S. Korea to up E-9 visa quota for migrant workers to 110,000 in 2023

Record number of 110,000 foreigners would be granted South Korea’s E-9 visa enabling legal stay in the country for five years or more to work in non-professional fields to address the dire shortage of labor force in factory lines and farm and fisheries segment.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor announced Thursday it set quota for E-9 visa to 110,000 for next year, which would be almost doubled from this year’s 69,000.

Specifically, 75,000 will be accepted for factory work, 14,000 for field and livestock farming, 7,000 for fisheries, and 3,000 for construction sites. About 10,000 workers will be decided upon demand.

The labor ministry has set E-9 visa policy for next year earlier than usual to quickly address the worsening labor shortage in the country’s unskilled fields.

It plans to receive applications from foreigners in November to allow them to work in Korea from early next year.

Small- and mid-sized businesses in the manufacturing field and the agricultural and livestock industries are struggling with lack of labor power. According to a survey by the labor ministry, as many as 642,000 workers were in short in the first half of this year, up from 415,000 a year ago.

“The ministry has decided to accept more workers from overseas in response to the desperate appeal from SMEs and demand from the industrial site without affecting jobs for Korean nationals, said Lee Jung-sik, Minister of Employment and Labor.

He promised to send skilled workers to shipyards first as they are urgently in need of more manpower to meet with growing orders.

Before allocating foreign migrant workers, the employment ministry will check the employers if they had endeavored to look for jobseekers in Korea first.

Policies to protect migrant workers from workplace accidents will be strengthened as well, with monitoring and educational efforts to improve the working conditions.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]