Part-Time Work on a D-2 or D-4 Visa in Korea 2026: Hour Limits by TOPIK Level (10–35 h), Permit Steps, Banned Jobs, ₩10,320 Minimum Wage — Calculator

Part-time work for students, 시간제취업 (siganje chwieop), is allowed on both the D-2 and the D-4-1 — but only with a permit issued before your first shift, only in permitted jobs, and only within an hour cap that depends on your status and your Korean level. In 2026 an undergraduate with the required TOPIK may work 25 hours a week on weekdays (30 with a merit record) and without an immigration cap on weekends and during vacations; without the certificate the weekday cap is 10 hours and weekends count. The minimum wage is ₩10,320 an hour. The calculator checks your plan against the cap and turns it into a monthly figure.

The hour table (2026)

The caps are weekday hours per week, in three bands: no Korean certificate, the requirement met, and "merit" — a student the university confirms has strong grades and attendance (the exact thresholds are not published by the Ministry and are set by the university — ask the international office).

Status	Korean requirement	Not met	Met	Merit
D-4-1 language student	TOPIK 2 / KIIP 2	10 h	20 h	25 h
D-2 associate / bachelor's, years 1–2	TOPIK 3 / KIIP 3	10 h	25 h	30 h
D-2 bachelor's, years 3–4	TOPIK 4 / KIIP 4	10 h	25 h	30 h
D-2 master's / PhD	TOPIK 4 / KIIP 4	15 h	30 h	35 h

Two rules sit on top of the table. Weekends, public holidays and vacations are uncapped — but only for D-2 degree students who meet the Korean requirement; for D-4-1 students and for anyone below the requirement, weekend hours are inside the cap (a graduate student without TOPIK 4, for example, has 15 hours a week including weekends). And the Korean requirement can be met three ways: the written TOPIK level (Part 1), the equivalent KIIP stage of the free 사회통합프로그램 (Sahoe Tonghap Peurogeuraem), or a King Sejong Institute certificate; English-track students can substitute an English score.

Vacation internships in your field were opened up in the July 2023 reform, and a mandatory practicum that is part of your curriculum does not need a permit at all.

Before you can start: the permit

The permit is per employer, per role, per hour band. Working before it is approved — even for a paid "trial day" — is the violation students are caught on most.

1. Agree the job, hours and duties with the employer and sign the standard part-time employment contract for students.
2. Take the contract to your university's international office, 국제처 (gukjecheo), which checks your attendance and grades and signs the confirmation form.
3. Apply on HiKorea (online) or at your immigration office with: passport, ARC, the integrated application form, the university confirmation, enrolment certificate, transcript and attendance record, TOPIK or KIIP certificate, the contract, and the employer's business registration certificate.
4. Wait for approval — usually one to two weeks — and only then start. A second job, a change of duties or more hours needs a new application.

Preconditions: attendance of at least 70% and a GPA of at least C (2.0) in the previous semester at most universities, and for D-4-1, D-4-7 and D-2-8 holders a six-month wait from the day the status was granted. Degree students can apply as soon as they are registered.

Allowed and banned jobs

Permitted (typical)	Banned
Restaurants, cafés, bakeries	Construction — no exceptions; an exit order follows
Retail, convenience stores, duty-free shops	Manufacturing — except case-by-case approval for TOPIK 4+ / KIIP 4+
Office support, events, exhibitions	Delivery riders, ride-hailing, designated drivers
Tourism guiding, interpretation, translation	Insurance sales, door-to-door textbook sales, dispatch (staffing) agencies
Field-related assistant work, vacation internships	Adult entertainment, gaming rooms, seafarers
	E-2 territory: teaching English conversation, even privately
	One-off, non-recurring paid work from home

"Manufacturing" is the one people argue about: it is not an outright ban since 2023, but the permit is approved individually and only with TOPIK 4 or KIIP stage 4, so treat a factory job as unlikely unless the international office says otherwise.

Pay, tax and insurance basics

The 2026 minimum wage is ₩10,320 an hour (₩2,156,880 a month on a full 209-hour basis) and applies to students exactly as to Koreans — a café paying ₩9,500 is breaking the law, not offering a "student rate". At the default settings — a first-year undergraduate with TOPIK 3, 20 weekday hours and 10 weekend hours at minimum wage — the calculator gives a monthly gross of about ₩1,345,212, within the cap because the weekend hours are excluded. Change the status to D-4-1 without TOPIK 2, 12 weekday hours plus 4 at the weekend, and the same tool reports 16 hours counted against a 10-hour cap: 6 hours over, permit refused.

Whether anything is deducted depends on how you are hired: as an employee with the four social insurances, 4대보험 (sadae boheom), or as a freelancer with withholding tax — the take-home pay article explains each line, and the minimum wage guide covers weekly holiday pay, which applies once you work 15 hours or more a week. One thing that is never on the payslip: your student health-insurance premium of ₩79,320 a month, which the NHIS bills you directly (Part 6).

Penalties, and the August 2026 review

The Immigration Control Act provides for up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to ₩30 million for unauthorized employment; what students actually receive is a fine, an exit order or a cancelled visa, and the employer is fined too. Exceeding the hours, working at a second location, or a change of duties without a new permit all count.

On the horizon: in August 2026 the Ministry of Justice said it is considering letting students who meet the Korean requirement work part-time without a separate permit, as part of a wider student-visa overhaul that also floats TOPIK 4 as a work-visa criterion. No start date has been set and nothing has changed in the rules above — apply for the permit as before until HiKorea says otherwise. The Ministry's April 2026 consultative body is the source of the "strict before entry, flexible after" direction.

How the calculator works

1. Your status selects a row of the hour table; the cap is the "not met" figure, the "met" figure, or the "merit" figure.
2. If you are a D-2 degree student who meets the requirement, weekend and holiday hours are excluded from the count; otherwise weekday + weekend hours are compared with the cap.
3. Monthly gross = (weekday + weekend hours) × hourly wage × 4.345 weeks, rounded — before any deductions.
4. A wage below ₩10,320 triggers a warning, and D-4-1 status triggers the six-month reminder.

Common mistakes

• "Undergraduates get 20 hours." That was the pre-2023 rule; it is 25 (30 with merit) — and 10 without the Korean certificate.
• Working the trial shift before approval. The permit date, not the application date, is your first legal working day.
• Assuming weekends are free for everyone. Only D-2 degree students who meet the requirement.
• Taking a delivery job because "everyone does". Riders are on the banned list, and platforms report.
• Quoting ₩10,030. That was 2025; 2026 is ₩10,320.

Next: what the money has to cover — tuition and living costs in 2026.