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Passport and VISA
HOME > Campus Life > Passport and VISA
Contents
In your home country
Obtaining a visa
- International students must obtain a student visa, or D-2 visa, international researchers need an E-3 visa, and international faculty members need an E-1 visa. Students will usually be given one year of period to study, which is, in fact, much shorter than the official school term. Working in Korea on a student visa is not allowed, and in order to change the status of one’s visa, absolute departure from his/her original country is required by the law. Furthermore, a tourist visa is valid only for 90 days and cannot be extended nor converted to another type of visa without leaving Korea. On the other hand, D-2 visa, E-3 visa and E-1 visa can be extended in Korea without departure from the country.
- In order to obtain a visa, you need to follow either Procedure 1 or Procedure 2 depending on your status:
Procedure1
- This procedure is applicable only to international students (except for Chinese students) who are admitted to a graduate program at GIST. Once you get an admission for an academic department, GIST will send you the Certificate of Admission. You are responsible for applying for a D-2 visa in the Korean embassy in your country by submitting the passport, the Certificate of Admission, official verification of your bachelor's or Master's degree, resume and other required documents if any. With this procedure, visa approval could take two to fifteen days depending on the embassy chosen.
Procedure2
- This procedure is applicable to Chinese students who are admitted to a graduate program at GIST, international faculty members who will be hired at GIST and immediate family members of international faculty members. Once you get a job offer from GIST(or get an admission for an academic department at GIST as a Chinese student), GIST will send you the Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance so that you may apply for a visa at the Korean Embassy in the country where you stay. Visa approval can take only a few hours or up to a few days depending on the embassy chosen. Some embassies require your personal presence and other embassies prefer mailing the application.
The following documents are required by the Gwangju Immigration Office before GIST can send out the Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance to you:
Student Apartments
- Official verification of your bachelor's or Master's degree
- Resume iii. Each copy of your citizenship card (both sides) and passport (if you have one)
- Certificate of Admission which was issued by GIST and signed by the student
- A recommendation letter from the president of your most recent university if available
International faculty members
- An original copy of signed employment agreement contract
- Official verification of your Ph.D. degree
- Resume
- A copy of your valid passport. Only the pages which contain information and stamps are ecessary
International faculty members
- A certified copy of marriage certificate with its certified English translation
- Certified copies of birth certificates of children with their certified English translations
- Each copy of your family members' valid passport
International faculty members
- A certified copy of marriage certificate with its certified English translation
- Certified copies of birth certificates of children with their certified English translations
- Each copy of your family members' valid passport
- After we receive the required documents listed above from you, it takes us approximately 4 weeks (50 to 65 days for Chinese citizens) to send you the Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance.
In Korea
Important Reminder
- Within 90 days of your arrival in Korea, you must go to the Immigration Office to register and get an Alien Registration Card regardless of the type of your visa. It is the responsibility of the individual international scholar to maintain valid visa status in Korea. Failure to maintain valid visa status may result in heavy fines.
Passport
- You need to show your passport when you leave and re-enter your home country, when you leave and enter Korea, when you travel to other countries, when you exchange money and when you enter foreign embassies and so on. If you lose your passport, you must immediately report it to your embassy to get a new one.
Alien Registration
- Within 90 days of your arrival in Korea, you must go to the Immigration Office to register and get an Alien Registration Card regardless of the type of your visa unless your total period of stay in Korea is less than 90 days. In other words, no matter how long your visa is good for, every non-Korean citizen needs to apply for an Alien Registration Card. To do this, you need two passport size photos, your passport, 10,000 won of government fee, Certificate of Enrolling Status. If you fail to carry a full-time load we must revoke our sponsorship of you.
Visa Extension
- Most of the visas are valid only for a year and for a single entry. "Multiple entry" will automatically be stamped onto your visa at the consul's discretion if you are on an eligible status at the time of visa application. So please do not ask for "multiple entry" stamp when you apply for a visa. Please refer to "Re-entry Permit" for details on re-entry. In order to maintain valid visa status, you need to go to the Immigration Office and apply for visa extension prior to one week of your visa expiration. The following documents are required for visa extension:
International students (Campus contact: CISS 970-2061)
- 30,000 won of government stamp fee
- Certificate of Enrollment
- Certificate of Sponsorship issued by CISS
- Passport
- Alien Registration Card
- Official Transcripts
International faculty members and their immediate family members
(Campus contact: Department Office)
- 30,000 won of government stamp fee
- A certified copy of employment agreement contract
- Passport
- Alien Registration Card
- Certificate of Employment
International post-doctoral fellows and researchers
(Campus contact: Department Office)
- 30,000 won of government stamp fee
- A certified copy of employment agreement contract issued by the administration
- Passport iv. Alien Registration Card
- Certificate of Employment
Re-entry Permit
- If you plan to take a trip/trips out of Korea while studying or working at GIST, you need to apply for a re-entry permit before you leave Korea. Otherwise you will need to get a new visa to re-enter Korea, which is very time-consuming and exhausting to both you and the administration. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you also apply for re-entry permit when you apply for an Alien Registration Card unless your visa says "Multiple entry". Also when you apply for visa extension, please make sure to apply for re-entry permit for future travels. The Immigration Office will charge you 50,000 won for multiple re-entry permit and 30,000 won for single re-entry permit.
Single re-entry permit allows you to re-enter Korea only once and can be issued only when you have a definite travel plan including expected date of leave, expected date of arrival and destination for a specific single trip. On the contrary, multiple re-entry permit allows you to re-enter Korea as often as you want and can be issued even with vague travel plans. Please note that neither of these re-entry permits works if your visa has expired by the time of your re-entry.
As for the Chinese, only single re-entry permit can be issued. Therefore, Chinese nationals need to go to the Immigration Office to apply for single re-entry permit prior to each international trip. Based on the mutual agreements between the Republic of Korea and a few countries, the citizens of the list below of which countries are subject to a re-entry permit waiver program: Germany, Denmark, Surinam, The Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, Sweden, Switzerland, France, and Finland. Even if you are from one of these countries, make sure to confirm with the immigration officer whether you get a waiver or not.
Changing Your residence Korea
- If your address in Korea has changed, you need to notify it to the Gwangju Immigration Office that governs your new residence within 14 days of your relocation. Failure to do so may result in heavy fines of up to 2,000,000 won.
Working in Korea
- Working on or off campus on a student visa (D-2) is not allowed in Korea and may result in deportation from the country and/or being heavily fined. Even if you have a work visa (E-1 or E-3) with a job at GIST, you are not allowed to work for other organizations without prior permission.
Gwangju Immigration Office
| Section | Content |
| Location: | (502 838) 366-1, Hwajung 3 Dong, Seo Gu, Gwangju |
| Telephone No.: | 381 0015~7 |
| Office hours: | 9 am.- 5 pm. (Mon.- Fri.) |
