D-10 job-seeking status: maximum total period of stay
It changed in October 2025 and a great deal of published guidance did not. But the correction cuts both ways: the extended period came from a reform aimed at graduates of Korean universities, and it should not be quoted back to someone whose route into D-10 is different — a professional leaving an E-7 job, for example. Two questions have to be kept apart: whether this applicant qualifies for D-10 at all, and, once they do, which period applies to their track.
- Applies to
- D-10 job-seeking holders who qualify under the track the extension covers — principally graduates of Korean universities. Not every route into D-10 carries the same period.
- Review cadence
- Checked once a year
What it has been
- 2025-10-293 years (up to 1 year per grant)Current
Up to one year per grant, to a cumulative ceiling of three years, under the 2025 improvement for graduates of Korean universities. The eligibility conditions were not removed by the reform: the degree requirement, the job-seeking field and the points test all still apply. Nor does the figure transfer automatically to every applicant — someone changing status after losing an E-7 job has to establish both their eligibility and the period that attaches to their own track.
Ministry of Justice — reform of the general job-seeking (D-10) system, effective 29 October 2025
- 2025-10-282 years (6 months per grant)
The position immediately before the reform: granted in six-month periods to a cumulative ceiling of two years. Recorded because guidance describing it is still in wide circulation.
Ministry of Justice — general job-seeking (D-10) rules as they stood before the 2025 reform
Guides that depend on this figure
When this figure moves, every guide above needs the same edit. That is why it is tracked here rather than copied into each one.