D-8 Visa Minimum Investment of KRW 100 Million: How to Remit Funds and What to Watch For
The D-8 visa minimum investment is KRW 100 million or more, and that amount must be remitted from abroad into Korea under the foreign investor's own name and tied to a foreign investment notification in order to count.
This applies to foreign individual investors or foreign corporations that set up a Korean entity and want to stay in Korea as essential professional personnel in management, administration, production, or technology.
Below, we walk through the legal basis for the KRW 100 million threshold, how the remittance methods differ, how to document the source of funds, and how incorporation and foreign-invested company registration fit in — in the order you'll actually face them.
Legal Basis for the D-8 Visa Minimum Investment of KRW 100 Million
Where the KRW 100 million figure comes from
The D-8 status is granted to essential professional personnel of a foreign-invested company under the Foreign Investment Promotion Act.
The Enforcement Decree of that Act sets the minimum investment that qualifies as foreign investment at KRW 100 million or more.
In other words, KRW 100 million is not primarily a visa screening standard — it is a prerequisite for the investment to qualify as foreign investment at all.
If the investment falls short of KRW 100 million by even a small margin, it is blocked at the foreign investment notification stage.
Single investor vs. joint investment
When there are multiple investors, the KRW 100 million is not split among them — each person seeking a D-8 must meet the threshold individually.
Share ownership requirements are reviewed alongside this.
This is usually where the question "can the three of us put in KRW 100 million together?" comes up, and where plans start to unravel.
Caution: Putting in KRW 100 million does not automatically produce a D-8. Separate from the investment amount, the substance of the business, the office, and the staffing plan are all reviewed.
Ownership thresholds and the minimum amount per person vary with the investment structure, and an assessment that reflects current review trends is best confirmed through a consultation.
The Foreign Investment Notification You Must Complete Before Remitting
Get the order wrong and you start over
The most common mistake we see is sending money before filing the notification.
The foreign investment notification must be submitted to a foreign exchange bank or KOTRA Invest KOREA before the remittance.
Money that arrives without a notification is processed as an ordinary foreign currency transfer and is not recognized as foreign investment.
At that point, you have to send the funds back overseas, complete the notification, and remit again.
This is exactly the stage where you lose both time and money on the exchange rate.
What you write on the notification comes back later
The investment amount, purpose, and business category stated on the notification must carry over unchanged into the articles of incorporation and the business plan.
If the business category on the notification diverges from what the business actually does, explaining it at the status review stage gets long.
No matter how thick the file is, a weak explanation here comes back as a request for supplementary documents.
| Step | Handling authority | Key point to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign investment notification (new share acquisition) | Foreign exchange bank / KOTRA | Investor's name, investment amount, business category |
| Remittance of investment funds | Overseas remitting bank → Korean bank | Remitter = the investor personally |
| Issuance of foreign currency purchase certificate | Receiving bank in Korea | Purpose: payment of capital |
| Incorporation registration | Competent registry office | Articles of incorporation and capital must match |
| Foreign-invested company registration | Foreign exchange bank / KOTRA | Must match the register and the notification |
| Residence status application | Competent immigration office | Filed via HiKorea |
Three Ways to Remit D-8 Investment Funds
Direct transfer from an overseas account to a Korean account
This is the cleanest route.
Send from an overseas account in the investor's own name to a Korean bank account, and state the purpose of the remittance clearly as investment funds.
Obtaining a foreign currency purchase certificate from the receiving bank puts the nature of the funds on paper.
Carrying foreign currency in personally
If you bring in foreign currency above the customs declaration threshold, you must obtain a foreign currency import declaration certificate.
Without that certificate, the money cannot be proven to be investment funds.
Skipping the declaration at the airport and trying to explain it later is a common way to get stuck.
Using foreign currency or existing account funds already in Korea
If you use funds already sitting in Korea, you have to trace back and explain how those funds entered the country in the first place.
This is where the difference shows.
Money that has been sitting in Korea gets scrutinized far more closely than money freshly wired from abroad.
| Remittance method | Key supporting document | Practical difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Direct transfer from overseas account | Foreign currency purchase certificate, overseas remittance receipt | Low |
| Carrying foreign currency in | Customs foreign currency import declaration certificate | Medium |
| Using funds already held in Korea | Full documentation of how the funds first entered | High |
Practical tip: It is better to remit in a single transfer. Splitting it into several transfers means matching supporting documents to each one, and things get missed along the way.
Remitter Name and Source of Funds: Where Most Cases Stall
Third-party remittances are not recognized
Money sent from a father's account, a spouse's account, or an acquaintance's corporate account does not count as the investor's own investment.
If it was unavoidably sent under someone else's name, you then have to prove a gift relationship and deal with the tax implications at the same time.
This typically pushes the schedule back by a month or more.
Money in the account isn't enough if the trail is weak
What the review looks at is not the balance but how the money was generated.
Whether it came from salary, business income, proceeds from selling real estate, dividends, or a loan, the documents must connect.
- Bank transaction history covering the past several years
- Proof of income or tax payment certificates
- Evidence of asset disposal such as sale contracts and registry records
- If the funds are borrowed, the loan agreement and repayment plan
More important than the number of documents is whether these four connect into a single line.
