South Korea Overhauls Its Metropolitan-Type Visa Program: What the 2027–2028 Redesign Means

On August 24, 2026, South Korea's Ministry of Justice announced a comprehensive redesign of its Metropolitan-Type Visa Program (광역형 비자 제도), following a full evaluation of the program's two-year pilot phase. The redesigned, formal program will run for a two-year period from January 1, 2027 to December 31, 2028. Alongside the announcement, the Ministry opened its call for local government applications, running from August 24 to November 10, 2026.

This article summarizes what has changed, why, and what the near-term timeline looks like — based directly on the Ministry's official announcement, evaluation report, and public notice.

Background: From Pilot to Formal Program

The Metropolitan-Type Visa Program was first launched as a pilot running from April 2025 to December 2026 (with Ulsan and Gyeongnam beginning implementation in June 2025). Under the pilot, the Ministry of Justice and 15 metropolitan and provincial governments collaborated to tailor visa criteria — under the D-2 (Study) and E-7 (Specific Activity) categories — to the workforce needs of specific regional industries, with the goal of helping skilled foreign nationals settle and integrate into local communities.

The pilot allocated a national quota of 6,790 places (4,600 for D-2, 2,190 for E-7) across the 15 participating regions. As of July 2026, the Ministry reported 2,665 individuals residing in Korea under the program — 2,299 under D-2 and 366 under E-7 — reflecting substantially lower actual uptake than the allocated quota in several regions (utilization ranged from 31% in Ulsan down to 1% in Gyeonggi).

The evaluation that led to this redesign was conducted following a directive from South Korea's presidential State Council on February 10, 2026, which raised questions about whether the program was delivering genuine benefits to specific industries and local economies, and asked the Ministry to review whether the program should continue. The Ministry's evaluation combined a three-week stakeholder survey (April–May 2026) covering roughly 617 foreign and domestic respondents across six regions, and a two-round Delphi survey of ten policy experts (May–June 2026).

What the Evaluation Found

According to the Ministry's evaluation:

• Stakeholders (local government officials, businesses, and small business owners) generally viewed the program as helping ease regional labor shortages, without a significant negative effect on domestic jobs or wages.

• In the expert Delphi survey, 90% of respondents agreed the program serves a legitimate policy purpose and should continue — but a majority favored a full redesign over either discontinuing the program or keeping it in its current form.

• The evaluation identified several structural gaps in the pilot: a mismatch between actual regional industry labor needs and the fields of study or job categories included; a study-visa (D-2) design focused on recruitment rather than sustained regional employment after graduation, with no benefits tied to eventual local employment; limited social integration of workers recruited directly from overseas; overlap with existing general visa categories without clearly differentiated benefits (with 50% of surveyed non-participating companies citing simple lack of awareness of the program as the reason they hadn't used it); and insufficient support infrastructure for family-unit settlement and consumption in host regions.

What's Changing for 2027–2028

Based on these findings, the redesigned program introduces the following changes:

1. Mandatory regional demand analysis and stakeholder consultation - Under the pilot, conducting a labor demand survey and consulting industry/labor stakeholders was optional (though it favorably affected an application). Under the new program, both are mandatory procedural requirements for any local government's application, and are separately scored in the selection process.

2. Expanded visa design flexibility, reduced quotas - Previously, each participating local government could select only one of D-2 (Study) or E-7 (Specific Activity) to design under the program. Under the new program, local governments may design either or both categories. At the same time, the combined national quota has been reduced from 6,790 to a maximum of approximately 3,000, and the per-region quota range has been tightened from 60–1,000 to 50–200 (with an exception of up to 250 for the newly designated Jeonnam-Gwangju Integrated Special City).

3. Strengthened selection and verification standards - The new program prioritizes foreign nationals already resident in Korea — such as international students — whose adaptability and ability have already been demonstrated, while foreign nationals recruited directly from overseas will be admitted only in limited numbers, subject to pre-entry training or Korean-language verification. Concrete Korean-language benchmarks have been introduced for both visa categories:

• D-2 (Study): Applicants for associate-degree programs must meet Korea Immigration and Integration Program (KIIP) Level 2 (or a pre-assessment score of 41+), Test of Proficiency in Korea (TOPIK) Level 2, or Sejong Institute elementary Level 2. Applicants for bachelor's degree programs or higher must meet KIIP Level 3 (or pre-assessment score of 61+), TOPIK Level 3, or Sejong Institute intermediate Level 1.

