There Is No Such Thing as a "Study Abroad Agency License" in Korea — Six Things to Check Before You Sign, and Where to Go If It Goes Wrong

The question people preparing to study in Korea ask most often is "which agency can I trust?" This article does not answer that question. Companies reopen under a new name, so a list of names stops being useful very quickly. Instead, it covers what you can check to reduce your own risk.

The number of international students at higher education institutions in Korea, counted as of April 1 each year, was 153,000 in 2020, 253,000 in 2025, and 307,464 in 2026 (figures through 2025 announced by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education; the 2026 figure from the Ministry of Education and the Korean Educational Development Institute, "2026 Basic Statistics on Education"). And yet the study abroad placement business that drives all of this movement has, as you will see in a moment, no law regulating it at all.

This is not to say that all agencies are scams. Universities really do sign agreements with agencies and have them handle recruitment, and on September 8, 2026 the Ministry of Education announced in its "Innovation Strategy for Nurturing International Student Talent" that it would prepare a draft standard university–agency agreement and distribute it during the second half of the year. The problem is that right now, before that system has arrived, if you skip the things that need checking, the entire loss lands on the student's side.

There Is No "Study Abroad Agency License" in Korea

If you search the National Law Information Center for acts, enforcement decrees, and enforcement rules with "유학원" (study abroad agency) in the title, you get zero results, and zero in administrative rules as well (as of September 2026, searching by title). No separate law governing the study abroad placement business exists.

This is not a new situation either. On December 20, 2013, a "Bill on the Establishment and Operation of Study Abroad Agencies" (bill no. 1908697) was introduced, and its stated rationale describes the present day exactly. Under current law, study abroad agencies are an unregulated trade that anyone may operate, so there are no rules, and operators were "increasingly causing incidents with direct victims, such as misappropriating the money entrusted to them or absconding." That bill was never enacted.

So it matters that we word this precisely. It is not that "unlicensed companies are operating in secret" — it is that the licensing system itself does not exist. There is no license, no registration, and no deposit to compensate you if you are harmed. When someone says "we are a properly registered company," you should ask back: registered with what, exactly? It is the same reason there are no market statistics on the number of agencies or the average service fee.

Handling residence applications on your behalf, however, is a different story. Article 79-2 of the Immigration Act limits who may act on your behalf for things like applying for a Certificate of Confirmation of Visa Issuance (사증발급인정서), applying for permission to change your status of stay, or applying to extend your period of stay — only an "agency registered with the Minister of Justice" may do so (article newly inserted June 9, 2020). The registration requirements are: ① a lawyer's or certified administrative agent's qualification, ② completion of the training required for the work, and ③ for a corporation, employing personnel who meet those requirements. You can look up whether an agency is registered under "Guide to Using Immigration Application Agencies" on HiKorea.

• A person who is not a certified administrative agent is prohibited by Article 3(1) of the Certified Administrative Agents Act from making a business of preparing documents for submission to administrative agencies, submitting documents on another's behalf, or representing someone in applications and reports made to obtain permits and the like. A violation carries up to three years' imprisonment or a criminal fine of up to 30,000,000 KRW under Article 36(1)1.
• Even a registered agency cannot do just anything. Article 79-3 provides that where a registered agency has provided exaggerated or false information, or has prepared or submitted forged or altered documents, its registration may be cancelled, its agency work suspended for up to six months, or a corrective order issued.

Why "Guaranteed Admission" and "Guaranteed Visa" Cannot Hold Up

Why these phrases cannot hold up becomes obvious the moment you look at who decides what. At first it is simply unfamiliar to sort out what the university, the Ministry of Justice, the Korean overseas mission, and the Ministry of Education each do.

The universities themselves spell this boundary out in their admissions guidelines. One university's guidelines for the 2026 fall international-student special admission track state that "changing your visa is the exclusive authority of the immigration office, so admission to this university does not necessarily mean a visa change is possible, and if the visa change is refused, the admission will be cancelled," and they also include the sentence "if visa issuance is denied, the acceptance (admission) will be cancelled." This is a process in which even the university writes that "our acceptance does not guarantee a visa." Structurally, there is no place for an outside agency to promise you the outcome.

