture/livestock and fisheries/coastal merchant shipping)
• Company recommendation: A recommendation from a company where you've been working for 1 year or more. It's both a mandatory requirement and a points item, and companies can recommend within 20% of their regular employee count
• Points system: 200 points or more out of a total of 300, including bonus points. Average income and Korean language ability under the basic items must each be at least 50 points

The Korean language requirement is met by one of: TOPIK Level 2, completion of Stage 2 of the Korea Immigration and Integration Program, or Stage 3 placement (41 points) on the pre-assessment test. For those meeting the other requirements, a measure temporarily deferring the Korean language requirement until the first extension (2 years) is in effect through December 31, 2026. How stage placement in the Social Integration Program works is covered separately in Guide to the Korea Immigration and Integration Program (KIIP).

If you're currently working on an E-9, reading E-9 Workplace Change Procedures and The Basic Structure of the Employment Permit System (EPS) alongside this will make it easier to see where you stand.

It Gets Riskier After You're Hired — Is a Job Change "Permission" or "Notification"?

Getting the E-7 isn't the end. If anything, this is where things go wrong most often. When you change or add a workplace, some people must obtain permission in advance, while others only need to report after moving — and the dividing line is your job code.

The legal structure goes like this. The main text of Article 21(1) of the Immigration Act requires prior permission from the Minister of Justice for changing or adding a workplace, while the proviso to that same paragraph allows persons with specialized knowledge, technology, or skills as prescribed by Presidential Decree to substitute a report filed within 15 days of the change or addition. Who those persons are is set by Article 26-2(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act.

Based on the January 30, 2026 edition of the stay application manual, those subject to prior permission are as follows: Mechanical Engineer (2351), Draftsman (2395), overseas online product salespersons among Overseas Sales Representatives (2742), Designer (285), Sales Clerk (31215), Head Chef and Cook (441), Customer Service Representative (3991), Hotel Receptionist (3922), Medical Coordinator (S3922), Aquaculture Technician (6301), Ship Welder (7406), Skilled Technical Worker under the points system (S740, S610, S700), Ship Electrician (76212), Ship Painter (78369), Aircraft (Parts) Manufacturing Worker (S8417), Power Transmission Electrician (76231), Auto Parts Manufacturing Worker (S85411), Auto Sheet Metal/Painting Worker (S75104), and Slaughterer (S71032). That said, not being on this list doesn't automatically make you subject to notification only. The list and criteria keep getting revised, so before you change jobs, always confirm with your competent immigration office whether your occupation requires permission or notification.

The reason it's hard to confirm is clear too. Your Alien Registration Card shows only "E-7" or the sub-code at most — the job code doesn't appear. You can't tell from the card alone whether you're 2223 or S85411. So practically, the fastest route is to ask your company which job code it entered on the application at the time of the Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance or the status change permission.

Fees under Article 72 of the Enforcement Rules are: 120,000 KRW for a workplace change/addition, 100,000 KRW for a change of status of stay (200,000 KRW for a change to permanent residence F-5), 60,000 KRW for an extension of stay (30,000 KRW for marriage migrant F-6), and 120,000 KRW for permission to engage in activities outside your status (as of 2026). There's no fee for post-facto notification. For the range of applications you can handle online and how the process flows, see How to Use HiKorea e-Application.

Both the List and the Numbers Keep Changing

Let me explain why I haven't reproduced the full list of 94 occupations here. If I pinned the list down in this article, the next revision would turn this piece into misinformation. Here's the actual pace of revision.

