South Korea's visa extension refusal to tax-debt foreigners pays off

A foreigner talks with an official at an immigration office in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, to get her residence visa extended. / Korea Times file

By Park Si-soo

The government has refused to extend the visas of foreigners with unpaid taxes since May. And the crackdown has paid off, data shows.

Many foreigners have cleared their debt to get an extension, with voluntarily paid overdue taxes reaching 8.2 billion won ($8.26 million) between May and September, Ministry of Justice data showed Friday. It accounted for 5 percent of about 180 billion won that foreigners owe.

The pay-for-extension system was launched in May with a vast information network comprising the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, the National Tax Service and the Korea Customs Service.

This enables 16 immigration offices here to check up-to-date tax payment information of those seeking a visa extension. From January, all the nation’s 34 immigration offices will get access to the network.