Which TOPIK Level Do You Actually Need? — Level 3 to Enroll, Level 4 to Graduate, Plus Part-Time Work and Visas, Sorted Level by Level

The first thing you hear when you start preparing to study in Korea is "you need at least TOPIK Level 3." But nobody tells you what that Level 3 is actually for. The admissions office says Level 3, the international office says Level 4 before you graduate, the scholarship team says Level 5 cuts your tuition further, and then you go looking for a part-time job and yet another level shows up.

This article stitches those numbers onto a single page. The order here isn't "how do I raise my level" but which level do I need, and what for. Get that order backwards and it costs you for real. One sitting runs from 40,000 KRW to 95,000 KRW, so taking a round you didn't need is money straight out the door — and in the other direction, not knowing which level you need can shrink your part-time work from 25 hours on weekdays to 10 hours a week.

One thing to flag up front. Most of the levels in this article are set not by "law" but by recommended standards and each school's own discretion. Even where Level 3 is the headline number, one department will take Level 2 and another will ask for Level 5.

The question that comes before the level — which level, and what for

TOPIK is a test grounded in Article 42-5 of the Enforcement Decree of the Higher Education Act. The same article requires it to be held at least once a year in Korea and abroad, and requires the Minister of Education to announce the following year's implementation plan by the end of October each year. The 2026 plan was announced as Ministry of Education Public Notice (Provisional) No. 2025-2 (October 10, 2025); the Ministry of Education oversees it and the National Institute for International Education (NIIED) administers it.

The important thing is that the enabling provision only decides how the test is run. Which level lets you do what is not a TOPIK rule at all. Universities decide it in their admissions guidelines, immigration in its status-of-stay guidelines, and scholarship foundations in their selection rules. Here's the lay of the land before we go further.

• Level 1 — one of the options for proving Korean ability in Marriage Migrant (F-6) visa screening.
• Level 2 — the recommended standard for junior college admission, the language requirement for a language trainee's part-time work, and the mandatory floor for switching to Skilled Worker (E-7-4).
• Level 3 — the recommended standard for admission to a four-year bachelor's program, the recommended graduation standard for junior colleges, the part-time work requirement for 1st- and 2nd-year associate degree and bachelor's students, and the requirement for the care worker route under Specific Activities (E-7) for international students.
• Level 4 — the recommended graduation standard for four-year programs, the part-time work requirement for 3rd- and 4th-year undergraduates and graduate students, and the requirement for Regional Specialized Talent (F-2-R). It's also what exempts you from the points system when you apply for Job Seeking (D-10-1) before three years have passed since earning a degree from a regular university in Korea — although if you graduate on a D-2 and change to job-seeking status for the very first time, you're exempt without any level at all.
• Levels 5–6 — these carry their weight in scholarships and in a few departments' eligibility rules rather than in legal requirements.

There are also places where TOPIK isn't the main character. Permanent Residence (F-5) and naturalization are two of them. The fact that stacking levels all the way up to 6 doesn't carry over into permanent residence is something that changes plans in a big way.

There are three rulers for reading your level — PBT, IBT, and Speaking

TOPIK has one set of levels, but three different score rulers for measuring them. The paper-based test (PBT), the internet-based test (IBT), and the speaking assessment each use different maximum scores and cutoffs. Your level is decided only by the total of your section scores, and there's no minimum score per section. Every number below is a score.

Read the Level 4 row across. On the PBT, 150 points is Level 4; on the IBT, it takes 291. An IBT taker who borrows the PBT cutoffs and calculates "I'm over 120, so that's Level 3" is in fact well short of the Level 3 cutoff (191 points) while believing they passed. When you read your own score, start by checking which type of test your score report is for.

The speaking assessment is out of 200 points, and 0–19 is a fail with no level awarded. It's a separate test with its own registration, apart from the PBT and IBT, so it comes with its own score report (some rounds fall on the same day as an IBT). How far a university recognizes a speaking score varies from one set of admissions guidelines to the next.

