January 2, 2026
SEOUL – Rosa and Andrua Haque moved from Bangladesh to South Korea with their parents 15 years ago.
Now 27 years old, the twins went on to study at Yonsei University and Seoul National University, respectively, before embarking on markedly different career paths.
The sister was recently hired by biopharmaceutical giant Samsung Biologics, while her brother founded a startup from scratch.
“It’s ironic coming from me, but I wouldn’t even consider hiring international students,” the entrepreneur told The Korea Herald.
“There is so much paperwork my company would have to submit, and there is a Korean-to-foreigner ratio requirement,” he said, explaining that his startup would need to hire a Korean employee alongside any foreign recruit to meet quotas.
His sister laughed at the remark but acknowledged that her own path into the Korean workforce was far from straightforward.
“I had to ask my company for a lot of documents because my company did not know much about the process (of obtaining a work visa),” she said.
Though the mood was light as the Bangladeshi siblings reflected on their stories, their experiences stand in contrast to the reality facing most international students seeking work in Korea.
Rising employment, but limited access
While Ministry of Education data released Monday showed that the number of international graduates who found jobs in Korea rose from 1,732 in 2018 to 4,993 in 2024, the full picture is more complicated.
Over the same period, however, the total number of international graduates more than doubled. As a result, the employment rate increased only modestly, from about 9.6 percent to roughly 13.8 percent.
Given that surveys show that 60-80 percent of students want to find work in the country, these figures reveal a stark mismatch that frustrates many graduates.
“If you (search on) google or look in Naver, you can barely find job posts for international students,” said Rosa Haque. “If there were better job posts, or if they mentioned whether foreigners are allowed to apply, we would have an easier time.”
“I think there is a large decrease in the number of job posts for foreign students,” said Park, an employee at a management support firm that helps large Korean conglomerates recruit and onboard foreign talent.
“If they hire foreigners, it’s usually for executive positions, and rarely for new recruits.”
A narrow window of opportunity
After graduating from Yonsei University, Rosa Haque pursued a master’s degree at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. She said she was fortunate to secure a job just three months into her search.
“I was looking for posts on job offers but I could barely find any for international students,” she said.
In the end, she resorted to directly emailing human resources departments to ask about potential openings.
“They were not able to give me exact answers as well,” she said.
Most replies encouraged her to apply during open recruitment periods alongside Korean applicants — an option she said was unrealistic in practice.
“Samsung or SK and other companies have their own standardized tests which are in Korean, (similar to) the GSAT. They don’t offer it in English,” Haque said.
Even Korean applicants often spend months preparing for these exams, placing foreign candidates with limited Korean ability at a significant disadvantage.
“I was lucky enough to find a post where they actually hired international students exclusively,” Haque said. “I did not have to take the exam because an international student with a masters degree was considered an experienced applicant under that track.”
Yang Lin, a 27-year-old Chinese graduate of Yonsei University, said finding work in South Korea was manageable largely because he spoke fluent Korean.
“I know some friends from university who have a hard time finding work because they do not speak the language,” said Yang, who works at a small business targeting Chinese clients.
Others echoed that assessment. Haque said language barriers hinder job searches from the outset.
“If they don’t speak Korean, it’s very difficult to find the information itself,” she said.
Park said most companies see little incentive to hire foreign graduates at the entry level.
“There are already many Koreans who have experience living or studying abroad. Companies would rather hire them for their global business departments as well,” she said.
Visa woes
Do Ngoc Minh Luong, a Vietnamese computer science student who graduated from Seoul National University in February, had completed two internships at large Korean conglomerates, both of which struggled with her visa documentation.
“Back then, at one of the companies, it was slightly difficult because I think I was in the first foreigner batch. So, it took them a while to prepare all the documents after I got accepted,” she said.
“I feel like Korean companies don’t really know much (about the visa process),” she added, noting that many were unaware of the documents required to sponsor foreign employees.
Hugo Adam, a French student at Seoul National University and vice president of the school’s international student association, said visa instability itself discourages companies from hiring international graduates.
