The route into Korea's startup visa runs through D-10-2 — preparation only, and a clock you should plan around

The startup visa posts and calculators describe the destination. This one describes the road — the seven-step sequence the OASIS operator prints for getting a technology founder from arrival to D-8-4, through the preparation visa that most English guides skip.

One sourcing sentence first. No government page we could fetch on 2026-09-01 states D-10-2 specifics.

HiKorea's deep links returned page-not-found bodies, the Ministry of Justice site refused connection, and neither the Ministry's 2026-07-08 digital-nomad release nor the K-Startup global-programmes page names any visa code. What follows comes from two operator bodies, each labelled — verify with immigration before acting on any of it.

The seven steps, as the operator prints them

Step	Action	Status after
1	Short-term visa	Visitor
2	OASIS-4 class	Visitor
3	Change of visa	D-10-2
4	Corporation establishment	D-10-2
5	IP application	D-10-2
6	Obtain 60 points	D-10-2
7	Change of visa	D-8-4

The shape is deliberate: preparation items — the class, the corporation, the IP — all happen inside the D-10-2 window, before the points threshold is met.

What D-10-2 is, and is not

The operator's definition — the Global Start-up Immigration Center, which runs OASIS — is: a visa for preparing a technology-based startup in Korea, which does not permit profit-generating business activities.

Its gate is equally printed. The operator states D-10-2 is available to OASIS participants only — and the Global Startup Center's OASIS page states the participation condition: non-Korean prospective entrepreneurs legally residing in Korea, intending technology-based startup activities.

The same page names the point components founders meet first: OASIS-4, the entrepreneurship education class, at 10 points; OASIS-5, startup mentoring, at 15.

The clock on each stage

D-10-2 issues for six months, with five extensions — up to two years in total, per the operator.

D-8-4 issues for twelve months, and the operator's condition is printed in the same breath: extended while doing your business.

Read together, the two clocks describe the intended rhythm. Two years is the preparation runway; the corporation, the IP application and the 60 points are designed to fit inside it. The extension pressure moves from preparation to performance at the changeover.

What no government page we reached says

This is the honest section, and it is not a small one. The Ministry's 2026-07-08 release — the same one that made the digital nomad visa permanent — names no D-10-2 and no D-8-4.

The K-Startup portal's global programmes page lists the GSC in operation and no visa codes. HiKorea's detailed pages sit behind an interactive portal that does not render for fetchers.

That absence is the reason this post labels every figure. The two operator bodies agree with each other on the route; neither is a ministry notice; and the filing-grade source is the one that will stamp the passport — HiKorea or the Korea Immigration Service.