How does the law view ads like that? Article 3(1)1 of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising prohibits "false or exaggerated labeling and advertising," and Article 17(1) provides that a business operator in violation faces up to two years' imprisonment or a criminal fine of up to 150,000,000 KRW (enforced by the Korea Fair Trade Commission). For a certified administrative agent, Articles 22(4) and 22(5) together with Article 36(2) of the Certified Administrative Agents Act apply separately, so conduct such as "advertising with content likely to mislead consumers or cause misunderstanding" carries up to one year's imprisonment or a criminal fine of up to 10,000,000 KRW. And if someone took your money and then did not do what they promised, Article 347(1) of the Criminal Act (fraud) may come into play (up to 20 years' imprisonment or a criminal fine of up to 50,000,000 KRW — raised by the December 2025 amendment; conduct completed before the amendment is governed by the previous statutory penalty).

Note, though, that all of the penalties above are statutory maximums as written in the articles. Read them as "it can go up to this level," not as "this is the punishment you will get." Whether an offense is established is for investigative authorities and the courts to decide.

Check the School First — the Certified University List and the Original Admissions Guidelines

Checking the school before the agency is the right order. Which category the school falls into changes the entire visa screening.

According to the results of the "Survey of Universities Certified for Education Internationalization Capacity and of International Student Recruitment and Management" announced by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education on February 12, 2026 (based on the 2025 evaluation), there are 181 certified universities for degree programs (including 39 excellent certified universities) and 123 for language training programs. Certification lasts four years (March 2026 to February 2030) and is revoked if a school fails the annual monitoring criteria. The same announcement designates universities that fell short of the survey criteria as "enhanced visa screening universities," a label that covers two types: 13 consulting universities, and visa scrutiny universities numbering 16 for degree programs and 4 for language training programs. Visa issuance for the visa scrutiny universities is restricted for one year starting with the second semester of 2026 (the announcement's table puts this as "visa issuance is, in principle, not granted").

Two things are easy to misread. First, being a certified university does not mean it is a "good university." A university has to apply to be evaluated under the certification scheme, so schools that did not apply also stay uncertified, and what is evaluated is not academic quality but capacity to recruit and manage international students (the baseline requirement is the illegal-overstay rate). Second, the lists of the 134 non-certified general universities (a count for degree programs) and of the consulting universities are not public. Even the lists that are published change every year, which is why this article does not name any schools either.

The certified university list is posted on the Study in Korea website (studyinkorea.go.kr) and the National Research Foundation of Korea website (nrf.re.kr), and is also provided to Korean overseas missions. The number of schools shown on those sites sometimes differs from the announced figures with no as-of date given, so read the numbers above as the February 2026 announcement only, and check the list itself directly on the websites. Study in Korea is run by the National Institute for International Education and offers university and department search, online admission applications, and scholarship search in 30 languages. Public disclosure data on universities is at Academyinfo (academyinfo.go.kr).

The final standard is always the original admissions guidelines of the university you are applying to, for that specific semester. Not the summary sheet your agency gave you — download the file from the university admissions office website yourself. One university's guidelines state flatly that "in the event of a discrepancy among the Korean, English, and Chinese versions of these guidelines, the Korean version prevails." If you read only the English version and then sign, you may never learn what you actually agreed to, and an agency's verbal explanation will fill that gap. Policy is shifting too: in an announcement on September 8, 2026, the Ministry of Education said it would place universities that fail institutional accreditation ("non-certified") or that a private-university financial diagnosis rates as a "management-crisis university (two consecutive years)" straight into the lowest tier of the Education Internationalization Capacity certification scheme and restrict their recruitment of new international students.

How to Check Whether a Standard Admission Letter Is Genuine

What makes the study abroad process nerve-racking is that the key steps are invisible to the student. The order set out in the Ministry of Education's "Standard Operating Guidelines for International Students and Language Trainees" (amended March 27, 2026) is: apply for an admission letter → the Standard Admission Letter is issued → (apply for a Certificate of Confirmation of Visa Issuance → it is issued) → apply for the visa → the visa is issued → enter the country. According to the Ministry of Justice manual, the Standard Admission Letter used for a visa, a Certificate of Confirmation of Visa Issuance, or a change of status of stay is in principle verified through the Foreign student Information Management System (FIMS), and an admission permit number only exists once the school's staff have registered it in FIMS. Because this step happens inside the school, the student is left with no way to verify the words "we've submitted it."