In a recent similar case, the balance certificate was more than sufficient, but the explanation of how the funds arrived had a gap, and the applicant received a request for supplementary documents.
Where your own funding trail breaks can only be judged by looking at the transaction records directly.
Request a free consultation now → 02-363-2251 / KakaoTalk: alexkorea
From Capital Payment to Foreign-Invested Company Registration
When a balance certificate can be used instead
For an incorporation by promotion where the capital falls below a certain threshold, a balance certificate may be used in place of a certificate of custody of subscription payment.
Above that threshold, the bank custody certification procedure is added and the timeline stretches.
Which side your investment falls on should be settled in advance at the capital structuring stage; confirm the exact applicable threshold during a consultation.
Documents you must secure after registration
Once the incorporation registration is complete, business registration and foreign-invested company registration follow.
The D-8 application package is not complete until the foreign-invested company registration certificate is issued.
| Category | Document | Issued by |
|---|---|---|
| Investment proof | Foreign investment notification certificate, foreign currency purchase certificate | Foreign exchange bank |
| Corporate proof | Corporate registry extract, articles of incorporation, business registration certificate | Registry office / tax office |
| Investor proof | Source-of-funds documentation, passport, education and career records | Prepared by applicant |
| Business substance | Office lease agreement, business plan | Prepared by applicant |
| Final registration | Foreign-invested company registration certificate | Foreign exchange bank / KOTRA |
Caution: A setup where you only borrow an address without an office lease agreement is viewed as weak evidence of business substance. With shared offices, recognition depends on the form of the contract.
Problems That Frequently Surface After Remittance
Pulling the investment funds straight back out
If money paid in as capital is moved to the representative's personal account right after incorporation, or withdrawn entirely, it becomes a problem when the residence status comes up for extension.
That is because accounting records are used to confirm whether the investment was actually used in the business.
Keeping it as business-purpose spending — payroll, rent, equipment purchases — keeps the explanation short.
Falling below the threshold due to exchange rate movement
Depending on the exchange rate at the moment the remitted foreign currency is converted to Korean won, the amount can end up below KRW 100 million.
It looks simple on the surface, but this is where re-remittances happen.
It is safer to send with a buffer, and how much of a buffer depends on the currency and the timing of the transfer.
Changes in law and review standards
Standards for foreign investment and the guidelines for residence status review are revised frequently.
The most current standards can be checked at the Korea Law Information Center and HiKorea, and how they apply to an individual case needs to be confirmed with the competent authority.
Processing times vary by immigration office, and we map out the fastest route based on where your case stands.
How Long the Whole Process Actually Takes
From remitting the investment funds to obtaining the residence status typically takes several weeks.
The stages where timelines stretch are predictable.
- Waiting for source-of-funds documentation to come together
- Apostille or consular authentication of overseas documents
- A delayed office lease leaving a gap in proof of business substance
Handle these three first and the rest follows in order.
Costs vary case by case, so we provide exact figures during the free consultation.
Government charges consist of the officially published fees plus administrative processing costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. Can I split the KRW 100 million D-8 visa minimum investment into two remittances?
You can, but each remittance has to line up with its own notification and supporting documents.
If any portion of a split remittance falls outside the scope of the notification, that amount is excluded from the investment.
Q2. Can I invest with money my parents sent me?
The funds must leave an account in the investor's own name.
To use a parent's funds, you first move them into your own account and document the gift relationship, in that order.
Tax issues come attached, so it is safer to confirm the structure before remitting.
Q3. Does investing more than KRW 100 million help my application?
A larger amount can work in your favor when the substance of the business is assessed.
However, the amount alone is not decisive — it has to be explained together with the business plan and the spending plan.
Q4. Can I invest using money already in Korea?
Yes, but you have to trace and prove when and on what grounds that money entered the country.
In practice, this requires more documentation than a direct transfer from abroad.
Q5. Can I set up the company first and put the investment in later?
There is a structure where you first incorporate as a domestic company and then convert it to foreign investment.
That said, a capital increase notification and cleanup of the ownership structure are added, which lengthens the process.
Which structure works better depends on the industry and the ownership plan.
Q6. Can I use the investment funds for operating expenses and still extend my D-8?
Business-purpose spending is not a problem.
Personal withdrawals or unsupported loan entries left on the books will draw requests for explanation at the extension review.
Need Professional Advice?
Get the remittance sequence wrong once and undoing it takes several times as long.
Before you remit, review the notification structure and your source-of-funds documentation first.
- Phone: 02-363-2251
- Email: 5000meter@gmail.com
- KakaoTalk: alexkorea
- Address: 3F, Sungwoo Building, 324 Toegye-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul (04614)
About Vision Administrative Agency
Vision Administrative Agency handles foreign-investment company incorporation and D-8 residence status matters together.
- Foreign investment notification and remittance structure design
- Review of source-of-funds documentation
- Incorporation registration and linked business registration
- Foreign-invested company registration on your behalf
- D-8 residence status application and extension
Costs vary case by case, so we provide exact figures during the free consultation.
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