• E-7 (Specific Activity): Semi-professional (E-7-2) roles require KIIP Level 3 / TOPIK Level 3 or equivalent; general skilled (E-7-3) roles require KIIP Level 1 / TOPIK Level 1 or equivalent. Professional-level (E-7-1) roles are exempt from this requirement.

Local governments will also need to design their own selection criteria evaluating academic performance, Korean-language ability, and intent to settle regionally, as part of their recommendation process for the Ministry's visa decision.

4. Study-to-work pathway with settlement incentives. Fields of study eligible under the redesigned D-2 track must now be tied to regional industries with demonstrated hiring demand from local employers (addressing the earlier gap where unrelated humanities programs were sometimes included). New benefits are introduced specifically to bridge study and regional employment: during enrollment, participation in regional internships, practical training, and industry-academia programs; after graduation, priority or incentive points toward converting to an E-7 (Specific Activity) visa or, in some cases, a Regional Specialization Visa for Outstanding Talent (F-2-R) if the graduate takes up employment in a population-declining area.

5. Expanded family settlement support. For the first time, spouses of E-7 visa holders under this program will be permitted to work within the same region (following the model used for spouses of F-2-R Regional Specialization Visa holders), excluding certain restricted activities such as gambling-related work. Local governments' business plans must now include specific settlement plans for accompanying family members, covering areas such as housing support, childcare, access to local public schooling, and Korean-language and social integration programs.

6. Expanded and formalized role for local governments. The Ministry plans to amend the Framework Act on Treatment of Foreigners Residing in Korea to give local governments a formal legal basis, along with dedicated organizational and budgetary capacity, to carry out regional immigration policy on an ongoing basis.

7. Longer performance-review cycle. Under the pilot, program performance was reviewed annually to decide on continuation. Under the redesigned program, performance will be reviewed every two years, with the Ministry developing specific performance indicators in the first half of 2027 and conducting the first formal program evaluation in the second half of 2028.

Selection Process and Criteria

Local government applications go through a two-stage review: first, a document review by the Ministry of Justice; second, deliberation by the Metropolitan-Type Visa Deliberation Committee — chaired by the Vice Minister of Justice and composed of relevant ministry officials and private-sector experts — which determines the participating local governments and their approved quotas.

Applications are scored out of 100 base points, with a minimum qualifying score of 70:

An additional 20 bonus points are available for factors including linkage with other central government programs, securing independent local funding, metro–municipal government collaboration structures, business/university partnership arrangements, and settlement programs linked to population-declining areas.

Notably, the Ministry has confirmed it will provide no dedicated budget for this program (local governments must fund their own participation), and that no more than 30% of all referral letters issued by a given local government during the program period may go to nationals of a single country.

Key Dates

An Important Clarification on Timing

The application period currently open (August 24 – November 10, 2026) is for local governments only — municipal and provincial authorities must submit workforce demand analyses, stakeholder consultation results, and detailed program designs to the Ministry of Justice for review. This is not yet an application window for individual foreign students or skilled workers.

Individual eligibility criteria — including which regions, industries, and occupations are approved, and each region's specific selection standards — will only be finalized once the Ministry and Deliberation Committee complete their review and announce results in December 2026, ahead of program implementation from January 2027.

What This Means for Prospective Applicants

For international students and skilled workers considering this pathway, several of the confirmed structural changes are worth noting in advance of the individual application stage opening in 2027:

• Competition for individual places is likely to be more selective than under the pilot, given the substantially reduced overall quota (from 6,790 to approximately 3,000) alongside more rigorous, clearly defined Korean-language and adaptability requirements.

• Foreign nationals already resident in Korea — particularly international students with a demonstrated record of academic performance and integration — are explicitly prioritized over new arrivals from overseas under the redesigned selection approach.

• Because eligible fields of study and job categories will now be tied more tightly to specific regional industry needs (rather than broad program categories), prospective applicants should watch for which industries and occupations each selected region designates once results are announced in December 2026.

• The new settlement-linked incentives — study-to-work visa conversion benefits and expanded spousal work rights — represent a meaningfully different value proposition from the pilot program, particularly for applicants considering long-term settlement in Korea rather than short-term study or employment.

We will continue to monitor developments as the Ministry finalizes participating regions and publishes region-specific eligibility criteria following the December 2026 announcement.

This article is based on official announcements and documents published by South Korea's Ministry of Justice on August 24, 2026. It is provided for general informational purposes and does not constitute legal or immigration advice. Prospective applicants should consult the Ministry of Justice's official channels or a qualified immigration professional for guidance specific to their circumstances.