Skilled Foreign Workers to Get Permanent Residency
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Skilled foreign workers will be able to acquire permanent residence in Korea beginning next year to help overcome the worker shortage resulting from the aging population and low birth rate.
From next January, F-5 visas will be issued to foreigners who have at least five years job experience here and have obtained legal certifications for industrial skills or earned above a certain annual income stipulated by the government for at least two years.
The Ministry of Labor will announce the income standard by September. The foreign workers must also have financial self-sufficiency, a basic understanding of Korean language and no criminal record to live here permanently and legally.
Under the current law, only foreign workers recognized as professionals were eligible for permanent residency, while non-professionals were denied the status even after gaining job experience and obtaining qualifications in their skills.
The new plan is expected to attract an additional 2,500 to 4,000 experienced foreign workers to Korea by around 2009.
``Under the current immigration laws, migrant workers are grouped into either of the two categories of professional and nonprofessional. Now we are adding another category of skilled workers,” said a ministry official.
``An influx of skilled foreign workers will help companies boost their competitiveness and increase tax revenue,’’ he said.
There are now about 500,000 foreign workers, including illegal aliens, in the country, according to government statistics.
Small and medium-sized companies have been urging policymakers to allow them more freedom to hire foreign workers as more Koreans are shunning blue-collar jobs.
According to the Korea’s Small and Medium Business Administration, the labor shortage ratio of production workers was 4.5 percent for semi-professional workers and 6.2 percent for skilled workers last year.