Setting up a Korean subsidiary and need a work visa for your dispatched staff?

When a foreign company invests in Korea and sets up a local entity, the staff it sends to run or build that business need one of three visa categories — D-8 (foreign-invested company executive/expert), D-7 (intra-company transferee to a branch or liaison office), or D-9-2 (technical staff for industrial machinery installation/maintenance). Each has a different filing path, and Korean immigration officers reject a meaningful share of self-filed applications for the same handful of avoidable mistakes.

The investment path to a D-8-1 visa

A real case from our office: a Hong Kong-registered company invested KRW 100 million to establish a cosmetics manufacturing subsidiary in Korea, then dispatched a Chinese national already employed at the parent company to run it as representative director.

1. Foreign investment notification at a Korean foreign-exchange bank — the investing entity must be clearly identified as a foreign corporation (not an individual), and the bank will request the parent company's certificate of incorporation and shareholder register to verify beneficial ownership.
2. Capital remittance — the investor, remitter, and receiving account must all match, the SWIFT wire instruction must explicitly state the funds are for investment, and the amount on the remittance confirmation must reconcile exactly.
3. Corporate registration — requires a signed office lease before incorporation (a residence or shared/"soho" office no longer qualifies for D-8 purposes; the lease must show an independent, dedicated business address). A representative can sign a provisional lease personally before incorporation and re-execute it in the company's name once registered.
4. D-8-1 visa filing for the dispatched executive/expert, once the capital contribution certificate, corporate registration, and business registration are all in hand.

Required documents (D-8-1)

• Integrated application form, passport, passport photo
• Foreign-invested company registration certificate, business registration certificate, full corporate registry, shareholder-change statement
• Proof of capital inflow — remittance confirmation, foreign-exchange purchase certificate
• Dispatch order and employment certificate from the parent company (must state the dispatch period; if the dispatching entity differs from the investor, proof of affiliation is required)
• Evidence of "essential expert" status — certifications, career history, degree, org chart showing the role is executive/managerial/technical
• Office lease copy and office photos
• Proof of accommodation in Korea
• TB screening certificate (for high-risk countries)

Reading a SWIFT MT103 remittance confirmation

The capital-inflow proof above is almost always a SWIFT MT103 message — the standard international wire format, and the one document Korean immigration officers scrutinize most closely for D-8 filings. A real MT103 we handled: a Hong Kong sender wired USD 380,000 through Bank of China (Hong Kong) to a Korean recipient's KEB Hana Bank account, with USD 20 in sender-paid fees netting a settled USD 379,980. The field that matters most for a D-8 filing is :70 (Remittance Information) — it must read "INVESTMENT FUND" or equivalent, not a generic transfer description, and the amount on :32A (value date/settled amount) must reconcile exactly with the capital-contribution certificate used for corporate registration.

D-7 (intra-company transfer / dispatch) — the parallel track for branches

D-7 covers staff dispatched to a Korean branch, liaison office, or affiliate rather than a newly capitalized subsidiary — common when a foreign headquarters wants to run its own Korean operations directly rather than through local hires. The dispatched employee must have at least one year of continuous service at the overseas parent (with an exception for representative offices bringing in USD 500,000+ in operating funds, or companies holding designated core national technologies), and the Korean entity must already have a properly registered branch, liaison office, or foreign-invested company. It runs through five stages — eligibility review, joint document collection from both the overseas HQ and Korean office, the visa-issuance-confirmation filing, visa stamping and entry, and post-entry alien registration — and allows the transferee's spouse and minor children to accompany on an F-3 dependent visa.

Setting up a joint venture instead of a wholly foreign-owned subsidiary

A foreign company doesn't have to own 100% of the Korean entity to qualify for D-8 — a joint venture with a Korean partner works too, as long as the foreign side's stake meets the Foreign Investment Promotion Act's threshold (₩100M+ invested, 10%+ of voting shares, or under 10% but with the right to appoint an officer). The process runs foreign-investment notification → capital remittance and share payment → corporate registration → licensing → business registration and corporate bank account → foreign-invested company registration. Capital can arrive by SWIFT wire to a bank-designated virtual account (converted to KRW at deposit) or carried in physically (declared at customs) — either way, the receiving account must match what was declared in the investment notification exactly.

Why filing this alone goes wrong

The 2026 rule changes tightened scrutiny on exactly the points above — independent office space, remittance-to-registration traceability, and proof that the dispatched person is a genuine "essential" hire rather than a nominal placement. A single mismatched figure between the SWIFT confirmation and the capital certificate, or a lease that reads as a shared/virtual office, is enough to trigger a request for supplementary evidence or an outright denial — and a denial creates a record that makes the next application harder.