Korea's digital nomad visa changed on 30 June 2026. Most English guides still have the old rules.

What changed

Korea's digital nomad visa — the F-1-D, called the workation visa in Korean — stopped being a pilot on 30 June 2026. The Ministry of Justice announced the permanent programme on 8 July 2026. Two things changed with it.

The income bar came down for some applicants. The pilot applied a flat requirement of twice per-capita GNI to everyone, with no distinction by age or where you lived. Per-capita GNI was about KRW 52.41 million on 2025 figures, so that bar sat near KRW 105 million.

The permanent rule applies a range of one to two times per-capita GNI, eased in two situations: when the applicant is younger, and when they live outside the capital region or in a designated population-decline area. The Ministry gave one worked example — an applicant aged 18 to 34 doing workation outside the capital region is assessed at 1x GNI.

The maximum stay went from two years to three. Extensions are still granted a year at a time.

What the Ministry did not publish

It did not publish a table mapping every age band and region to a multiplier. It published a range and that single example.

This matters because most English write-ups — and Google's own AI overview — print a tidy grid: "18-34: 1x. 35+: 1.5-2x." That grid is not in the announcement. The nearest thing to it is the worked example, which carries a region condition the grid versions drop. The per-case figures live in HiKorea's 자격별 안내 매뉴얼, and that is what an applicant should be assessed against.

If you are reading a guide that states your exact multiplier with confidence, check whether it cites the Ministry.

Who actually holds this visa

The release included the pilot's numbers, which are more informative than the eligibility rules for deciding whether this route suits you.

Issued during the pilot	743, January 2024 to May 2026
Registered holders, May 2026	398
From OECD member states	278 (70%)
Living in the capital region	340 (85%)
In their thirties	206 (52%)
In their forties	74 (19%)

Two and a half years produced 743 visas. This is a small programme, and 85% of its holders settled in Seoul, Gyeonggi or Incheon — which is precisely what the new regional easing is designed to change. The Ministry framed the reform around 지역 활성화, regional revitalisation. The cheaper income threshold outside the capital region is the instrument.

What it does not let you do

The F-1-D covers remote work for an employer outside Korea, or running your own overseas business. It is not a route to working for a Korean company, and it is not a founder visa. If you intend to incorporate in Korea and build there, the relevant routes are D-8-4 and D-10-2, which are scored on the OASIS points matrix instead — a different system with a different threshold.

Sources

Both entries below are the same Ministry of Justice release, published on the Korea Immigration Service and Ministry of Justice sites. Nothing in this post comes from a secondary write-up.