There is one point you can check. A Standard Admission Letter is not a document a university makes up as it pleases. The same guidelines require the Standard Admission Letter to follow the form in the Ministry of Justice's Foreign student Information Management System (FIMS, fims.hikorea.go.kr), and the Ministry of Justice manual states that once an admission permit number has been generated, not even the school's staff can change it. Since the number is tied to the school's system, you can verify by the number too. Here is how to look at the document you received.

• Check whether an admission permit number is written on it. The number is a value that only exists once the school's staff register it in FIMS, so if it is blank, registration may not have happened yet.
• Check that the school name, program, and semester match what you applied for, and that no fields are blank or show signs of being altered.
• Take that number to the university's international office (or admissions office) and ask them directly. Use contact details you found yourself on the university's official website, not the ones your agency gave you. Rather than straining to spot a forgery by eye, it is faster and more reliable to go back to the issuing institution with the number.

Six Things to Check Before You Sign the Contract

The Korea Fair Trade Commission's "Standard Terms and Conditions for Study Abroad Procedure Agency Services" (No. 10034, amended June 21, 2012) place on agencies a duty to hand over the contract and the terms, a duty to present and explain the scope and cost of the services in writing, a duty to provide accurate information based on facts, and a duty to return all documents received from or prepared for the client if the contract is terminated partway through.

• ① Did you receive the contract and the terms? If there is only a verbal explanation and no paper or file, stop right there. Almost every later dispute turns on something that was "only said out loud."
• ② Are the scope of services and the amounts itemized? With a contract that lists only a single total, you cannot argue about what you did and did not receive.
• ③ Is there a refund schedule? Compare it against the Consumer Dispute Resolution Criteria in the next section, and if it is worse than that standard, use it as grounds to ask why.
• ④ Will they return my documents if I terminate partway? If your original transcripts or apostilled documents are held hostage, you cannot move to another agency or apply on your own.
• ⑤ Whose account are you told to send tuition and application fees to? If the contract says to send them to the agency's account or to an account in a third party's personal name, that clause alone is reason to look again.
• ⑥ How do they prove their relationship with the school? A claim of "we have an agreement with ○○ University" needs to be confirmed in writing. Asking that university's international office directly is the fastest way.

Item ⑥ has a background. The Ministry of Education's Standard Operating Guidelines (amended March 27, 2026) prohibit universities from admitting international students in exchange for money or fees received from study abroad agencies. The guidelines are a standard universities must follow, so they do not apply directly to agencies, but this is exactly why, when you hear "we have a special relationship with the school so we can get you in," you need to confirm in writing what that relationship is. An agreement is not something to take for granted; it is something to verify. The draft standard agreement mentioned earlier has not been released yet, and once it is distributed, whether an agency has signed one will become a new item to check.

Here is an example for item ②. If a single line reading "document preparation support" bundles together filling out the application, translation, and applying for the Certificate of Confirmation of Visa Issuance, ask them to itemize it. If one of those items says they will apply for a Certificate of Confirmation of Visa Issuance or a change of status of stay on your behalf, that gives you grounds to look the agency up on HiKorea as a Ministry of Justice–registered agency, as described above. For reference, we did not use membership in a private voluntary association as a criterion. That is because we could not confirm whether membership guarantees quality.

Refunds Turn on "When You Terminated"

How much you get back when you quit a contract partway through is set by item "③ Study abroad procedure agency services" in the annex to the Korea Fair Trade Commission's notice "Consumer Dispute Resolution Criteria" (issued December 18, 2025).

Between "before notice of school selection" and "after receiving an admission letter," the deduction widens from 20% to 90%. That means the moment something feels off is the moment to act. Look ahead of time at where the other party is located, too. If they are in your home country, Korean institutions may have no jurisdiction, so where you can turn later depends on which country's address is on the contract.

Send the Money Yourself, to the Account the School Announced

The route your tuition and application fees take matters because the harm that arises here comes at you twice. In a March 2025 notice to international students, one university advised that "when paying tuition, international students must pay it themselves through a legitimate financial institution." It warned that if you pay through an illegal private money changer or a broker posing as an acquaintance, "voice-phishing proceeds may be deposited into the tuition virtual account, causing the university's tuition account to be frozen," and "the student will have to pay the tuition again and may later bear civil and criminal liability." There is a parallel warning on the visa fee side. One Korean overseas mission's visa guidance states explicitly that "this mission does not request any additional costs beyond the fees listed above in connection with visa issuance, so please take care not to be taken in by improper conduct by visa brokers and the like."