The 2026 schedule and fees — count backwards from the results date, not the test date

The figures below are for sitting the test inside Korea. Overseas test fees differ by country, so check with the administering body where you are.

The real trap is the application and results dates. The 108th PBT is held on October 18, but domestic applications run from August 4 to August 10 and results are announced on December 10. Applications close more than two months before the test, and results land nearly two months after it.

On top of that, scores are valid for two years from the results announcement date, not from the test date. If you have to submit a score somewhere with a document deadline, count backwards from that deadline using the results date as your anchor. Look only at the test date and decide "I'll sit it a month before the deadline," and your score will come out after the deadline has passed. If a university application, a visa application, or scholarship paperwork is riding on it, it's safest to start choosing your test round at least six months ahead. Score certificates are issued only through the TOPIK website; they aren't sent out by post, fax, or email.

Overseas test-takers have something else to check. The overseas application period differs from the domestic one, and in some regions the test falls a day earlier, so the Americas, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and parts of Asia sit it on a Saturday.

The test-day rules also have a part that's unusually awkward for foreigners. Without an original ID of an accepted type, you can't sit the test. A passport (before its expiry date), an alien registration card, a mobile alien registration card (age 14 or over), a domestic residence report card, a permanent residence card, a welfare card and so on are accepted — but everything apart from the passport has to have been issued by an institution located in Korea. If your alien registration card is sitting with a government office because you've applied to change or extend your status, you can sit the test with a confirmation of application for a stay permit or a visa issuance confirmation (see the guide to changing your status of stay). You can also only sit the test at the venue you applied for, and anyone who leaves partway through gets no score. If you're assigned a venue far away, settle how you'll get there that day back at the application stage.

Undergraduate admission: Level 3 is a "recommendation," and schools range from Level 2 to Level 5

The line "Korean universities require TOPIK Level 3" comes from the Ministry of Education's Standard Operating Guidelines for Foreign Students and Language Trainees (외국인 유학생 및 어학연수생 표준업무처리요령). Under the current version as revised on March 27, 2026, four-year universities, graduate schools, graduate-only universities, industrial universities, universities of education and the like use "TOPIK (including TOPIK IBT) Level 3 or above to enroll, and Level 4 or above obtained before graduation," while junior colleges and associate-degree programs use "Level 2 or above to enroll, Level 3 or above before graduation." These are the standards applied to international students who receive a Study Abroad (D-2) visa, so they don't apply to language trainees entering a university-attached language institute.

But the guidelines set these values as a "recommended selection" standard for universities. Because it's a government recommendation rather than a legal obligation, universities raise or lower it to suit their own circumstances. The examples below were confirmed in admissions guidelines published as of September 2026, and you shouldn't read them across to another school's standards.

• Keimyung University's special admission for international students for the second semester of the 2026 academic year requires Level 3 or above for the humanities/social sciences and natural sciences/engineering tracks, while the arts and athletics track is lower at Level 2 or above.
• Kangwon National University (Gangneung and Wonju campuses) requires Level 3 or above for its later-round undergraduate admission for the 2026 academic year, and pins down that the score must still be within its validity period on September 1, 2026 (what counts is the validity period, not when you got the score).
• Seoul National University's Global Talent Special Admission for the earlier round of the 2027 academic year presents, as its Korean-language standard, TOPIK (or TOPIK IBT) Level 3 or completion of a Level 4 course at a Korean university-attached language institute.
• Yonsei University's Seoul campus lets you apply in either Korean or English for ordinary departments, but requires Level 5 or above (or completion of Level 5 or above at Yonsei's Korean Language Institute) from applicants to the colleges of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacy.

In the same country and the same year, the range stretches from Level 2 to Level 5. Believe Level 3 is enough and apply to a medical school and you're stopped at the document stage; the other way round, some people preparing for an arts or athletics track let a whole semester slip by waiting for Level 3.

