After Graduation in Korea 2026: D-10 Job-Seeker, E-7 Wage Floor ₩31.12M, F-2-7 Points Card, K-STAR, F-2-R — Path Quiz

The D-2 ends when your enrolment ends, and Korea gives no grace period after graduation — you change status before the visa expires, in your final semester if possible. The routes in 2026: the D-10 job-seeker visa, 구직 (gujik), rebuilt in October 2025 to run up to 3 years with a one-year first grant for 80+ points and, for recent Korean graduates, no points test at all; the E-7 work visa with an annual wage floor of about ₩31,120,000 for professional roles; the F-2-7 points residence visa (80 points) for later; the K-STAR track that hands STEM graduates of 32 universities an F-2 straight away; and the F-2-R regional visa for those willing to spend five years outside the big cities. About a third of foreign graduates of Korean universities were in Korean jobs in 2024, and D-10 → E-7 approvals doubled between 2021 and 2025. The quiz ranks the routes for your situation; further down are the D-10 for E-7 holders between jobs, the full F-2-7 points card and the path on to F-5 permanent residence.

No grace period: the D-2 clock

A D-2 is tied to enrolment. When you graduate — or drop out — the basis for the visa disappears, and Immigration expects you to hold a new status before the expiry date printed on your ARC, not after. The workable sequence is: in the final semester, get a certificate of expected graduation, 졸업예정증명서 (joreop yejeong jeungmyeongseo), and apply for the D-10 (or the E-7 if the offer is signed) while the D-2 is still valid. Change of status costs about ₩100,000, and a graduate who lets the D-2 lapse is an overstayer with the fines and re-entry problems that implies. The D-2 article covers the extension mechanics; this one is about what to change into.

D-10 after the October 2025 reform

The job-seeker visa is the default landing pad, and the October 30, 2025 reform made it much more useful for Korean graduates.

	Before	Since Oct 30, 2025
Maximum total stay	2 years	3 years
First grant	6 months	12 months with 80+ points; 60–79 points get 6 months at a time (up to 1 year)
Points test	60 points (80 for nationals of 21 countries)	same — but graduates of Korean colleges and universities within 3 years are exempt from the points test and financial proof on the first application (about)
Internships	total capped	cap removed; up to 1 year with the same company
Part-time work	20 h/week	25 h/week

The exemption is the important line: a fresh Korean graduate does not assemble the points file or the bank statement that a foreign-university graduate does — though the three-year window is how the reform has been reported, so confirm it on HiKorea before relying on it. What the D-10 does not allow is a regular job: you intern, work part-time within the cap, interview, and change to E-7 in-country when the offer comes. D-10 → E-7 changes rose from about 1,528 in 2021 to about 3,090 in 2025, with roughly nine in ten approved. How the D-10 points are scored, and how the same visa works for E-7 holders between jobs, is covered further down.

E-7: the wage floor and the degree link

The E-7 is the visa most graduates end up on. Two conditions dominate:

E-7 subtype	2026 minimum annual wage (contracts Feb 1 – Dec 31, 2026)	Who
E-7-1 professional	about ₩31,120,000 (≈ ₩2,593,000 / month)	most graduate hires: engineers, marketers, designers, analysts, translators
E-7-2 / E-7-3 semi-professional and skilled	about ₩25,890,000	technicians, some service roles
E-7-4 skilled worker (points)	about ₩26,000,000	mainly a route for E-9 workers, not graduates

Since April 2025 the floor is a single figure regardless of company size, and the E-7-1 has no 20% cap on the share of foreign staff. The second condition is the degree link: the job must relate to what you studied. A Korean bachelor's or higher in the field waives the experience requirement; an associate degree usually needs a year of experience, and rules differ by occupation code. An offer at ₩33M for a degree-related role therefore ranks first in the quiz, while the same offer at ₩29M ranks below the D-10, because the E-7-1 would be refused on pay. Fees: about ₩100,000 for the change plus ₩35,000 for the new ARC. In August 2026 the Ministry said work-visa screening would favor TOPIK 4, STEM degrees and regional employers — a direction, not yet a rule. The E-7 guide covers the occupation list and job changes.

D-10 between jobs: points and money for E-7 holders

The D-10 is not only for new graduates. It also exists for E-series professionals whose contract ended, and for graduates of top-ranked foreign universities who want to look for Korean work. For them the points test in the table above applies: 60 of 190 points in the standard case, scoring age (younger is better), education (a Korean degree or a degree from a top-500 university scores highest), Korean language, work experience in Korea, and income in the previous job. E-7 holders who worked in Korea in the last year usually clear 60 without difficulty. Besides the internships and part-time hours above, the separate D-10-2 internship subtype allows up to one year of paid training with a company in your field.

Money on a D-10: you cannot take a regular job, so no salary and no workplace insurance. You become a regional NHIS subscriber at the foreigner minimum if you have been in Korea six months — budget ₩158,630 a month. If your previous job carried employment insurance, the D-10 is the status that lets you claim unemployment benefit. Bank accounts remain open; a D-10 is a registered status and keeps your ARC. When the next offer comes, the change back to E-7 is done in-country, and the new employer's wage floor and foreign-staff ratio are checked again.

