Moving to Korea in 2026: First 90 Days, Deadlines, Offices, Costs

Last checked: 2026-09-22 · Sources: Immigration Act, English text (KLRI) · Study in Korea, residence and stay · Easy Law, foreigner registration · HiKorea visit reservation · Korean Consulate Hagatna, e-Arrival card notice · NHIS, guidance for foreigners · NHIS 2026 rate notice · Income Tax Act, English text (KLRI) · NTS FAQ · Seoul transport fares · KT, what you'll need · Woori Bank banking guide · GOV.UK, living in South Korea · What changed recently: Seoul's subway base fare went to 1,550 won on June 28, 2025, and the NHIS notice for 2026 puts the foreign local-subscriber average contribution at 158,630 won a month.

Most "moving to Korea" pages are lists of feelings: the food, the pace, the winters. Useful, but none of it has a date attached. The first three months in Korea are mostly a sequence of offices, and the sequence matters because each step unlocks the next. You cannot get a monthly phone contract without a residence card, most banks want the same card, and the card itself takes a booked appointment plus a few weeks of processing. This page is that sequence with the statutory deadlines, the fee, the penalty schedule and a Seoul cost table, each traced to an official page.

The 90-day clock starts at the border

Article 31 of the Immigration Act says an alien who intends to stay more than 90 days from the date of entry shall file for alien registration within 90 days from the date of entry. The Study in Korea portal, run by the Ministry of Education, repeats the same sentence for students. Day 1 is the day you land, not the day you sign a lease.

The document you get is now called a residence card, though most people still say ARC. The fee is 35,000 won under Article 72, item 10 of the Enforcement Rule, according to the Easy Law page maintained by the Korea Legislation Research Institute.

Registration is by appointment. HiKorea's visit reservation page says slots open from the day after you apply, and it carries a warning in Korean that a penalty may be imposed if you visit after a statutory reporting period has passed. In practice your deadline is the last free slot before day 90, not day 90 itself. Our post on Korea alien registration: the 90-day deadline, HiKorea booking and fines walks through the booking screens.

I cross-checked the 90-day and 15-day deadlines against the English text of the Immigration Act on the KLRI site rather than relying on district-office summaries, because those summaries are often years old.

What late registration costs

Two different numbers circulate, and both are real. The statutory ceiling sits in Article 95, item 7: violating the registration duty under Article 31 is punishable by imprisonment with labor for up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million won. What usually happens instead is a notice disposition under Article 102, where the regional immigration office issues a written notice to pay a penalty. Those amounts follow a schedule keyed to how long you were late. I could not open the appendix itself on law.go.kr (it renders only through scripts), so the table below is taken from our earlier post, which cites the Enforcement Rule.

Delay past day 90	Standard penalty
Under 1 month	200,000 won
1 to 3 months	500,000 won
3 to 6 months	1,000,000 won
6 months to 1 year	2,000,000 won
1 to 2 years	5,000,000 won
Over 2 years	10,000,000 won

Office heads may move an amount up or down by as much as half depending on circumstances. Treat the table as the normal case, not a promise.

Before you land: the e-Arrival Card

Since February 24, 2025, foreign nationals entering Korea submit an entry declaration, and the online version can be filed from three days before arrival at e-arrivalcard.go.kr. The Korean Consulate in Hagatna's notice lists who is exempt: registered residents in Korea (including permanent residents), holders of a valid K-ETA, some group tourists, some visa-free transit passengers and airline crew. The Korea Immigration Service posted a separate warning on March 9, 2026 that the only official site is www.e-arrivalcard.go.kr and that any site asking for payment details is not the service.

Two points for a first-time arrival. You are not yet a registered resident, so the exemption does not apply to you on the way in. And the February 2025 notice still allowed a paper form as an alternative; I did not find an official notice withdrawing paper forms, so treat the online form as the default and expect the desk to have paper if the app fails. If you are from a K-ETA-exempt country and wonder whether applying anyway buys you anything, we covered the trade-off in K-ETA temporary exemption extended through 2026.