Validity has two layers to watch too, because TOPIK's own validity period and the period a university recognizes are separate things. For the earlier round of the 2027 academic year, Seoul National University treats as valid only "scores from tests taken on or after July 9, 2024 whose scores and levels are finalized by the application deadline." A school's standard can be narrower than the test's own two years. The order in which to prepare the home-country academic records and financial guarantee documents you submit alongside your score is laid out in the guide to Korean university application documents.

Not having Level 3 doesn't close the door on four-year programs entirely. Where a university chooses to admit a Level 2 holder, the guidelines make that student complete at least 300 hours of Korean language training in their first year after admission (a language program at the same university counts), or a KIIP (Social Integration Program) or King Sejong Institute Korean course, as a mandatory condition. And if within the year before admission you took online or offline courses designated by the university (King Sejong Institute, Nuri-Sejong Hakdang, K-MOOC Korean courses, Study Korean and so on), up to 20 of those hours can be counted toward the 300. On top of that, if a student who entered at Level 2 obtains Level 3 during their first semester, the training requirement is satisfied at 120 hours.

There are routes in even without TOPIK

"You can't study in Korea if you don't speak Korean" is the misunderstanding this article most wants to break. Within the government's recommended standards, a route in English is spelled out. The English proficiency test standards in the guidelines (as revised March 27, 2026) are common to four-year universities and junior colleges: TOEFL iBT 3.5, IELTS 5.5, CEFR B2, NEW TEPS 202, or an equivalent score on a nationally recognized private English proficiency test — and this track has no graduation standard. For TOEFL iBT, tests taken from January 21, 2026 are scored not on the old 0–120 scale but on a 1–6 scale in 0.5-point steps, so the standard is 3.5 or above (that's not a typo), while scores from tests taken through January 20 use the old scale at 59 or above and, under the two-year validity period, are recognized until January 20, 2028 at the latest. Nationals of countries where English is the mother tongue or a legal official language aren't subject to the English test standard if they provide proof of secondary or higher education such as a graduation certificate.

You can see it in the actual admissions guidelines too. Seoul National University's Global Talent Special Admission lets you meet the requirement with English standards instead (TOEFL iBT 80 or above, IELTS Academic 6.0 or above, TEPS 269 or above), so TOPIK isn't mandatory in that track. Seoul National University also notes separately that for TOEFL tests taken on or after January 21, 2026, it accepts 4.0 or above on the new scale. Among the school-specific TOEFL scores in this article, iBT 80 and 71 are values on the old iBT scale, while 550 and CBT 210 are not iBT at all but values on the paper-based (PBT) and CBT scales. It's the iBT side that moved to the new scale, so if you took the test on the new scale, ask the university you're applying to how it converts scores. Neither set of admissions guidelines says whether the TEPS scores in this article (269 at Seoul National University, 550 at Kangwon National University) are old TEPS or NEW TEPS, so if your score is borderline, ask that university directly. Keimyung University's Keimyung Adams College uses TOEFL iBT 80 or IELTS 5.5 or above, and Kangwon National University's Division of Global Convergence (글로벌융합학부) uses TOEFL iBT 71 and IELTS Academic 5.5.

On the Korean-language side there are forms of proof other than TOPIK. The NIIED study-in-Korea guidebook explains that a KIIP assessment score at or above a level equivalent to the TOPIK level standard, or completion of a King Sejong Institute Korean course, can also be recognized — while adding that the recognition standards differ by university and by department, so you must check the admissions guidelines.

• Completion of a university-attached language institute course — Seoul National University recognizes completion of a Level 4 course at a Korean university-attached language institute, and Yonsei recognizes completion at its own Korean Language Institute (KLI). Yonsei, however, doesn't accept certificates of completion from institutions other than KLI as grounds for exemption from its placement test.
• KIIP and King Sejong Institute — Kangwon National University recognizes completion of KIIP Level 3 or above, a pre-assessment score of 61 or above, or completion of King Sejong Institute Intermediate 1 or above, but doesn't accept online King Sejong Institute certificates, only ones issued locally in person.
• The school's own test — Keimyung University has left the Keimyung Korean Proficiency Test (KKPT) open as an alternative route.
• Graduating from a program taught in Korean — Keimyung also treats graduating from a high school or university that teaches in Korean as meeting the language requirement.

