SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign subscribers to South Korea’s state health insurance program numbered about 1 million in 2018 as more foreigners are staying here, data showed Friday. The number of foreign subscribers, including South Koreans living abroad, stood at 971,199 as of end-December last year, or 1.9 percent of the total subscribers [...]
BUSAN, May 30 (Korea Bizwire) — Programs designed to replace foreigners’ driver’s licenses with local ones were found to be full of loopholes after a recent case in which Vietnamese individuals used a forged driver’s license to obtain a South Korean license. The Road Traffic Authority Driver’s License Examination Office could not distinguish a forged [...]
SEOUL, May 28 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of foreigners staying in South Korea increased by nearly 9 percent last year, with the rate of illegal foreign workers also rising 15 percent, government data showed Tuesday. According to data released by the Ministry of Justice, 2,367,607 foreigners were residing in the country as of the [...]
SEOUL, May 21 (Korea Bizwire) — Seoul’s Mapo District Office reported on Monday that it will operate teams of volunteer crime prevention guards consisting of foreigners. The patrol team consists of 20 people, including Chinese, Nigerian and Vietnamese volunteers. Twice a week, they will patrol the streets in Yeonnam-dong, near Hongik University Station and in the [...]
SEJONG, May 12 (Korea Bizwire) — Starting in July, foreign students could end up paying about seven times more for health insurance premiums as they do now as a revised law requires them to join the state health insurance system if their stay in South Korea exceeds six months. So far, most foreign students have [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreigners acquiring a bachelor’s or higher degree in South Korea may soon find it easier to become naturalized here, as a group of lawmakers have proposed easing the nationality law to help overcome the nation’s population reduction. Rep. Kim Kyung-jin of the minor opposition Party for Democracy and Peace [...]
SEOUL, Apr. 10 (Korea Bizwire) — Foreign investors have been increasing their buying of South Korean shares in recent sessions, data showed Wednesday, amid optimism, albeit cautious, over the chip industry and progress in U.S.-China trade deals. According to the data compiled by the Korea Exchange (KRX), foreign investors extended their buying binge to eight [...]
SEOUL, Mar. 18 (Korea Bizwire) — Chinese account for 93 percent of all foreigners who acquired permanent residence in South Korea through investment, according to the IOM Migration Research and Training Center. The center revealed that in the 2010 to 2017 period, there were 1,901 cases of foreigners acquiring an Korean residence visas through investment. [...]
SEOUL, Mar. 14 (Korea Bizwire) — The justice ministry said on Thursday it will conclude the temporary voluntary departure system for illegal stayers at the end of the month. The six-month program was adopted in October last year to give overstayers a chance to leave the country with no penalty, irrespective of the period of [...]
SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — At the beginning of each year, a growing number of foreign migrant workers in South Korea are confused and frustrated by the mandatory task of the year-end tax settlement. Under the regulations of the National Tax Service (NTS), all South Korean salaried employees are obliged to file a year-end [...]