From D-2 to F-5, or the story of a permanent residence card (영주증) received in 21 days

I first came to Korea in 2017, in the fourth year of my bachelor’s degree, on a “3+1 exchange program”. Now, nine years later, I have the F-5 visa, which gives the right to live in Korea permanently.

My visa path in brief

Rather than going through every stage one by one, I’ll tell you about the situations that caused me problems and how I dealt with them.

Problems and how I solved them

1. Not knowing Korean

Anyone familiar with the points system knows that KIIP or TOPIK certificates count for a lot when changing visas. I don’t have even the lowest level of either. Even so, I met the requirements for both F-2 and F-5. The reason is simple: I have a PhD.

2. Paying a 1.4 million KRW fine for breaking immigration rules on a D-2 visa

This came up especially when I applied for the F-2-7 visa. When the officer deducted 20 points right in front of me, I thought, “That’s it, I’m staying on E-7.” But thanks to my salary and my degree from a top-1% university, my total came to 85 points, and I was given an F-2-7 visa for two years.

For the F-5, the issue was settled with just the 준법시민교육 (law-abiding citizen education) program.

3. The GNI requirement for annual income

This wasn’t really one of the main problems, since the salary in my employment contract was enough. The catch was that I had to go by next year’s GNI figure (2025), which hadn’t been announced yet, rather than the current year’s (2024).

Given how much it grew from 2023 to 2024 and the rising dollar exchange rate, keeping a margin of at least 5 million KRW extra wouldn’t hurt. I solved it by asking my employer to add an extra “bonus” in December. Of course, all of it was genuine, not just on paper.

The best part

What made me happy wasn’t actually getting the F-5. That was a long-term plan, and when it would happen was only a matter of time.

What made me happy was that my application was approved in just 21 days. After all, when I submitted my documents, the officer told me to expect a wait of six months to a year. I never found out why it went so fast. I was just happy about it…