Because the boundaries differ this much from school to school, a guess like "I have a King Sejong Institute certificate, so I should be fine" is risky. Whether it was online or in person is a single line that splits the outcome. The application process and the level structure are laid out in the guide to applying for KIIP, Korea's Social Integration Program.

Level 4 to graduate, and scholarships — where your level becomes your tuition discount

Once you're into a four-year program, a second gate is waiting: Level 4 before graduation. For students entering in the 2027 academic year, Yonsei sets Level 3 or above before entering a major and Level 4 or above before graduation as separate requirements. Students in the Global Basic Education Division (GBED), apart from those majoring in physical education, can satisfy these two requirements instead with a Sejong Korean language Assessment (SKA) score of 321 or above. It isn't a substitute for admission eligibility. Graduation standards also split by type of program.

• Junior colleges and associate-degree programs take Level 2 or above to enroll and Level 3 or above before graduation. In the revision of April 30, 2019 it was Level 3 or above to enroll with no graduation standard; from the revision of March 14, 2025 the enrollment standard dropped to Level 2 and a requirement to obtain Level 3 before graduation was added instead. So don't read an old summary and believe there's no graduation requirement.
• The Level 3 relaxation for some science and engineering departments no longer applies to incoming students. The rule allowing a university to designate science and engineering departments amounting to less than 20% of the total and lower their graduation standard to Level 3 doesn't apply to students entering (including transfer students) on or after September 1, 2026. Enrolled students who entered on or before August 31, 2026 can keep the previous standard until they graduate.
• Students entering arts and athletics departments are in a category where the guidelines allow relaxation of the admission and graduation standards. Whether any relaxation exists for other programs is something to check in your target university's admissions guidelines.

There's also a rule for people who never manage to get Level 4. If a student who hasn't obtained Level 4 before graduation has all of the following — a score of at least 90% of the score needed for Level 4, attendance of at least 90% across all school years, and a grade average of C or above — the university may, at its own discretion, recognize it as met if necessary. You have to satisfy all three conditions and the decision still rests with the university, so managing your attendance and grades is the bare minimum insurance.

The pressure that pushes universities to enforce these standards comes from government evaluations. From the 2026 evaluation, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice raised the certified language proficiency attainment rate for international students under the International Education Quality Assurance System from 30% to 40% for new entrants and the field-inspection standard from 10% to 15%, and added a new indicator requiring a Level 2 attainment rate of at least 30% among language trainees staying a year or longer.

Move on to scholarships and your level turns straight into money. At Keimyung University, in scholarships for new and transfer international students, your level is literally your tuition reduction rate. Level 5 or above is a 100% tuition waiver (Foreigner A), Level 4 is 70% (Foreigner B), and Level 3 or below — or no level at all — is 50% (Foreigner C); and because the reference point is the time you submit your application, raising your level after you've been accepted doesn't change your reduction rate for that year. There's also an item in the scholarships for current students paying 500,000 KRW once during your studies if you newly obtain Level 4 or above (Level 3 or above for arts and athletics tracks). Kangwon National University's new-student scholarship likewise puts Level 5 or above in Grade A (full tuition waiver), Level 4 or above in Grade B (80% waiver), and Level 3 or above — or an English proficiency test score (TOEFL 550 / CBT 210 / iBT 80, IELTS 5.5, TEPS 550) or above — in Grade D (20% waiver) for ordinary departments. Note, though, that this new-student scholarship is paid only for the first semester of the first year. It isn't a reduction that runs for all four years, so budget separately for tuition from the second semester on. The admissions guidelines' table for new students in ordinary departments has no Korean-language standard for Grade C (40% waiver).

