D-7 Visa Documents: A Practical Guide to Intra-Company Transferee Requirements and Eligibility
D-7 visa documents fall into three groups — head office documents, Korean branch documents, and the transferee's personal documents — and if the link between any two of them breaks, you'll get a supplementary request no matter how thick the file is.
D-7 is the status of stay for executives and employees who have worked continuously at an overseas head office for at least one year and are being posted to a branch, liaison office, or local subsidiary established in Korea.
Below, we walk through the eligibility differences between D-7-1 and D-7-2, the required documents at each stage, the Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance process, and the points where applications most often stall in actual review.
The First Thing to Look At Isn't the Document Checklist
The Three Things a Reviewing Officer Checks First
What matters first is this: does the head office actually exist, was the Korean entity lawfully established, and is the transferee genuinely an employee of that head office?
Once those three connect on paper, the rest is closer to a formality.
Conversely, if the head office registry is in order but the transferee's tenure falls short of one year, or if the name on the branch establishment acceptance certificate differs subtly from the applicant entity's name, that's usually where things break down.
In practice, we sketch out these connections as a diagram before collecting a single document.
Preparing in Three Groups
| Category | Representative Documents | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Head office (sending entity) | Certificate of incorporation, proof of business registration, company profile, financial statements | Documents issued abroad require apostille or consular confirmation |
| Korean entity (receiving side) | Branch/liaison office establishment acceptance certificate or certified corporate registry extract, Korean business registration certificate | Required documents differ by entity type |
| Transferee (individual) | Passport copy, standard-format photo, certificate of employment, transfer order, degree and career records | Proving one year or more of service is the crux |
Practical tip: Home-country documents take time for certified translation and apostille processing, so start them in parallel with the Korean procedures or the whole timeline slips.
Where D-7-1 and D-7-2 Diverge on Eligibility
The Structural Difference Between the Two Types
D-7 is grounded in the "Intra-Company Transferee (D-7)" long-term status listed in Attachment 1-2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act.
D-7-1 covers foreign executives and employees posted to a foreign company's Korean branch, liaison office, or local subsidiary.
D-7-2 covers personnel who have been working at a Korean company's overseas subsidiary or branch and are coming to work at the Korean head office; they must qualify as essential professional personnel of the Korean company.
They look similar on the surface, but the direction of the transfer is reversed, so the evidence required is fundamentally different.
| Item | D-7-1 | D-7-2 |
|---|---|---|
| Direction of transfer | Overseas head office → Korean branch | Overseas subsidiary → Korean head office |
| Core evidence | Existence of head office + lawful establishment of Korean branch | Korean head office's overseas investment record + proof of service at the local subsidiary |
| Work experience | 1+ year of continuous service at head office or affiliate | Period of service at the overseas subsidiary, etc. |
| Common sticking point | Whether the liaison office is conducting sales activity | Justifying essential-professional-personnel status |
When the One-Year Requirement Can Be Relaxed
The baseline rule is one year or more of continuous service at the head office or an affiliate as of the application date.
That said, transferees from companies meeting certain criteria — listed corporations, for example — may have this experience requirement applied on a relaxed basis.
Whether the relaxation applies depends on the company's listing market and size, and the guidelines are revised frequently, so whether your company qualifies is something that has to be checked case by case.
Establishing the Korean Branch Is Where D-7 Actually Begins
Branches and Liaison Offices Require Different Documents
A D-7-1 only works if there is already a Korean entity ready to receive the transferee.
For a foreign company to set up a branch or liaison office in Korea, it must file a domestic branch establishment report under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, have it accepted by a designated foreign exchange bank, and then proceed to court registration and business registration.
A branch (place of business) may carry out revenue-generating business activity in Korea, while a liaison office is limited to non-business activities such as market research, R&D, and liaison work.
If an entity is registered as a liaison office but is in fact signing contracts and issuing invoices, that is exactly what surfaces during review.
Operating Funds and a Real Office
Whether the head office actually remitted operating funds to the branch's account, and whether the floor area and headcount match the office lease agreement, are also frequently checked.
If an on-site inspection turns up no signage, no furnishings, and no resident staff, credibility drops even with a complete document set.
Caution: Choose the wrong branch structure and you have to back up at the establishment stage, not the visa stage — and the time it takes to correct pushes the entire posting schedule out.
We recently saw a case where a liaison office was set up, sales contracts then arose, and the entity had to convert to a branch — forcing the transfer schedule to be redrawn.
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Costs vary case by case, so we'll give you exact figures during your free consultation.
The Transferee's Personal Documents and Proof of Service
Standard Submissions
- Passport, original and copy (check remaining validity)
- Standard-format photo
- Certificate of employment (stating position, duties, and start date)
- Transfer order or letter of assignment (stating the transfer period and the Korean workplace)
- Degree certificate and career certificates
- Shareholding and organizational chart materials showing the relationship between the head office and the Korean entity
- The Korean workplace's business registration certificate and corporate certifications
What Separates a Strong Certificate of Employment
With a certificate of employment, the difference is in how specific the content is, not the format.
A one-line certificate listing only a job title carries nowhere near the weight of one that states duties, department, period of service, and the fact that salary was paid.
This matters especially when service at an affiliate is being aggregated to reach the one-year mark: you have to demonstrate through the ownership structure that the two companies belong to the same corporate group, and if that explanation is thin, the experience may not be recognized.
