The step-by-step plan for South Korea

In this step you learn how you may come to live in South Korea. With a Dutch passport you need no visa to enter. You may then stay ninety days. Working isn't allowed during that time.

If you want to stay longer, you need a visa. You apply for it before departure, at the Korean visa centre in The Hague. There are five routes:

• Work. The E-7 visa, with a contract with a Korean employer.
• A Korean spouse. The F-6 visa, for whoever is married to a Korean.
• Korean descent. The F-4 visa, for whoever was Korean at birth, like many adoptees, and their children.
• Digital nomad. The F-1-D visa, for whoever works remotely for a foreign company.
• Working holiday. The H-1 visa, for whoever is 18 up to and including 30.

A retirement visa doesn't exist. That's the most important thing to know now. The Korean list of residence statuses has no status for whoever wants to live on a pension or their own money. If you're 65 and have no Korean partner, no Korean descent and no work in Korea, you can only be there for ninety days at most each time. Living there isn't possible then. There is a permanent status for people over 60 with a foreign pension of about 105 million won a year, about 70,700 euros. But you apply for it in Korea, as a change of a status you already have. How you get there from a stay without a visa isn't stated anywhere. Don't count on it without checking with the immigration service.

What also counts: the language. Forms are in Korean, sometimes in English. Outside the big cities English gets you less far than you think.

In this step you see what emigrating to South Korea does to your AOW, your tax and your healthcare.

The AOW. The Netherlands and Korea have a social security treaty, which has applied since 1 October 2003. Because of it, Korea is one of the countries where the full AOW goes. Whoever goes alone also keeps the AOW for a single person. The survivor's benefit (the Anw) and a WIA benefit go along too. Allowances, the AIO supplement, the WW and child benefit stop.

The tax. There is a tax treaty from 1978. The Netherlands may keep taxing your AOW. A government pension from ABP too. Your company pension goes to the country where you live: Korea. How that works out, you read in phase 3.

Healthcare. Korea isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare. So there's no CAK. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister. In Korea you're compulsorily insured with the state insurance, the NHIS, after six months of residence. If you work for a Korean employer, from your first working day. Until then you need a policy of your own.

Your AOW build-up stops. The treaty arranges the payment, not the build-up. Whoever lives in Korea and doesn't work in the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Every year until your AOW age then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. The application must be in within one year.

In this step you choose where you want to live. Most Dutch people think of Seoul, but Busan, Daejeon, Daegu, Gwangju and the island of Jeju are very different: quieter, cheaper and less English.

First read the travel advice of NederlandWereldwijd. This is what it says:

• Green for almost the whole country. South Korea is for the most part a safe country.
• Red for the border with North Korea, the demilitarised zone (DMZ), and the sea next to it.
• Yellow just south of the DMZ. You only go there with an organised tour from an official tour operator.
• Typhoons. Tropical storms come between July and October.

So look at four things for every place:

• Healthcare. In Seoul, large hospitals have their own centre for foreign patients. Outside Seoul that's less a given.
• Your route. A digital nomad has a lower income requirement outside the Seoul region. With the F-6 you live at the address of your Korean partner.
• Buying. In all of Seoul and in parts of Incheon and Gyeonggi you need a permit as a foreigner to buy land or a house, up to and including 25 August 2027.
• The air. Fine dust is a topic of conversation in Korea. On the AirKorea site you see per place what the air is like.

South Korea is eight hours ahead of the Netherlands in winter, and seven hours in summer. So you call family in their morning and your evening.

Live for a few weeks in the place you choose. With a Dutch passport you may stay ninety days.

In this step you see what the move will cost you. The visa costs themselves are low:

• The visa costs 54 euros at the visa centre in The Hague for a single visa for more than ninety days, or 81 euros for a multiple visa. On top of that comes 60 euros in service fees.
• The residence card in Korea costs 35,000 won, about 24 euros.
• An extension costs 60,000 won, about 40 euros.

The money is in other items:

• Healthcare. The first six months a policy of your own. After that the NHIS premium, which depends on your income and assets.
• The home. In Korea you often pay a high deposit when renting. You get it back at the end, but you have to be able to pay it first.
• The move by sea. A container is weeks on its way.
• The car. Bringing it costs about a quarter of its value in tax. Count on selling it.

We convert the amounts in won at the ECB rate of 23 October 2026: one euro is about 1,482 won. So a thousand won is about 67 euro cents.

In this conversation you decide together whether South Korea fits, and when. You write down what each of you needs to say yes.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings for it. One conversation is too short for such a decision. Plan three evenings, with a week in between:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in South Korea? What do we leave behind here? Would that really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What do we dread most? What do we do if it's disappointing?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What must be arranged for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what is a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen-table card everything fits on one A4.

With South Korea come two things you have to look at together on those evenings:

• The route and the duration. Every visa is temporary and has to be extended. With a job your stay depends on that job; a working holiday lasts a year. Discuss what you'll do if the ground to stay falls away.
• The distance and healthcare. You no longer see family in the Netherlands in passing: it's a long flight and eight hours of time difference. Agree on what you'll do if one of you becomes seriously ill.

Divide the work. Agree on who takes on which part of this plan: the papers for your residence, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you both see what's done.

Is one of you coming along without an income of their own? Whoever lives in Korea and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For every year that you aren't insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. For that you have a year, counted from the moment you're no longer insured. Also discuss whether that partner keeps an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on large expenses.

Married, registered or living together? That makes a big difference in Korea. The F-6 only exists for whoever is married to a Korean, with a marriage that is valid in Korea. Simply living together doesn't count. Whether a Dutch registered partnership or a marriage between two people of the same sex counts isn't in the manual; ask beforehand. On the other routes too, a partner comes along as a spouse. Check under your route further on in your plan what applies to you.

Are children coming along? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four. Tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed habits, like the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school. Tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, like their room.
• Teenagers. Involve them in the decision itself. For them saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree on how they keep in touch and when they see their friends again.

How school in Korea works, and when the school year starts, you read in the article about school with this step.

Who learns the language, and when? Daily life happens in Korean: the rental contracts, the letters from the municipality, the doctor. For permanent residence the law later asks for basic knowledge of the language and society. Agree on who will learn Korean, and whether you'll start before departure. The script, Hangul, you learn in a few weeks.

Choose the day on which you want to leave. The plan counts back from that date: when the papers from the Netherlands must be in, when you apply for your visa and when you deregister.

Take five clocks into account:

• You apply for your visa in the Netherlands, before departure. With a job, your employer first requests a confirmation from the immigration service in Korea.
• Your certificate of conduct is usually at most six months old at the application. For the F-6 at most three months.
• Within ninety days after arrival you collect your residence card.
• If you travel from 1 January 2027, you need a K-ETA without a visa, unless Korea extends the exemption once more.
• With a pet: the blood sample for the blood test is at most 24 months old on arrival.