The Global Korea Scholarship for undergraduates (GKS-U) works a little differently. The 2026 admissions guidelines don't require TOPIK at the application stage, and give holders of Level 3 or above a bonus worth 10% of the total allocated points. What matters comes after you're selected. To finish the one-year Korean language training and move into your degree program, you must obtain Level 3 or above, and if your university or department requires Level 4 or above for admission and you can't meet that requirement and therefore can't register, the scholarship is cancelled.

Part-time work: one level splits 10 hours a week from 25 hours on weekdays

This one is about your living costs right now. The weekly permitted hours for an international student's part-time work split along two axes: Korean language ability and degree program. The values below come from the "Permitted Hours by Korean Language Ability and Degree Program" table that took effect in July 2023, confirmed against the original table on page 46 of the 2026 Study in Korea Guidebook published by NIIED and the Korean Education Centers, and against university international office notices. All of these hours are the ceiling that applies after you've received part-time work permission.

"Outstanding" refers to cases where you belong to a certified university — language trainees included — or are recognized for excellent grades or excellent Korean ability. The detailed preferential conditions aren't in the table, so check with your university's international office. Look at the two right-hand columns side by side. If you're an associate-degree student or a 1st- or 2nd-year bachelor's student, Level 3 alone splits 10 hours a week from 25 hours on weekdays. It's a structure where your level decides not your hourly wage but the very number of hours you're allowed to work. Students on an English track meet the language requirement regardless of year with TOEFL 530 (CBT 197, iBT 71), IELTS 5.5, CEFR B2, or TEPS 601 (NEW TEPS 327) or above, and nationals of countries where English is an official language are exempt from submitting a certificate (per the 2026 Study in Korea Guidebook).

If you don't meet the standard, weekends and vacations don't exist as a separate category. The original table on page 46 of the 2026 Study in Korea Guidebook puts weekdays, weekends, and vacations into a single "if you don't meet it" box and writes 10 hours a week (15 hours for master's and doctoral students). The Ministry of Justice's Integrated Guidance Manual by Status of Stay (체류자격별 통합 안내 매뉴얼, August 7, 2026), cited by the Ministry of Government Legislation's Easy-to-Find Practical Law service, has the same structure. Neither the unlimited hours nor the preferential hours apply until after you meet the standard, so if you've seen a table in a school notice summary that reads differently, check with ☎1345 and your university's international office.

Language trainees (D-4) have two extra things to watch. You can only apply for part-time work once six months have passed since the date your status was changed (or your date of entry if you came on a visa), and the weekly ceiling holds on weekends and vacations too, so there's no rule letting you pile up extra hours during a break. We couldn't cross-check the language trainee ceiling against the original table in the Ministry of Justice manual, so check with your language institute or HiKorea before you apply. How a language institute and a degree program differ in period of stay, attendance, and part-time work is laid out in the comparison of language institutes (D-4) and undergraduate/graduate programs (D-2).

There's something to sort out before the hours, too: the permission itself. Employment activities under Study Abroad (D-2) and General Training (D-4) status are prohibited in principle, and are allowed only as an exception where you've obtained part-time work permission before you start the job. Even if you work within the permitted hours, working without permission is a violation in itself. The documents and procedure are laid out in the guide to part-time work permits for international students.

Status of stay: from Level 1 for marriage migration to Level 4 for F-2-R

If you're thinking about life after graduation, it's worth seeing in advance where your level comes into play.

Start with Marriage Migrant (F-6). Article 9-5(1)6 of the Enforcement Rules of the Immigration Act makes whether the invitee can communicate in Korean at a basic level or above an item for screening and confirmation, and delegates the specific standards to a notice by the Minister of Justice. Within the proof options in Annex Form 19-3 of the same rules, "obtaining TOPIK Level 1 or above" is one of the choices.