F-2-7 points, K-STAR and F-2-R: the residence routes

F-2-7, 점수제 거주 (jeomsuje geoju), is the visa that frees you from employer sponsorship: 80 of 170 points. A Korean degree is worth a lot on the card — language 20 points for TOPIK 5+ or KIIP 5, 15 for TOPIK 4, 10 for TOPIK 3; education 15–17 for a bachelor's, 17–20 for a master's, 20–25 for a PhD; plus a domestic-degree bonus of 5 / 7 / 10 for a Korean bachelor's / master's / PhD, and income scored up to 60. But it is applied for from a working status (E-1 to E-7, D-5 to D-9 and similar), not from the D-10, so for most people it is the step after E-7. The quiz's "head start" line — a bachelor's with TOPIK 4 gives 15 + 5 = 20 points before age, education and income are counted — shows how much of the 80 the degree has already earned; the full card is set out after the residence routes.

K-STAR (Ministry of Justice, December 5, 2025) is the shortcut for scientists: master's and PhD graduates in science and engineering from 32 designated universities (the five science and technology institutes plus 27 others) can receive an F-2 immediately on the university president's recommendation, with no job offer, and move to F-5 permanent residence or naturalization on research results. The government expects the track to grow from about 100 to 500–600 people a year from 2026. Whether your university is on the list is a question for the international office, not a guess.

F-2-R, 지역특화 (jiyeok teukhwa), is the regional residence visa: a Korean associate degree or higher (or an income route), TOPIK 3 or KIIP stage 3 — lowered from level 4 on August 3, 2026 — a direct-hire contract of at least one year at the recommending province's living wage (about ₩31.5M in Gyeonggi, ₩30.1M in Incheon and Daegu, replacing the old 70%-of-GNI test), and five years of residence and work in a designated depopulating area. The 2026 quota is 13,572 across 107 local governments; the regional cities guide is a starting point for where those areas are.

F-2-7 points card: what it scores and what it gives

Besides the working status, the F-2-7 asks that you have lived in Korea at least a year (some categories differ). The card rewards:

• Age — peaking in the late 20s to mid-30s.
• Education — the degree scores above, plus the domestic-degree bonus.
• Korean language — TOPIK level or KIIP stage completed; this block can be a quarter of the passing score.
• Income — annual income relative to per-capita GNI, from the previous year's tax record (the year-end settlement receipt is the evidence).
• Korean experience — years of legal employment or study in Korea, Korean professional licences, volunteer hours, and living outside the capital region.
• Deductions for immigration violations, criminal fines and unpaid taxes or NHIS premiums.

The current card was revised in 2023 and adjusted again in 2025 to favour regional residence and Korean-university graduates; Immigration publishes the full table on Hi Korea and re-scores you at each renewal.

What the F-2-7 gives: freedom to change jobs, freelance or start a business without permission; a working spouse (F-2 dependants may work); renewal for up to three years at a time; and after three years on F-2-7 (with a maintained income and points), eligibility for F-5 permanent residence, which has no expiry and — after a further period — the option of naturalisation. It does not exempt you from any of the money rules: same tax, same social insurance, same pension refund position by nationality if you leave.

From E-7 to F-5: the path in one table

Stage	Typical status	Money rules that bite
First job	E-7 (or E-2, E-1…)	Wage floor (above), employer-sponsored, flat-tax decision
Between jobs	D-10, up to 3 years at 80+ points	Regional NHIS minimum, unemployment benefit if insured
Second job	E-7 change of workplace	New employer's ratio and floor checked again
1–3 years in, 80 points	F-2-7	Free to change jobs; income recorded via year-end settlement counts for points
3 years on F-2-7	F-5 permanent residence	Compulsory employment insurance already applies (F-2); no sponsor ever again

Besides K-STAR and F-2-R above, the alternative routes to F-5 — investment, marriage and high-income professionals — exist but are outside this guide.

The income and tax records that the points cards score are your year-end settlement withholding receipt, which proves last year's income; your NHIS and NPS payment records, which prove there are no arrears; and the E-7 wage floor, which proves the job that qualifies you was a real one. Keep the PDFs each February — Immigration asks for the receipts, not the payslips.

Start-ups and job fairs

The D-8-4 technology start-up visa is open to Korean-educated graduates with intellectual property or points from the OASIS entrepreneurship program, but the points threshold is reported inconsistently, so confirm it with Immigration before building a plan on it. For the job search, the NIIED–KOTRA Global Talent Fair for international students (jffis.kotra.or.kr) is the largest single event, with a mid-sized-company edition announced in September 2026; universities' global career fairs are the other fixture. K-Move is for Koreans going abroad, not for you.

How the quiz ranks

1. E-7 starts at 90 if you have an offer, minus 50 if the salary is below the E-7-1 floor of about ₩31,120,000, minus 40 if the job is unrelated to the degree, minus 15 for an associate degree.
2. K-STAR F-2 scores 95 for a STEM master's or PhD from a listed university, 45 if the list is unconfirmed.
3. D-10 scores 85 without an offer (50 as a backup with one), minus 25 if graduation was more than three years ago (points test applies).
4. F-2-R appears only if you would live regionally: 78 with TOPIK 3+ (85 with a qualifying offer), 30 without the level. F-2-7 is shown at 45 as the next step with its head-start points; D-8-4 at 35 as a check-first option.

Common mistakes

• Waiting for a grace period. There is none. Apply for the D-10 or E-7 while the D-2 is valid.
• Quoting "D-10 maximum two years". Three since October 2025, with a one-year first grant at 80+ points.
• Accepting an offer under the wage floor. ₩30M for an E-7-1 role in 2026 will be refused; ask for ₩31,120,000 or the E-7-2/3 classification if it fits.
• Applying for F-2-7 from a D-10. It is applied for from a working status.
• Assuming F-2-R still needs TOPIK 4. Level 3 since August 2026.

That closes the course. If you have arrived at this part first, start with TOPIK — the level you hold decides your part-time hours today and your F-2-7 points in three years.