Attaching objective materials such as salary payment records or social insurance enrollment data reduces supplementary requests.
The Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance and the Order of Steps
Starting from Korea
D-7 applications typically run in this order: the Korean inviter (the branch or corporation) applies to the competent immigration office for a Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance, then the issued confirmation number is used to obtain the visa at a Korean mission abroad.
Applications and forms can be checked at HiKorea, and information on competent authorities at the Korea Immigration Service.
| Step | Content | Handled By |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Domestic branch establishment report and acceptance | Designated foreign exchange bank |
| 2 | Corporate or branch registration, business registration | Court / tax office |
| 3 | Apostille and certified translation of home-country documents | Home-country authorities |
| 4 | Application for Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance | Competent immigration office |
| 5 | Visa application and issuance at a mission abroad | Korean mission abroad |
| 6 | Alien registration after entry | Competent immigration office |
A Realistic Word on Processing Times
Processing times vary widely depending on the competent office's caseload and whether supplementary documents are requested — and once a supplementary request comes in, the schedule stretches again.
The criteria determining which office has jurisdiction and the differences in processing speed between offices aren't published, so predicting your actual timeline is more accurate when based on recent comparable cases.
Fees consist of the government-notified fee plus administrative processing costs; costs vary case by case, so we'll give you exact figures during your free consultation.
Where Applications Most Often Stall in Review
Why Outcomes Differ Even with Thick Files
- The work the transferee will actually perform at the Korean entity isn't explained
- It's a liaison office, but the transfer order describes sales-type duties
- The number of transferees is excessive relative to the head office's size per its financial statements
- Korean nationals are already doing the same work domestically and the rationale for the transfer is weak
- The ownership relationship between the head office and the Korean entity isn't evident from the documents
Here's the core of it.
D-7 is a visa that requires you to prove, through organizational structure, why this particular person must come to Korea.
If that explanation is missing, the sheer number of documents won't change the outcome.
Caution: If the duties described in the transfer order conflict with the reported scope of business of the Korean branch, that alone is grounds for a supplementary request.
Extending Your Stay and Bringing Family
What Gets Reviewed at Extension
At the D-7 extension stage, materials that weren't part of the initial application come under review.
The branch's operating results, whether additional operating funds were brought in, the transferee's income tax payment record, and whether the branch is being properly maintained are the main ones.
If the branch is effectively dormant, cases do get blocked at extension even though the initial visa was granted.
Accompanying Family
A spouse and minor children can stay together under the Dependent Family (F-3) status.
Family relationship documents issued in the home country are also subject to apostille and certified translation, so preparing them alongside the transferee's own documents makes for better schedule management.
Detailed guidelines on status of stay are revised often, so whether a given rule applies at the time of your application needs to be confirmed with the competent authority.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1. Which D-7 visa documents absolutely require an apostille?
Public documents issued in the home country are the main targets — certificates of incorporation, registry-related documents, and family relationship certificates.
Documents from countries not party to the Apostille Convention require consular confirmation from the Korean mission in that country, and since procedures and processing times differ by country, this needs to be checked in advance.
Q2. If I haven't worked at the head office for a full year, is a D-7 application impossible?
As a rule, at least one year of recent continuous service is required.
However, relaxed criteria can apply depending on the company's structure and listing status, so whether that's the case requires a requirements review with the company's documents in hand.
Q3. Can a D-7 visa be obtained through a liaison office?
A liaison office can indeed be a D-7-1 receiving entity.
That said, its scope is limited to non-business activities, so if the transferee's duties read as sales work, it becomes a problem during review.
Q4. How is D-7 different from E-7?
D-7 presumes an intra-company transfer of someone already employed at the overseas head office.
E-7 is structured around a Korean company newly hiring a foreign professional, with different education and experience requirements and a different occupational-code review process.
Q5. Can branch establishment and the visa application run at the same time?
The establishment acceptance certificate and business registration certificate are prerequisites for the Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance application, so you can't skip ahead in the sequence.
But preparing home-country documents and completing the Korean establishment process can run in parallel — and whether you design for that parallelism is what determines the total timeline.
Q6. I received a supplementary request. Can I just resubmit the same documents?
The wording of a supplementary notice is often brief, but what's really being asked for is a structural explanation.
Resubmitting the same documents leads to repeated requests, so it's faster to first work out what was read as insufficient.
Need Professional Advice?
With D-7, half the outcome is already decided by how you structure the branch.
Only by looking at the head office's size, the Korean entity's form, and the transferee's career together can you see where things are likely to stall.
Confirm exact costs and procedures through a professional consultation.
VISION Administrative Office
- Phone: 02-363-2251
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- Email: 5000meter@gmail.com
- Address: 3F, Seongwoo Building, 324 Toegye-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul 04614, Korea
VISION Administrative Office Services
- Establishment reporting and registration for foreign companies' Korean branches and liaison offices
- Foreign investment reporting and foreign-invested company registration
- D-7 intra-company transferee visa confirmation certificate applications
- Review and change of related statuses such as D-8 and E-7
- Extension of stay and invitation of accompanying family (F-3)
- Guidance on apostille and certified translation of home-country documents
Guidelines and forms relating to status of stay are subject to revision, so before applying, please check both the notices on HiKorea and the guidance from your competent immigration office.
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