Job Seeking (D-10-1) is in principle screened under the points system (at least 20 points in the basic items out of a total of 190 points, and at least 60 points overall), but there are two exemption exceptions. The first is where you graduate from a Korean university as an international student (D-2) with an associate degree or higher and change to job-seeking status for the first time — and there's no level requirement here. The second is for people who obtained an associate degree or higher from a regular Korean university less than three years ago and hold either a valid TOPIK score report at Level 4 or above or a pass in the KIIP Level 4 mid-term evaluation (including those placed at pre-assessment Level 5). Korean proficiency documents are submitted only in the second case, and in both cases the requirement to submit proof of living expenses is waived. In other words, if you graduated on a D-2 and are changing to job-seeking status for the first time, you don't need to prepare for the points system just because you don't have Level 4. Check once more with ☎1345 before you apply (see the D-10 job-seeking visa guide).

Regional Specialized Talent (F-2-R) is premised on a recommendation from the head of a local government in a population-decline area, and its requirements include obtaining an associate degree or higher in Korea (or income in the previous year of at least 70% of GNI per capita), TOPIK Level 4 or above or KIIP Level 4 or above, and a five-year residence restriction period. There's no restriction on the industry you work in, and bringing a spouse and minor children is allowed.

For Skilled Worker (E-7-4), Korean proficiency is a mandatory item, so a Ministry of Justice press release (June 1, 2026) lists TOPIK Level 2, completion of KIIP Level 2, and pre-assessment placement at Level 3 or above as mandatory items, alongside a company recommendation and annual income. That doesn't mean you need all three — they look like alternative ways of proving the same level, since the scoring table in the same document puts all three in one cell — but we couldn't find a provision stating outright that it's a choice of one. In the 300-point points system, the Korean proficiency item is worth up to 120 points (Level 2 for 50 points, Level 3 for 80 points, Level 4 for 120 points). The employment recommendation standards for the agriculture and livestock sector (Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Public Notice No. 2026-163) include a rule that, if you meet the other point requirements for a total of at least 150 points, the Korean proficiency requirement is deferred on condition that you make it up by your first extension (two years) — but this temporary deferral runs only until December 31, 2026. We couldn't confirm whether the same deferral exists in other sectors. The route where an international student qualifies as a care worker and takes a job at a long-term care facility for the elderly under Specific Activities (E-7) requires an associate degree or higher from a Korean university plus one of TOPIK Level 3 or above, completion of KIIP Level 3 or above, or a pre-assessment score of 61 or above.

Permanent residence and naturalization run through the Social Integration Program, not TOPIK

This is where plans get shaken up the most. People who assumed that stacking levels all the way to 6 would lead to permanent residence end up redrawing their route late in the game.

The Korean-language requirement for Permanent Residence (F-5) is the "basic knowledge needed to keep living in the Republic of Korea, such as Korean language ability and an understanding of Korean society and culture," set out in Article 10-3(2)3 of the Immigration Act. The assessment designated by Ministry of Justice regulations to measure this is the Comprehensive Assessment for Permanent Residence. Naturalization works the same way. Article 5(5) of the Nationality Act sets "basic knowledge such as Korean language ability and an understanding of Korean customs" as a requirement, and people who have completed KIIP are exempt from the comprehensive assessment and the interview under the proviso to Article 4-2(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Nationality Act and Article 4 of the Enforcement Rules of the Nationality Act.

That said, having taken TOPIK isn't wasted effort. If you have a level, you can skip the pre-assessment and be placed at a KIIP level by applying for linked-assessment recognition. The linkage table from the Ministry of Justice's Immigration Integration Division works like this.

• TOPIK Level 1 → Level 2
• TOPIK Level 2 → Level 3
• TOPIK Level 3 → Level 4
• TOPIK Levels 4, 5, and 6 → Level 5

Applying for linked-assessment recognition requires a score certificate that has a "document verification number" printed on it and is valid as of the application date, plus your alien registration card, because the operating institution verifies its authenticity on the TOPIK website. And you have to apply for that level's classes through the Social Integration Network within two years of the date you were placed. Get the placement and then put it off, and you have to start over.