International students usually convert to a D-10 (jobseeking) visa upon graduation, although some are unable to because of financial requirements. The D-10 allows students to partake in 1-year internships, however, students must obtain a work visa, if the company decides to continue their employment.
“When you have a D-10 visa, it’s really difficult … it’s not stable and companies don’t want to bet that you are going to stay or that maybe you will lose your visa,” Adam said. “It’s pretty stressful for foreigners.”
Applications for the typical professional work visa, E-7, take time, and success is not guaranteed.
They must usually fit one of 90 job codes, each coming with its own requirements. These can include limitations on company size and recommendations from government ministries and agencies. On top of that, the job codes and their descriptions change frequently, and are sometimes removed or new ones added.
A 450-page guide to the visa requirements is available on immmigration portal hikorea.go.kr, but only in Korean. The section on E-7 visas is 105 pages long.
“From a company’s perspective, sponsorship is often expensive, administratively pretty complex, and time consuming,” Adam added. “Many employers prefer to avoid it unless they are hiring for highly qualified positions or specific skills … but not for entry level or general jobs (past internships).”
The D-10 visa can be extended in one-year increments for up to three years, but the restrictions on working make this financially burdensome.
Adam said obtaining an F-2-7 long-term residency visa is often considered the most desirable outcome.
However, Korea’s F-2-7 is difficult to obtain as it operates on a points-based system that favors high incomes, Korean language proficiency and advanced academic credentials, making it hard for many foreign residents to meet the threshold.
Hiring not the final hurdle
Rosa Haque said she was required to submit a Level 5 score on the Test of Proficiency in Korean and that later-stage interviews were conducted in Korean.
But she noted that language challenges often persist after hiring.
“Even if they do get hired (without learning Korean), it’s difficult for them to adapt to the working culture with language constraints,” she said.
Luong, who said her Korean remains limited, agreed.
“My Korean skills hinder me. I would like to improve it, but at the same time, I just find myself more comfortable speaking English to express myself,” she said.
Even successful job seekers said cultural adjustment remains a challenge.
“In terms of the work culture, they ask us to adopt more of the norms in Korea,” Haque said.
“Korea’s work culture is more hierarchical,” Yang said. “In my home city, we have designated times for naps during lunch. At first it was hard to get used to being awake the whole day,” he added, laughing.
Entrepreneurship as an alternative
Rather than enter the job market, Andrua Haque chose to co-found a startup with a Korean friend he met in college — a decision he now views as even more difficult.
“It’s definitely easier for international students to find a job. For me, I was lucky to have a Korean friend,” he said. “As far as I know, there are no cases of (foreign) undergraduate students just opening a startup like me.”
Haque, who was studying under the government-funded Global Korea Scholarship, said his D-2 student visa quickly became a barrier.
“With the D-2 visa, you can set up a startup in Korea, but you can never gain any personal income from that,” he said. “So, while I was doing my startup, and until today, I cannot get paid legally or own stocks — or have a business under my name without a Korean co-founder.”
While not illegal, he said, student entrepreneurship remains constrained by limits on funding, ownership and profit-making.
Government response
Some international student groups have raised these concerns with government officials.
“(SNU’s international student association) was invited by the Ministry of Education to discuss this topic (of employment),” Adam said.
“The job market is really hard for foreigners because even if you speak Korean, companies just don’t want to hire you,” he added.
Adam said SNU’s international student association highlighted visa difficulties, a lack of accessible employment information and language-heavy hiring exams during discussions with ministry officials in the first half of 2025.
Progress, however, has been limited.
“They said, ‘yeah we are aware of it and we’ll try to work on it,’ but I don’t see any improvement for now at least.”
In response to inquiries, the Education Ministry told The Korea Herald that while it is working to improve employment prospects for international students, responsibility largely lies with local governments.
“Under the RISE initiative, we provide support to local governments to help international students grow key capabilities,” a ministry official said, referring to the Regional Innovation System and Education initiative.
The ministry added that it is developing new business-focused Korean language learning initiatives and plans to require local governments to demonstrate efforts to nurture foreign talent in order to receive government support.