A Foreign Pension at Sixty Is a Permanent Residence Qualification, and There Is No Temporary Retirement Status at All
Korea has no retirement visa. There is no status in Attached Table 1 or Attached Table 1-2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act for a person who has stopped working and wants to live here on a pension. What exists instead sits one level up: item 11 of Attached Table 1-3, the table describing who is eligible for permanent residence, covers a person aged sixty or over who is receiving a pension from abroad of at least the amount the Minister of Justice determines. A retired foreigner is therefore not a candidate for a temporary status that might later become permanent - the pension is itself a permanent-residence qualification, and the only thresholds are the age, which the Decree states, and the pension amount, which it leaves to a notice. The permanent status it leads to is unusual in its own right: article 10-3(1) of the Immigration Act says a holder of permanent residence is subject to no restriction on the scope of activities and no limit of period, which is what makes the destination worth more than the ordinary five-year residence status. The general qualifying conditions in article 10-3(2) still apply: good conduct including compliance with Korean law, sufficient means of support by one's own assets or ability or by a household member's, and the basic knowledge appropriate to a permanent resident, such as Korean language and understanding of Korean customs and culture.
At a glance
- Age
- 60 or over
Item 11 of Attached Table 1-3 of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act. It is the only figure in the item that the Decree itself states.
- Pension amount
- At least the amount the Minister of Justice determines - no figure in the Decree
Item 11 of Attached Table 1-3 reads 법무부장관이 정하는 금액 이상의 연금. The notice setting the amount was not located or read.
- Where the pension must come from
- From outside Korea
Item 11 says 국외로부터 받고 있는 사람 - a person receiving it from abroad. A Korean pension does not satisfy the item.
- What it grants
- Permanent residence (F-5), not a temporary status
Attached Table 1-3 is headed 영주자격에 부합하는 사람 - persons eligible for permanent residence - and is made under article 12-2(1) of the Enforcement Decree.
- Temporary retirement status
- None in Attached Tables 1 and 1-2 of the Enforcement Decree
The five short-term and thirty-one long-term statuses were read in full. None of them describes a retired person living on means from abroad.
- What permanent residence carries
- No restriction on the scope of activities and no limit of period
Article 10-3(1) of the Immigration Act.
Requirements
- Age 60 or over
- A pension received from outside Korea of at least the amount the Minister of Justice determines
- None of the grounds of removal in article 46(1) of the Immigration Act
- Good conduct, sufficient means of support, and the basic knowledge required of a permanent resident under article 10-3(2)
In detail
The absence and the thing that stands in its place
A reader looking for a Korean retirement visa is looking for something that does not exist, and the reason is worth stating precisely: Korea's temporary statuses are all defined by an activity - studying, training, teaching, performing, investing, being somebody's spouse - and retirement is the absence of one. The pension provision therefore could not sit in the temporary table and does not. It sits in the permanent-residence table, where the other items are also about what a person is rather than what they will do: a spouse, an overseas Korean, a doctorate holder, someone with exceptional ability, someone who has done the country a special service.
Two numbers, one of them missing
Item 11 states the age and delegates the money. Sixty is in the Decree and will not move without an amendment to it; the pension figure is in a notice of the Minister of Justice that can be changed administratively, and it is not reproduced in the Decree, the Act or the Enforcement Rules. The item also fixes the source: the pension must be received from abroad. A person drawing a Korean pension, however large, is not within the item and has to find another of the nineteen.
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«11. 60세 이상으로서 법무부장관이 정하는 금액 이상의 연 금을 국외로부터 받고 있는 사람»Our translation - not official
11. A person aged sixty or over who is receiving from abroad a pension of not less than the amount determined by the Minister of Justice.
The word 연금 is split across a line break in the published table and the space inside 연 금 is the page's.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«영주자격에 부합하는 사람(제12조의2제1항 관련)»Our translation - not official
Persons eligible for permanent residence (relating to article 12-2(1))
The table opens by requiring that the person not fall under any subparagraph of article 46(1) of the Act, the grounds of compulsory removal, before any of the nineteen items is reached.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«제10조의3(영주자격) ① 제10조 제2호 에 따른 영주자격(이하 “영주자격”이라 한다)을 가진 외국인은 활동범위 및 체류기간의 제한을 받지 아니한다.»Our translation - not official
Article 10-3 (Permanent residence) (1) A foreigner holding permanent residence under subparagraph 2 of article 10 is not subject to restriction on the scope of activities or on the period of stay.
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The claim that there is no temporary retirement status rests on reading Attached Table 1 and Attached Table 1-2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act in full. It is bounded by item 30 of Attached Table 1-2, the residual G-1 status, which describes no activity and leaves the case to the Minister of Justice.
The notice of the Minister of Justice setting the minimum pension under item 11 was not located or read. No amount is given here because no instrument read for this record states one.
Article 46(1) of the Immigration Act, the grounds of compulsory removal that the permanent-residence table excludes at the outset, was not read in full.
Nothing published by the Korea Immigration Service was read.
- consolidates출입국관리법 시행령 [별표 1의3] 영주자격에 부합하는 사람(제12조의2제1항 관련)
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidates출입국관리법 시행령 [별표 1의2] 장기체류자격(제12조 관련)
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidates출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정]
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처 · consolidated to 2026-10-02
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source