If you sit the pre-assessment yourself, your level is decided by 50 written questions (60 minutes) and 5 oral questions (10 minutes) out of a total of 100 points. 0–2 points is Level 0, 3–20 is Level 1, 21–40 is Level 2, 41–60 is Level 3, 61–80 is Level 4, and 81–100 is Level 5; and with 85 points or above you can go straight to the Comprehensive Assessment for Permanent Residence without taking the classes. The basic knowledge assessment is out of 100 points with 60 or above as a pass, and the test fee is 38,000 KRW.

One last mix-up caused by similar names. The Employment Permit System Korean language test (EPS-TOPIK) is a different test from TOPIK. It's administered by HRD Korea, it's a test for selecting job seekers who want to come to Korea on statuses such as Non-professional Employment (E-9), and it consists of 40 questions in two sections, reading and listening, out of 200 points, taken as a CBT or UBT. The administering body, the purpose, and what the score is used for are all different, so if you're planning on university study or a change of status of stay, you'll need to sit TOPIK separately.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1. I got 250 points on the IBT. What level is that? On the TOPIK I IBT that's Level 2 (236–400 points), and on the TOPIK II IBT it falls inside the Level 3 band (191–290 points). The answer changes depending on which test you took, so start by checking the test type on your score report. You can't apply PBT cutoffs to an IBT score as they are. Just look at Level 4: it's 150 points on the PBT and 291 points on the IBT.

Q2. Can I submit a score from last year with this year's application? TOPIK scores are valid for two years from the results announcement date, not from the test date. However, the period a university recognizes can be narrower than that. For the earlier round of the 2027 academic year, Seoul National University recognizes only scores from "tests taken on or after July 9, 2024," and Kangwon National University requires a score that is still within its validity period on September 1, 2026. Check the recognized period separately in the admissions guidelines of the university you're applying to.

Q3. Can I not apply to a Korean university without TOPIK Level 3? That's not the case. The Level 3 standard in the Ministry of Education's standard operating guidelines (as revised March 27, 2026) is a "recommended selection" standard for four-year universities rather than a legal requirement, and for junior colleges the recommended standard is Level 2. There are admission tracks you can apply to with an English proficiency test (TOEFL iBT 3.5 (for tests taken through January 20, 2026, the old scale at 59) · IELTS 5.5 · CEFR B2 · NEW TEPS 202), and some places recognize completion of a language institute course, a KIIP level, completion of a King Sejong Institute course, or the school's own test. The scope of recognition differs by school and by department, though.

Q4. I want to work part-time 25 hours a week. What level do I need? It depends on your degree program. First, let's line up the units: the 25 hours in the table means 25 hours on weekdays, and once you meet the standard there's no separate time limit on weekends and vacations. For associate degree students and 1st–2nd year bachelor's students the standard is TOPIK Level 3 (or KIIP Level 3 or above, pre-assessment 61 or above, King Sejong Institute Intermediate 1 or above), and for 3rd–4th year bachelor's students and master's and doctoral students it's Level 4. If you don't meet the standard, weekends and vacations are counted together and it drops to 10 hours a week for associate degree and bachelor's programs and 15 hours a week for master's and doctoral students. Language trainees (D-4) are on 20 hours a week including weekends and vacations even when they meet the Level 2 standard, and only get 25 hours when they qualify for preferential treatment such as being at a certified university. And don't forget that before the hours, you need part-time work permission before you start the job.

Q5. If I get TOPIK Level 6, can I get permanent residence (F-5)? Permanent residence isn't decided by your TOPIK level alone. The Korean-language requirement for permanent residence is the "basic knowledge" in Article 10-3(2)3 of the Immigration Act, and the assessment designated to measure it by Ministry of Justice regulations is the Comprehensive Assessment for Permanent Residence. We couldn't confirm from primary sources whether a TOPIK score is recognized in a permanent residence application. What's certain is that if you have a level, you can be placed at a KIIP level through linked-assessment recognition (Level 1 → Level 2, Level 2 → Level 3, Level 3 → Level 4, Levels 4–6 → Level 5).