It also helps to have a feel for the amounts, though they differ by university, so no single figure works as representative. We will list only the ranges we verified. In the admissions guidelines of four universities, the application fee for the undergraduate international-student special track was 70,000–150,000 KRW, and the threshold amount for a bank balance certificate was 16,000,000–20,000,000 KRW (some universities applied 8,000,000 KRW when moving up to a degree program after finishing language training). These are amounts universities require as part of your application documents, separate from the financial-capability standard for visa screening just below, so check both. Regular programs at university-affiliated language institutes generally run 10 weeks and 200 hours per term, and the tuition for one term listed in the guidance of six language institutes was 1,400,000–1,860,000 KRW (as of September 2026). For a one-year budget including tuition, dormitory, and health insurance, see What a Year of Studying in Korea Actually Costs.

As for the financial capability standard for visa screening, the table in the Ministry of Education's Standard Operating Guidelines (amended March 27, 2026) sets it at at least 20,000,000 KRW per year for degree programs (D-2) at universities in the Seoul metropolitan area and at least 16,000,000 KRW per year for universities in other regions; for language training programs (D-4), at least 10,000,000 KRW in the metropolitan area and at least 8,000,000 KRW elsewhere (for language training this is not a yearly figure — the amount is the same regardless of the length of stay. The public source does not define the metropolitan area; under general legislation it means Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi). These are the figures the Ministry of Justice set when it switched the standard from dollars to won on July 3, 2023 and created a separate standard for universities outside the metropolitan area, and they are a screening threshold covering tuition plus living costs, not one year's tuition. We could not confirm whether the visa standard uses this same area, so if your university is in Incheon or Gyeonggi, check with the university's international office and the Korean overseas mission with jurisdiction. The documents required may also differ by the university's certification tier and by nationality, so check both the university's and the mission's guidance.

The school also decides when you pay. Article 5(3) of the Rules on University Tuition Fees allows the head of a school to set a separate tuition collection date for a person seeking a long-term status of stay for the purpose of study (newly inserted February 2, 2021). Some language institutes require students who need a visa to enroll for at least two terms, or four terms (one year) for nationals of certain countries, and to pay the tuition all at once. Since a large sum moves in a single transfer, open the payment guidance on the school's official website and check the account against it before you send anything. The Ministry of Education's Standard Operating Guidelines (amended March 27, 2026) likewise provide that, as a rule, tuition and course fees are to be paid directly in the student's own name through a virtual account issued in the student's own name (the guidelines call it a "personal virtual account") or similar, and refunds made directly to an account in the student's name. The guidelines are a standard universities must follow, so if it is the university itself asking for a different account, that goes against the principle the guidelines set. If it is a third party invoking a university's name, the guidelines do not apply to them, and that is instead a sign to suspect impersonation. Either way, do not comply; check with the university's international office.

Why You Must Always Refuse "We'll Prepare the Documents for You"

There is a moment when this offer sounds most persuasive: the deadline is closing in, your school back home has not issued your transcript, and an apostille or consular legalization takes weeks. To put the conclusion first: the price of this offer lands on the student, not on the agency.

Article 7-2 of the Immigration Act prohibits "any person" from inviting a foreigner by improper means or brokering such an invitation, and from falsely applying for a visa or a Certificate of Confirmation of Visa Issuance or brokering such an application, with a penalty under Article 94(3) of up to three years' imprisonment or a criminal fine of up to 30,000,000 KRW. Because the subject is "any person," both the agency that brokered it and the applicant themselves are covered. The residence stage works the same way. Article 26 (prohibition on submitting false documents, etc.) prohibits improper applications related to changes of status of stay, extensions of period of stay, and the like, as well as brokering or soliciting them, and Article 94(17-2) sets the same statutory penalty. Article 89(1)2 provides that where it comes to light that permission was "obtained by fraud or other improper means," the visa issuance, entry permission, residence permission, and so on may be cancelled or altered.

