Greetings.

This is from the CAU MBA office.

As many of you know, in order to apply for an E-7 visa, employers must meet the E-7 salary requirements. With the rise in the Gross National Income (GNI), there have been changes to the E-7 salary criteria as of July.

GNI Changes:

• Previous GNI (until June 2024): 42,487,000 KRW
• Updated GNI (from July 2024 to March 2025): 44,051,000 KRW

What is the new salary requirement for the E-7 Visa?

As per the updated GNI, employers must offer a salary that is at least 80% of the GNI. This means that the annual salary for an E-7 visa holder must be at least 35,240,800 KRW.

However, for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the metropolitan area (verified by an SME certificate), venture companies (verified by a venture company certificate), or medium-sized enterprises outside the metropolitan area (verified by a medium-sized company certificate), and if the foreign employee has less than 3 years of work experience in Korea, a 70% GNI salary contract is permissible. In this case, the minimum annual salary required is 30,835,700 KRW.

Compared to the previous requirement, this marks an increase of approximately 100,000 KRW per month.

Employers and foreign workers preparing for the E-7 visa should ensure they are aware of these changes to avoid any issues during the visa application process.