A long-term partner (not married to a person holding a working permit for Korea) is not eligible to be issued a depend permit. This requirement for a dependant permit causes a restriction to a long-term couple that is not legally married.
Recognize common law partners as family members.
Working Visas
Working visas are issued under the companies’ information and therefore are attached to companies not people.
Visa should be attached to people and not to companies so that people can more easily change organizations in Korea.
Working Visas
The work scope under each visa is too restrictive. eg. a foreign employee cannot sit on a board of another company or work as a lecturer or professor at any other organization. This creates unnecessary inflexibility.
The Immigration should consider applying broader visas so that the people can be more engaged within their field or the company.
Working Visas
To get working visas it is required to have a degree and certain length of experience (for E7 the minimum degree is Bachelor’s degree and the experience period is stated to 2 years at least). However if the person applying for the visa worked as self-employed, such experience does not count.
Ease the length of the work experience and qualification requirement. Make self-employment experience equal to regular employee experience
Internships at Korean Companies
Korean companies cannot hire foreign students/graduates for internships as it is mandatory to offer these internship vacancies to Korean students/graduates.
The companies should encouraged to hire interns from abroad as this would help to create a working environment and companies’ culture that will be more globally competitive.
Working visa requirements for English teachers
To be able to teach English in Korea the only requirements are to posses passport of one of the following countries: UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland or South Africa; English as a mother tongue and hold a Bachelor degree from an English speaking country. However these requirements do not ensure that the person possesses the skills to teach English properly.
The current regulations should be reviewed and requirements for people who want to teach English should involve their qualification and their work experience. People who have English teaching experience and English language qualifications should be allowed to teach English in Korea.
Certifications and Qualifications
Korea does not recognize some EU Certifications or Qualifications and vice-versa.
There should be an agreement between EU and Korea on mutually accepted certifications and qualification.
Living standards -Domestic Helpers
Many foreign families are not in a position to employ a foreign domestic helper, however they have a person who has been on ongoing basis bringing up the kids and travelling with the family. It has come to our attention that people turned down employment offers in Korea, especially when both partners wanted to work, do not speak Korean and have children.
This restriction makes Korea less attractive place for highly skilled foreign workers who prefer places like Singapore or Hong Kong where such restrictions do not apply.
The criteria for employing foreign domestic helpers should be based on annual household income and set at 40 million KRW, in line with regulations in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Living standards - Healthcare
There is not enough information in English as to the hospitals in Korea stating the information what specialists are at each of the hospitals and fees for the consultation or other services. Also the standards of the healthcare are questionable.
There should be an information centre or a helpdesk (Call-centre for English speaking foreigners, ie under MOHW) that would provide all the information needed on this subject.
Living standards -Internet
Most of the Korean web-pages are built according to MS Internet Explorer 6.0 standards and therefore are impossible to open and to work on with Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and already MS Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher. Most people who use other than Microsoft OS such as Mac OS or Linux are disadvantaged.
Korea should follow the international standards set for the websites.
Living standards -Internet
Most Korean websites require the users to register with their ID to allow them to browse on the pages or to simply add a comment under the articles available on the web. Also to access some websites the user needs a special certificate.
Allow access website without inputting the ID details.
Living standards - Banking - Debit Card
Foreigners working in Korea can apply for a debit card (once they acquired Alien registration card) and open an account in Korea, however this debit card is valid only in Korea. Therefore it causes a lot of trouble when they are going home for holidays or going abroad for business or personal reasons.
The debit cards should be “international” and not “valid only in Korea”.
Living standards -Banking - Credit Card
It is only a very short time since the two banks ? KEB and SC First Bank started to issue credit cards for foreigners. As this is still new the staff in the branches is not well trained or informed and therefore this information is very hard to get for foreigners.
There should be an information centre (or call-centre for English speaking foreigners, ie. under Ministry of Finance) that would provide a complete information on the banking services.
Living standards - Banking - going abroad
Foreigners holding Korean account going abroad no matter if possessing credit or debit card have to register one day prior to their departure in their banks with their passports (alien cards are not sufficient for such a registration).
There should be a possibility to prove the identity with an alien registration card only as it is very inconvenient to carry passport everywhere and all the time
Living standards - Online Banking - Debit Card
Debit Card holders are not able to do any online payments at all.
Allow debit card holders to do online purchases not only on Korean websites but also on international websites (ie through Paypal).
Living standards -Information dissemination
Information available in English is not usually full or well explained. The obligations or legal requirements including the penalties are sometimes completely missing in the information provided by local authorities or only partial.
All the information available in English should be up to date and full. There should be sanctions if the government body provides false or misleading information on their homepage