Here are things that actually happened. In January 2025, one immigration office referred to the prosecution two brokers who had advertised on social media that they offered "loans and balance certificates for international students, and issuance of overseas remittance certificates in a parent's name" and had produced false bank balance certificates; the 44 international students who used those documents to apply for an extension of their period of stay were issued summary fines (notice disposition). In August 2015, a court handed down suspended sentences to employees of a study abroad agency who had forged English-language transcripts. Let us separate the terms as well. The 벌금 under Article 94 is a criminal fine, while the 범칙금 imposed on those 44 students in the case above is a summary fine issued through a notice disposition. Both differ again from an administrative fine (과태료, an administrative order penalty), so lumping all three into one word will leave you misreading whether or not you are in criminal proceedings.

Sanctions from the school come separately. One university's admissions guidelines provide that anyone "found to be connected with false entries, alteration, or other improper conduct in submitted documents (including documents submitted by proxy)" may have their acceptance or admission cancelled "even if the above did not affect the acceptance." The phrase "submitted by proxy" is the key part. It means documents filed by your representative are your responsibility too. Another university's guidelines provide that if "forgery or alteration is discovered, or translation errors, someone sitting an exam in your place, or other improper methods" are confirmed, the applicant is finally rejected, and "tuition and application fees already paid will not be refunded, and the person may not be admitted to this university for three years from the date the admission is cancelled." Note also that "translation errors" is listed right alongside improper methods.

The person who made the documents disappears, while the cancelled permission and the record of sanctions stay on the student's residence history. So the public route, slow as it is, is the fast route in the end. One university requires an apostille or consular legalization on graduation (expected graduation) certificates and transcripts (for schools located in China, an online CHSI verification printout or similar), and requires the verified final academic certificate to be submitted no later than one month before the semester begins. Whether a foreign higher education institution is recognized can be looked up at the Korean Council for University Education's national academic degree information center (karic.kr). University application documents and submission deadlines are covered in Documents for Applying to a Korean University, and visa documents and the order to prepare them in Study and Visa Document Checklist and How to Get an Apostille or Consular Legalization.

When Your Visa Is Denied, and Where to Go When Something Goes Wrong

Visas really do get denied. How much money you get back then depends on who you paid it to. Tuition paid to a university is governed by Article 6(2) of the Rules on University Tuition Fees and its annex. If your situation falls under "being unable to enroll or continue studies under statute," "expressing an intention to withdraw from admission," or the like, and that reason arises up to the day before the semester start date (for new students, the admission date), the full tuition you paid is returned. The "excluding the admission fee" in the table below applies to programs that charge one; under Article 11(2) of the Higher Education Act, undergraduate programs have had no admission fee at all since the 2023 entering class (graduate degree programs are an exception).

But this return does not happen automatically. One university's undergraduate admissions guidelines pin the deadline for "cancelling admission due to visa denial or non-entry" down to a date and a time (4:00 p.m.) and state that "if visa issuance is restricted or entry for study in the relevant semester is impossible, the admission fee cannot be refunded unless the admission is cancelled." However, since under Article 11(2) of the Higher Education Act undergraduate programs have been unable to charge an admission fee for students entering from 2023 onward (graduate degree programs are an exception), we could not confirm exactly which payment this wording refers to. What is clear is that if you do not cancel the admission within the deadline, the return of the money you paid may be blocked. The moment you receive an acceptance notice, look up this deadline first and mark it on your calendar. Language training has to be treated separately. The return standards above are rules that apply to schools under the Higher Education Act, and university-affiliated language institutes sometimes use their own refund rules. The language institutes we actually checked each used a different day-by-day refund table, so for language training refunds, check that institution's own rules directly.

For agency fees, look at the Consumer Dispute Resolution Criteria we covered earlier together with your contract clauses. Use the counseling and reporting channels as follows.

• ☎1345 (Immigration Contact Center) — dial 1345 without an area code inside Korea, or +82-1345 from abroad. It supports 20 languages and offers counseling on weekdays from 09:00 to 22:00, operating in Korean, English, and Chinese after 18:00. Immigration questions, such as whether an agency is registered or how your residence application is progressing, belong here.
• ☎1372 (Consumer Counseling Center) — you pay the call charge, and it operates on weekdays from 09:00 to 18:00 (lunch 12:00–13:00). Online counseling is at www.ccn.go.kr, and the "Somang Chat" (소망챗) chat counseling on the Korea Consumer Agency ODR website also runs weekdays 09:00–18:00 (intake until 17:00). Disputes over agency fee refunds belong here.
• ☎112 and ECRM (the cybercrime reporting system) — for emergencies, call 112 (free, 24 hours); for civil complaint counseling, 182 (paid, 24 hours). For online fraud, file a provisional report on ECRM (ecrm.police.go.kr) and then visit a police station to file formally. Only the victim in person may file a report on ECRM; a representative must visit a police station or use e-People instead.
• The international office of the university you applied to or attend — for the admission permit number, the tuition payment account, and whether an agency actually has an agreement, the school is the most accurate source.

