South Korea’s golden visa (the Immigrant Investor Scheme for Public Business) offers a path to permanent residency and citizenship in 5 and 6 years in exchange for effectively amounts to a five-year, zero-invest loan of about US220 000 to a sovereign fund. The principal amount is returned without interest after 5 years. But age of the applicants is also important for getting South Korea’s golden visa. Those 55 years or older need only invest US220 000 while those under must allocate at least US385 000.
South Korea’s golden visa is really a hybrid of the typical entrepreneur visa that encourages innovators to bring their talents to a new country and a South Korean investor visa that seeks to bring capital into the country.
South Korea is one of the wealthiest countries in Asia with one of the world’s fastest growing economies, has a high-income market and its GDP ranks 13th in the world. The country is world’s top-10 economies in terms of foreign reserves, exports, and total trade making an attractive investment destination. Korea has Free trade agreements with over 50 countries making the country a global innovation leader trade, exports and process innovation. Look closer to the statistics>>
Who is ready to invest in South Korea’s golden visa?
Historically, Japanese and Chinese investors have been the dominant applicant group, together accounting for some 43% of approvals since the year 2000. In 2021, Japanese and Chinese investors numbered respectively 397 (28% in total) and 275 (20%). In 2021, however, it is the Indian investor contingent that stands out. Total approved investor visas for Indian nationals amounted to 119, a 75% increase compared to 2020 and 250% expansion since 2019.
In 2021, fully 1407 main applicants received South Korea investor visas, a figure that surpasses last the 1,351 approvals observes in 2020, itself record year.
Just over fifteen years ago, there were only a few hundred thousand expats in all of South Korea. Today, that number is close to two million. Most Western expats live here among the nearly 10 million people who populate Seoul. And investors come even from the Western countries like France, UK, US, Germany.
Please remember, that South Korea’s golden visa is for investors, who plan to live in this country. Doesn’t give you any extra options to travel visa-free unless you will manage to get through naturalization after certain amount of time and become a citizen.
