Four out of 10 foreign nationals who enter Korea on a language study visa end up overstaying their visas, a lawmaker said Tuesday, urging the government to tighten the visa screening process for foreign students. According to data that Rep. Cho Jung-hun of the minor opposition Transition Korea party received from the Ministry of Justice, out of 64,904 foreign nationals who had entered Korea on the D-4 General Trainee Visa, 39.9 percent, or 25,898, remained in Korea illegally as of June after their visas expired. The justice ministry categorizes foreign students as illegal immigrants when they do not respond to contact from authorities or when their whereabouts become unknown. The D-4 visa is issued mostly to those entering the country to study language. Among the 25,898 who went on to become undocumented immigrants, Vietnamese nationals accounted for the largest portion at 22,760, followed by 1,054 Uzbekistan nationals and 820 Mongolians. Of those who entered Korea on the D-2-1 student visa, which is issued to foreign nationals wishing to study for a two-year college degree, 27.3 percent, or 2,790, became illegal immigrants. Among other student visas, 8.4 percent and 2.9 percent of the D-2-2 visa and D-2-3 visa holders, respectively, became illegal immigrants. The D-2-2 visa is issued to foreign students at the undergraduate level, while the D-2-3 visa is for graduate students. Cho said most of the students who stay illegally are believed to have given up their studies halfway through. It is widely believed that their true purpose in coming to Korea is to get a job after learning Korean for a short time, despite the risk of crackdowns by authorities. In August, a Vietnamese national in his 20s, who had entered Korea on a D-4 visa and later became an illegal immigrant, received a prison term for selling narcotics at a club in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province. The 23-year-old, who entered Korea in July 2019, remained in the country after his visa expired in October 2021. He then worked as a waiter in a club that has been called the “holy ground” of narcotics among Vietnamese nationals. He overstayed his visa illegally by more than one year and seven months, according to police.
A district court in Suwon sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended for three years, and fined him an additional 1 million won ($740) for selling ecstasy. In December 2019, 164 Vietnamese students enrolled at Incheon National University’s Korean language school vanished. They were among 1,900 Vietnamese students participating in a one-year Korean language training program at the university. The 164 students disappeared three to four months after the program began, according to the university. At the time, the university reported their disappearances to the police, in accordance with a law mandating universities report foreign students absent from classes for 15 days straight. Cho raised the need for the government to review its foreign student policy. “The government needs to enhance the visa screening process for foreign students and come up with more detailed guidelines for dealing with each country,” he said.
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