Let us also note what we could not confirm. We could not confirm the eligibility requirements for a foreign national to apply for damage relief from the Korea Consumer Agency or the scope of interpretation provided, nor whether ECRM lets you complete and file a report in a foreign language. We only confirmed that the ECRM menus are offered in four languages, so ask 1345 or the institution itself about the filing language. We also could not find public data on whether universities pay recruitment commissions to study abroad agencies.

When Korean institutions cannot resolve it, see Asking Your Embassy or Consulate for Help, and if a labor issue is involved, Labor and Residence Counseling Channels. For procedures after admission, see Part-Time Work Permits for International Students and How to Change Your Status of Stay.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1. Do I have to use an agency? Am I at a disadvantage if I apply on my own? The route for applying directly is built into the system. You can search universities and departments and apply online at Study in Korea (studyinkorea.go.kr), and public disclosure data is at Academyinfo (academyinfo.go.kr). The Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) likewise lets you apply through only one track — either the embassy track or the university track. That said, this does not mean using an agency is itself a problem. If you do use one, just check the six items in this article before you sign.

Q2. They say "guaranteed admission, full refund if you don't get in." Can I believe that? Admission is decided by the university you applied to, and the visa by the Korean overseas mission and the Ministry of Justice. Even university admissions guidelines say "if visa issuance is denied, the acceptance (admission) will be cancelled." There is no place for an agency to promise the outcome. Article 3(1)1 of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising prohibits false or exaggerated labeling and advertising, and Article 17(1) sets a penalty of up to two years' imprisonment or a criminal fine of up to 150,000,000 KRW. If you only heard "full refund" out loud, start by checking whether the conditions and timing are written into the contract.

Q3. If I quit the contract partway, how much of my money comes back? Item "③ Study abroad procedure agency services" in the annex to the Consumer Dispute Resolution Criteria sets the deduction rates by stage (see the table in this article). If it is the business operator's fault, you get a full refund of the service fee plus damages; if it is the consumer's fault, the deduction runs from 20% before notice of school selection up to 100% after departure procedures. Note, though, that this standard is a basis for agreement or recommendation, not a rule that is enforced automatically. Compare it with your contract clauses, and if no agreement is reached, call ☎1372 for counseling. Tuition paid to a university follows the return standards in the annex to the Rules on University Tuition Fees.

Q4. The agency says "we'll make the bank balance certificate and transcript for you." You should refuse. Article 7-2 of the Immigration Act prohibits "any person" from falsely applying for a visa or a Certificate of Confirmation of Visa Issuance or brokering such an application, with a penalty under Article 94(3) of up to three years' imprisonment or a criminal fine of up to 30,000,000 KRW. For the change-of-status and extension stages, Article 26 and Article 94(17-2) set the same statutory penalty, and under Article 89(1)2 a visa or residence permission you already hold may be cancelled. One university's admissions guidelines say it may cancel acceptance or admission if a false entry is confirmed, including in documents "submitted by proxy," and another university's guidelines say that in such a case tuition and application fees are not refunded.

Q5. I already sent the money and now they've gone quiet. Where do I start? Gather your materials first. Organize the contract and terms, remittance receipts, the messages and emails you exchanged, and screenshots of the ads in date order, and they can be used as-is at any channel. After that, it depends on where the other party is. For a company based in Korea, contract and refund disputes go to ☎1372, and if the situation looks like fraud, file a provisional report at 112 or ECRM (ecrm.police.go.kr) and then visit a police station (only the victim in person may file on ECRM). If residence or visa procedures are tangled up in it, ask ☎1345 first. If the other party is in your home country, Korean institutions may have no jurisdiction, so look into the embassy/consulate route in your home country as well — and judgments such as whether a criminal complaint holds up or whether the contract is valid are for a lawyer to confirm.