The D8 visa is divided into individual investors and corporate investors.
- When an individual investor remits KRW 100 million or more to establish a Korean corporation and directly operates it
- Where an overseas corporation invests KRW 100 million or more to establish a foreign-invested corporation and dispatches essential experts such as executives to the corporation
The D8 dispatch visa generally corresponds to number 2.
Sometimes, it can be confused with the D7 dispatch visa, but the D7 visa is for overseas headquarters to set up a branch in Korea to dispatch expatriates. If you have a “foreign company domestic branch establishment report”, you can apply for a D7 visa, and if you have a “foreign-invested company registration certificate”, you can apply for a D8 visa.
In order to be dispatched with a D8 visa, the following conditions must be met:
investment
- One person can be dispatched for every 100 million invested.
- 1 additional person can be dispatched when 3 Korean employees are retained for 6 months or more
dispatcher
It is limited to the essential professional personnel of the following companies that can be dispatched with a D8 visa.
- EXECUTIVE
- SENIOR MANAGER
- SPECIALIST
Precautions when dispatching
When applying for a D8 dispatch visa, the main issue of visa screening is whether it can be classified as essential professional personnel.
In the case of executives and senior managers, it is easy to distinguish them through the certificate of employment at the head office, but there is a problem of proving them as experts when dispatching general employees.
Here, an expert is defined as “a person who has highly specialized and exclusive experience and knowledge essential to corporate research, design, technology, management, etc.” Explaining this part is the key to the dispatch visa.
Required documents for overseas headquarters and Korean foreign-invested companies when dispatched with a D8 visa
- application
- A copy of business registration certificate
- Certificate of corporate registration
- Original shareholder change statement
- Copy of investment company registration certificate
- Overseas head office dispatch order and certificate of employment
- Documents related to the introduction of investment funds
- Documents proving the existence of the business
- business performance certificate
- Other personal additional documents
Extension documents for D8 visa dispatcher
- Integrated application
- Passport and alien registration card
- Foreign-invested company registration certificate
- Business Registration
- Certificate of corporate registration
- Business performance, export performance certificate
- Individual tax payment certificate
- Declaration of Occupation and Annual Income Amount
- Documents proving the place of stay
- office lease agreement
- Copy of corporate bankbook and transaction details
- Other personal additional documents
