Employment insurance on application: period that can be backdated
The most consequential zero in Korean employment law for a foreign professional. Coverage on an application-based status begins the day after the application, so years already worked cannot be pulled back into the 180-day insured-days count. It converts what looks like a question to resolve when leaving into one that had to be settled on the first day of the job, and nothing on a payslip announces it.
- Applies to
- Foreign nationals on statuses where the Employment Insurance Act applies on application — E-1 to E-7, E-9, E-10, F-4, H-2 among them
- Review cadence
- Checked once a year
What we have recorded
- 2026-09-22none — no retroactive coverage
Insured status generally arises from the day after the application is filed. An employee two years into a job who applies in month 21 does not thereby acquire 21 months of insured period. Where the Act applies in full — permanent residence and certain residence and marriage statuses — the question does not arise, because coverage never depended on an application.
Employment Insurance Act and its Enforcement Decree, application-based coverage for foreign nationals
One reading so far. This becomes a history the first time the figure moves while we are watching — which is the part that cannot be reconstructed later.
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.