Phone, then card, then bank, then contract

The order is fixed by what each provider will accept as ID. I read through KT's "what you'll need" page for foreign nationals, and it is unusually clear: a prepaid line can be signed up with a standard passport, but service runs for 90 days from activation; with an alien registration card, prepaid service runs until the card expires; a postpaid (monthly) plan requires the registration card plus auto-debit from a Korean bank account or a Korean credit card. So the realistic path is passport prepaid at the airport, residence card by day 90, bank account, then postpaid.

Woori Bank's foreign customer guide says to bring identification (passport or alien registration card) and warns that other documents may be requested depending on the task: proof of employment, pay slips, a utility bill. Its student section asks for the registration card and says that a passport alone must be backed by another home-country ID or a Korean utility receipt. The guide does not state that a Korean phone number is required. In practice the banking apps verify identity through a phone number in your own name, so a passport-only prepaid line still helps, but the branch is where a passport-only account gets opened if it gets opened at all.

Address: it is a report to immigration, not a 전입신고

Koreans file a move-in report (전입신고) under the Resident Registration Act. Registered foreigners do not; they file a change of place of stay under Article 36 of the Immigration Act, within 15 days from the date they move into the new place. The Study in Korea page names the offices: the immigration office with jurisdiction over the new address, or the local gu, eup, myeon or dong office. Article 98 sets the penalty for missing that report at a fine not exceeding one million won. Your first address is whatever you write on the registration application, so a goshiwon or short-term room counts as long as you can prove it.

NHIS: enrollment happens to you at month six

The NHIS English guidance page states that any foreigner or overseas Korean who has stayed in Korea for over six months is subject to mandatory subscription (from July 16, 2019), and lists the eligible statuses: D-1 through D-9, E-1 through E-10, F-1 through F-6, H-1 and H-2. Employees are enrolled through the workplace from the day the employer reports them; everyone else becomes a local subscriber at the six-month mark. Seoul Metropolitan Government's NHIS guide adds that D-2, D-4-3, E-9, F-5 and F-6 holders are enrolled from the entry date instead of waiting six months.

The number that surprises people is the floor. The NHIS page says that if a local subscriber's calculated contribution is lower than the average, the average is levied. I compared that rule with the NHIS 2026 rate notice: the 2026 average for foreign local subscribers is 158,630 won a month, made up of 140,210 won for health and 18,420 won for long-term care, up 3.80 percent on 2025. A student or freelancer with no Korean income or property pays that, not less. Employees pay half of the 7.19 percent workplace rate through payroll. Seoul's page also notes that mail from NHIS goes to your registered address, which is one more reason the 15-day report matters.

Tax residency: the 183-day line

Article 1-2 of the Income Tax Act defines a resident as any individual who has a domicile or place of residence in Korea for at least 183 days, and a nonresident as anyone else. I traced the figure to that article on the KLRI English text so the number here is the statute, not a summary. Article 3 sets the consequence: a resident is taxed on all income, while a nonresident is taxed on Korea-source income only. The same article carries a carve-out for foreign residents who have had a domicile in Korea for five years or fewer in the past ten: foreign-source income is taxed only if it is paid in or remitted to Korea. The NTS English FAQ says the same thing in one line: residents on worldwide income, nonresidents on Korean-source income.

For a first year this mostly decides whether your home-country income shows up on a Korean return. GOV.UK's living-in-South-Korea page (updated December 30, 2025) points British nationals to the UK-Korea double taxation agreement and to the NTS for questions. Other countries have similar treaties; the treaty, not a blog, is where to look.

Seoul cost table, single person, 2026

I recalculated the commuting line from Seoul's own fare page rather than copying a round number: subway base fare 1,550 won by card (1,650 cash) since June 28, 2025, trunk and branch buses 1,500 won since August 12, 2023, with 100 won added per 5 km beyond 10 km. Two rides a day on 22 working days is 44 rides, or 68,200 won before distance surcharges.