• October 20, 2025 — Auto Sheet Metal/Painting Worker (S75104) newly added to General Skilled Workers (E-7-3)
• November 5, 2025 — New special provision for promising overseas talent requirements; changes to the pilot program for Auto Parts Manufacturing Worker (S85411); extension of the pilot project for Power Transmission Electrician (76231)
• December 24, 2025 — Slaughterer occupation newly created; expansion of species covered for Aquaculture Technician
• January 30, 2026 — Reflection of revisions to the guidelines on issuing Certificates for Confirmation of Visa Issuance and managing stay for Specific Activities (E-7)

That's four E-7-related revisions in about three months. Which is why "87," "91," and "94" all circulate online at the same time. The Ministry of Justice's "Status of Permitted Occupations for Specific Activities (E-7)" dataset on the Public Data Portal was registered in 2022 and last modified in July 2025; it has 87 rows and its description describes a 67+10+11+3 = 91 breakdown. After that, E-7-3 General Skilled Workers grew from 11 to 14, bringing the current total to 94. The numbers aren't in conflict — the editions are just different.

So don't prepare based on lists you find in blogs, news articles, or YouTube videos. There are three places to rely on.

• HiKorea (hikorea.go.kr) — the latest edition of the "Visa and Stay Application Manual by Status" in the resources section, plus its revision history
• ☎1345 Immigration Contact Center — multilingual consultation, for system guidance and identifying your competent office
• Your competent immigration office — for matters requiring review, like similar-occupation determinations, employer requirements, and the permission/notification distinction

It's normal not to get a definitive "yes, your case qualifies" from the first two. That's because the authority to decide sits with the competent office. Even so, just confirming the latest edition and your competent office gets you halfway through the preparation.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1. Can I check my job code on my Alien Registration Card? No. The Alien Registration Card shows only "E-7" or a sub-code like E-7-1 or E-7-3 — job codes like 2223 or S85411 don't appear. Yet that very code is what determines whether a job change requires prior permission or just a post-facto report. Ask your company which job code it applied under at the time of the Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance application or the status change, and before changing jobs, confirm again with your competent immigration office.

Q2. The list doesn't have my exact job title, only similar ones. There is a path where employment may be permitted under the most similar occupation. But the applicant can't make that determination. For professional occupations falling under major groups 1 and 2 of the Korean Standard Classification of Occupations, the head of the immigration office and others may permit it at their discretion; for semi-professional, general skilled, and skilled technical occupations falling under major groups 3 through 8, the Minister of Justice's approval is required. First cross-check the occupation description and examples of eligible jobs in the manual's "Detailed Management Criteria by Occupation," then inquire with your competent office.

Q3. I meet all the requirements, but what if the company falls short? Nothing gets issued. Companies with fewer than 5 Korean national employees that are primarily domestic-demand oriented are, as a rule, restricted from sponsoring, and occupations protected for national employment allow foreign hiring only within 20% of the number of Korean national employees. Companies already employing above 20% are, as a rule, denied not just new sponsorships but also status changes, workplace changes, and workplace additions. Delinquent national or local taxes are also disqualifying. Since workers can't verify this information, the most realistic move is to ask directly at the interview: "Have you sponsored an E-7 before, and how many foreign employees and Korean national employees do you currently have?"

Q4. I'm a D-2 student — can I switch straight to E-7 after graduating? Holders of a bachelor's degree or higher from a Korean university get a special exemption from the 1-year experience requirement regardless of major, so you're in a relatively good position. But an education exemption doesn't make the occupation requirement disappear. The role you're hired for must fall under a designated occupation, and the salary and company requirements have to be met separately. If you're considering going through job-seeking status (D-10), note that applying for a D-10 visa from overseas for the purpose of E-7 semi-professional or skilled technical work is restricted, so check your own case with your competent office.

Q5. I want to change jobs — what should I check first? Order matters. ① Confirm with your competent immigration office whether your job code requires prior permission or notification. ② If it requires permission, get it before you move; if it requires notification, file within 15 days of the change or addition. ③ Check that the new company meets the employer requirements (the 20% cap, tax delinquency, etc.). If you flip the order — moving first and looking into it later — and it turned out permission was required, that's a violation of Article 21(1) of the Immigration Act, which under Article 95(6) can lead to up to 1 year of imprisonment or a criminal fine of up to 10 million KRW as written in the statute, plus deportation under Article 46(1)(9).