Newsnomics AJAY ANGELINA reporter |

South Korean Ministry of Justice has announced the expansion of visa eligibility for research students (D-2-5) and exemption from the experience requirement for researchers (E-3) to attract out standing global talent in the field of science and technology.

Until now, the research student visa D-2-5 has been permitted only to those with a master's or doctoral degree and to overseas undergraduate students invited by specific research institutes. 

The permitted specific institutions include 1) Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 2) Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST), 3) Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), 4) Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), 5) United Graduate School of Science and Technology (UST).

But other domestic universities were not permitted to invite overseas undergraduate students. 

It is pointed out that it is not an any easy task to recruit overseas research personnel.

Therefore, now the Ministry of Justice has allowed domestic universities*, which are ranked among the top universities in the world, to invite overseas bachelor's degree students in science and engineering fields as research students (D-2-5).

Meanwhile, the researcher visa(E-3) has been granted to those with a master's or doctoral degree, but it has been pointed out that foreign master's degree holders were required to have at least 3 years of experience that made it difficult to attract researchers.

Accordingly, the Ministry of Justice has made it possible to immediately invite foreign graduates of top universities* or authors of excellent academic papers** to become researchers (E-3), even if they have no experience, and if they have a master's degree.

The permission counts top 200 universities in the British Times Higher Education World Reputation Ranking(THE Ranking) or British rating agencies, Master's degree holder from one of the top 500 world universities ranked by QS.

It will lead author, co-author, and corresponding author of papers listed in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and Arts and Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), which calculate the paper citation index.

“The Ministry of Justice plans to gradually expand the scope of research-related visa issuance in order to attract outstanding global talent in the science and technology fields, and will seek to improve the balanced visa system by collecting opinions from related ministries and the science and technology community” said the ministry of justice.