Before you start

A passport valid well beyond your intended stay
A long-stay visa matching your actual purpose, generally issued at a consulate abroad
A documented Daejeon address — lease, dormitory contract or an employer or institute confirmation letter
Category evidence: employment or research contract and sponsor filing for work visas; foreign employment, income and private medical cover for F-1-D

Step-by-step

1
Settle the category before you travel
E-7 has occupation-code and salary thresholds; E-3 covers research at a designated institute; E-2 requires a degree and an apostilled criminal record check obtained at home; D-8 needs a registered Korean entity and capital. Most are issued by a consulate in your country of residence and cannot be converted into from a visa-free entry. Getting it wrong means leaving Korea and restarting.
Via employerWho: You with your employer, institute, university or a Korean consulate2–8 weeksConsular issuance fee, typically KRW 60,000–130,000
2
Let the institute's international office do the parts it can
KAIST, Chungnam National and the government-funded institutes run international offices that handle sponsor filings, invitation letters and often the appointment booking, and they do this constantly. This is a genuine Daejeon advantage over arriving cold in a city where you must work everything out yourself — use it, and ask them early rather than after you have booked flights.
Via employerWho: Your institute's or university's international officeWeeks before departure
3
Book the HiKorea appointment in your first week
Registration appointments are booked at hikorea.go.kr; walk-ins are not accepted. The Daejeon office serves Daejeon, Sejong, South Chungcheong and the Okcheon and Yeongdong counties, so its catchment includes large industrial workforces well outside the city. The ninety-day legal deadline runs from entry regardless of slot availability. The multilingual contact centre on 1345 can help.
OnlineWho: YouBook on arrivalFree to reserve
4
Register and apply for the ARC
Attend in person with your passport, application form, a 3.5 × 4.5 cm photo, proof of your Daejeon address and category documents. Biometrics are taken at the counter. The fee is KRW 30,000, plus a small charge for postal delivery. Overrunning ninety days attracts a fine that follows you into later applications.
In personWho: YouOne appointment, 30–60 minutesKRW 30,000 plus postage
5
Take the mobile residence card while the plastic is in the post
The physical card takes roughly three to six weeks, longer in peak season. The mobile residence card in the government ID app has been issued since January 2025 and carries the same legal weight as the plastic, and banks have progressively accepted it for account opening since March 2025 — which matters in the gap when everything else is waiting on the card.
Mobile appWho: You3–6 weeksNo further fee
6
Report changes and start the long route early
Address changes, employer changes and passport renewals are reported to immigration, generally within fourteen days — and fixed-term research contracts mean this happens more often here than elsewhere. Staying long term runs through the F-2-7 points visa and then F-5 permanent residence, with TOPIK certification and the KIIP social integration programme feeding both. Doctorates and research employment score well on the points table, which is worth checking against early rather than late.
In personWho: YouOngoing

Documents you’ll need

Passport, original plus a copy of the photo page
Completed integrated application form
One colour photo, 3.5 × 4.5 cm, taken within six months
Proof of your Daejeon address — lease, dormitory contract or a signed confirmation letter
Category evidence: employment or research contract, enrolment certificate, or foreign employment and insurance proof for F-1-D
Tuberculosis screening result, required for some nationalities and categories

Things most newcomers don’t know

Your immigration office serves Sejong and most of Chungcheong, not just Daejeon.

The Daejeon office is a full office covering the city, Sejong, South Chungcheong and the Okcheon and Yeongdong counties, with branch offices at Cheonan, Seosan and Dangjin under it. That catchment includes some of Korea's densest industrial foreign-worker populations, so appointment availability has little to do with Daejeon's own size. Book on landing, and confirm on HiKorea which office covers your registered address before you book anything at all.

Source: Korea Immigration Service — office jurisdictions

A research contract is a residence clock as well as a job.

Fixed-term institute and post-doctoral contracts are the norm in Daedeok, and each change of employer or sponsor is a reportable event to immigration, generally within fourteen days. People in stable corporate jobs elsewhere in Korea report perhaps twice in five years; a Daejeon researcher may report five times. Missing one is an administrative fine that appears later in an extension file, so build it into the end-of-contract checklist rather than remembering it afterwards.

Source: Korea Immigration Service

Daejeon has no designated population-decline district, so the regional visa route is not open here.

The F-2-R regional-specialised visa keys off the Ministry of the Interior's designated population-decline areas, and no Daejeon district qualifies — Dong-gu, Jung-gu and Daedeok-gu appear only on the separate, lower 'concern area' list, which is a different designation. Surrounding Chungcheong counties are designated, so the route exists in the region but requires living and working there. The designations are periodically re-evaluated, so read the current operating plan rather than a two-year-old summary.

Source: Ministry of the Interior and Safety — population-decline designations; Ministry of Justice regional visa plan

Visa-free entry is a travel permission and never a trial residence.

Ninety days visa-free covers tourism and business meetings, including conference attendance. Working on it — including unpaid lab work, or remote work billed to a foreign client — risks fines, departure orders and re-entry bans, and none of that time counts toward any residence clock. Visiting researchers in particular blur this line and should not.

Source: Korea Immigration Service; K-ETA portal

Common mistakes to avoid

Treating ninety days visa-free as permission to start a lab placement or job-hunt.
Assuming a provincial immigration office is quiet — Daejeon's covers Sejong and most of Chungcheong too.
Forgetting the fourteen-day report when a fixed-term research contract changes sponsor.
Planning around the F-2-R regional visa, which no Daejeon district currently opens.
Leaving TOPIK and KIIP until the year you actually want to apply for F-2 or F-5.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.