South Korea Makes Its Digital Nomad Visa Permanent, Lowers the Income Bar for Younger Applicants

South Korea's Ministry of Justice has confirmed that the country's digital nomad visa, known as the F-1-D or "workcation" visa, is now a permanent program rather than a trial. The visa moved from a pilot that ran from January 2024 to May 2026 into permanent operation on June 30, 2026, and the ministry has eased its income requirement for younger applicants who choose to live outside the capital region. Anyone earning at least twice South Korea's per-capita gross national income still qualifies, but applicants aged 18 to 34 who plan to live outside Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province — or in a region the government has flagged as population-declining — now need only about half that amount. The maximum stay has also grown, from two years under the pilot to three years under the permanent rules.

Background

The F-1-D visa lets people employed by a company outside Korea, or running their own remote business, live in the country while continuing to work for foreign clients or employers — something Korea's standard work-visa categories, which are tied to local employment, do not allow. The government launched it as a two-year pilot in January 2024, aiming to see whether a dedicated remote-work visa could draw skilled foreign talent without competing with the domestic labor market. According to the Seoul Economic Daily, only 398 people held the visa as of May 2026, a modest uptake that appears to have shaped the ministry's decision to widen eligibility rather than tighten it as the program became permanent.

What exactly changed

Under the pilot, every applicant needed annual income of at least twice South Korea's per-capita gross national income — a threshold Seoul Economic Daily puts at roughly 100 million KRW, based on a per-capita GNI of about 52.4 million KRW. That requirement remains unchanged for most applicants. What's new is a second, lower tier: applicants aged 18 to 34 who commit to living outside the Seoul-Incheon-Gyeonggi metropolitan cluster, including in regions the government considers to be losing population, can now qualify at the per-capita GNI level itself — reported at $36,963 by Korea Herald — roughly half the general threshold. Seoul Economic Daily describes the reduced tier as a range of one to two times GNI depending on category (roughly 50 to 100 million KRW), so applicants should confirm the exact published threshold for their circumstances directly with Korea Immigration Service before applying. The maximum length of stay also increased, from two years under the pilot to three years under the permanent program.

Who it affects

This mainly affects remote employees and self-employed freelancers who earn a foreign income and want to base themselves in South Korea for an extended stretch — a software engineer working for a US company from a co-working space in Busan, for example, or a younger freelance designer willing to relocate to a smaller city rather than Seoul in exchange for qualifying at a lower income level. The regional eligibility carve-out is a deliberate incentive: the government wants remote workers to consider cities and provinces outside the capital region, which faces overcrowding, while many other Korean regions face shrinking populations. Anyone already living in Korea on an F-1-D visa issued under the pilot should confirm with Korea Immigration Service whether the new three-year maximum applies to existing permits or only to new applications.

What this means in practice

Anyone considering South Korea as a base for remote work should treat the permanent program as a more stable option than the pilot was, since a permanent program is less likely to be discontinued or substantially narrowed on short notice. Applicants under 35 who have flexibility about where in Korea they live have a real incentive to look beyond Seoul: qualifying at roughly half the income threshold is a significant difference for someone early in a remote career. GoMate's South Korea country guide already covers the F-1-D visa's core requirements and is a starting point for eligibility details; because exact won-denominated figures vary slightly by source, applicants should verify current thresholds directly with Korea Immigration Service or a Korean consulate before applying.