Item	Monthly amount (won)	Basis
Goshiwon room, central Seoul	300,000 to 550,000	Estimate from listing portals; no deposit; utilities usually included
Officetel or one-room studio	700,000 to 1,200,000 plus deposit	Estimate; Seoul city guide says a wolse deposit is generally 10 to 20 times monthly rent
NHIS, local subscriber	158,630	NHIS 2026 notice, foreign local-subscriber average
NHIS, employee	3.595% of pay	Half of the 7.19% 2026 workplace rate
Transport, 44 rides	68,200	Seoul fare page, subway base fare by card
Phone, prepaid or MVNO	20,000 to 50,000	Estimate; carrier price lists vary by data
Utilities and internet (studio)	100,000 to 200,000	Estimate; not charged separately in most goshiwon
Residence card fee	35,000 one-time	Enforcement Rule Article 72, item 10

The housing lines are labeled estimates because no ministry publishes a goshiwon price index; they reflect what listing portals show for autumn 2026 and should be read as ranges, not quotes. A goshiwon plus NHIS plus transport lands near 530,000 to 780,000 won a month before food; a studio roughly doubles that once the deposit is set aside.

Decision table: week 1, weeks 2 to 4, by day 90

Window	Do this	Where	Why the order matters
Before landing	Submit the e-Arrival Card (3 days before)	e-arrivalcard.go.kr	Registered residents are exempt; you are not one yet
Week 1	Buy a passport prepaid SIM	Airport or carrier store	Valid 90 days; a Korean number is needed for almost every app
Week 1	Book the registration appointment	HiKorea visit reservation	Slots open the day after booking; the queue, not day 90, is your real deadline
Weeks 2 to 4	Secure an address you can document	Goshiwon, sublet, employer housing	It goes on the registration form
Weeks 2 to 4	Attend the appointment, pay 35,000 won	Regional immigration office	Card processing time follows
Weeks 2 to 4	Open a bank account	Branch, with passport plus proof of purpose	Some branches will wait for the card
By day 90	Hold the residence card, or at least have filed	Immigration office	Article 31 deadline; penalty schedule starts at 200,000 won
By day 90	Move phone to postpaid or card-based prepaid	Carrier store	Passport prepaid expires at 90 days
Within 15 days of any move	File the change of stay	Immigration or local gu/dong office	Article 36; up to 1,000,000 won
Month 6	NHIS local enrollment happens automatically	NHIS	First bill at the 2026 average unless you are an employee
Day 183	Tax resident under the Income Tax Act	NTS	Worldwide income rule, with the five-year carve-out

If the reason you are coming is work rather than study, our piece on Korean data center jobs and what the training MOUs leave out looks at one sector where employer sponsorship decides most of the paperwork above.

FAQ

Is South Korea a good place to live on a first-year budget? On the official numbers, a single person in a goshiwon spends roughly 530,000 to 780,000 won a month on housing, NHIS and transport before food. Whether that is "good" depends on income, but the administrative side is predictable: the deadlines are in statute and the fees are fixed.

Can I open a bank account before I have the residence card? Woori's guide accepts a passport as identification but lists extra documents a branch may ask for, and its student section asks for the registration card. Expect a passport-only account to be limited or refused at some branches, and plan on the card.

What if my appointment falls after day 90 because slots ran out? The obligation is to file within 90 days. HiKorea's own notice warns that visiting after a statutory period can trigger a penalty. Book in week 1; if nothing is free, check other offices in your region rather than waiting.

Does the 15-day address report apply if I only moved between goshiwon rooms? Article 36 covers a change of place of stay by a registered alien and does not carve out short moves. Report it.

Will NHIS bill me from the day I arrive? Not unless you are an employee or hold D-2, D-4-3, E-9, F-5 or F-6 status. Other local subscribers are enrolled at six months, at the 2026 average of 158,630 won if the calculated amount is lower.

Am I a Korean tax resident the moment I register? No. The Income Tax Act test is a domicile or 183 days of residence in Korea, and residents with five or fewer years of domicile in the past ten are taxed on foreign-source income only when it is paid in or remitted to Korea.

Hello Korea

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