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Alien Registration Card in Korea: Who Must Register, How Filipino Workers and Students Apply, and What to Bring

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By iStart Editorial Team·Published November 9, 2026

Alien Registration Card in Korea: Who Must Register, How Filipino Workers and Students Apply, and What to Bring

Your first week in South Korea moves fast. A dormitory bed, a factory floor or a farm, a new supervisor's name to learn — and then a form at the payroll desk or a phone-shop counter asks for "your ARC". Where, by when, and with what?

Almost everyone staying in Korea for more than 90 days registers with the Korea Immigration Service and receives a card. The Service's English pages now call it the residence card; most people still say alien registration card, or ARC. We follow the Service, the Immigration Act and GOV.KR as they stood on 26 October 2026. The deadline and the documents come first, because everything else depends on them.

What the Alien Registration Card Is, and What It Is Not

The Service's English guide titles its pages "Residence Card" under the menu "Foreign Resident Registration", its body text still says "Foreigner Registration card", and in Korean it is 외국인등록증. Registering also gives you a foreigner registration number of your own, under the Immigration Act.

Your ARC is not a visa and not a work permit. Your right to be in Korea, and to work, comes from your visa and status of stay — E-9, E-8, E-7 or D-2. If you hold an E-9 visa, that status came through the Employment Permit System and its EPS-TOPIK test. The Overseas Koreans Agency's working-holiday guide says your ARC is needed for everyday steps such as opening a bank account, buying a mobile phone and signing a lease.

Who Must Register, and the 90-Day Deadline

Foreigners who intend to stay in Korea for more than 90 days after arrival must register within 90 days of arriving, at the immigration office for the area where they live (the Service's guide; Immigration Act, Article 31). Granted a status, or a change of status, while already in Korea? Then you register immediately.

This covers:

  • an EPS worker on an E-9 visa;
  • a seasonal worker on an E-8 visa, if yours is a seasonal stay that runs past 90 days;
  • a skilled worker on an E-7 visa;
  • a student on a D-2 visa, or in a university Korean language course on D-4.

Diplomatic and official statuses, and anyone the Minister of Justice exempts, need not register. Children under 17 still register, but may go without an ARC until they turn 17, then apply for one within 90 days (the Act, Article 33). Circle day 90 the day you land, and book well before it.

How to Apply for Your ARC at the Immigration Office

You apply at the immigration office for your area, after booking a visit on HiKorea (hikorea.go.kr), the Service's official site.

  1. Find the right office (by your address) through HiKorea's office directory or the 1345 Immigration Contact Center.
  2. Book a visit on HiKorea's Reserve Visit page, as a member or a non-member, for an appointment before your 90 days end.
  3. Gather your documents and the fee, and fill in the application form.
  4. Attend at your booked time with your passport, and hand in your ARC application.
  5. Receive your ARC from that office, which issues it.

If no date is free inside your period, the Service says to "visit a jurisdictional immigration office before the reporting period ends". A booking is only an appointment, not the receipt of your application. Booking with someone else's personal details can bring criminal penalties. And if you paid overdue health insurance premiums at a payment machine or through Internet Giro in the last five days, bring the receipt. Under the Ministry of Justice's 2026 seasonal worker guideline, E-8 workers instead register at the office's non-reservation counter, on a date agreed in advance.

How long does it take to receive an alien registration card? The Service's guide gives no processing time. The deadline is about registering, not about having it in your hand, so book early and carry your passport meanwhile.

The law places the duty to register on you. If your employer offers to help, take the help; the application is still yours, so keep the date and the documents in your own hands.

Required Documents and the Application Form

Every applicant brings the Service's core documents, plus the required document for their status:

  • your passport, with a copy of the pages showing your personal details and your visa;
  • the application form, which the guide offers to download;
  • one colour photo, 3.5 cm × 4.5 cm;
  • the fee (next section);
  • a document proving your address, such as a lease contract, a certificate of accommodation or a utility bill payment receipt.

By status, an E-9 worker also brings a copy of the employer's business registration; an E-7 worker the same, plus, for some teaching posts, a health check from a medical institution designated by the Minister of Justice; a D-2 student, or a D-4 student in a university Korean language course, brings a certificate of studentship. The Service's table does not list E-8; the seasonal worker guideline adds a standard employment contract, proof of housing, the required insurance papers and a sealed drug test certificate from a designated medical institution or public health centre. Officers may ask for more, the guide says. The Korean version adds that status documents are valid for three months from issue.

Documents for an alien registration card (ARC) application in South Korea by status, October 2026: every applicant brings a passport and copies, the application form, one colour photo, a document proving their address and the fee; E-9 and E-7 workers add the employer's business registration; E-8 seasonal workers add an employment contract, proof of housing, insurance papers and a sealed drug test certificate; D-2 and D-4 students add a certificate of studentship.

Keep everything in one folder before you book, alongside the documents you bring from the Philippines.

The Fee in Korean Won, as the Law Sets It Today

The Ministry of Justice's Enforcement Rule of the Immigration Act, Article 72, sets the fee for issuing or re-issuing the card at KRW 35,000, in the version in force from 23 October 2026. The Service's English guide page still shows KRW 30,000, so bring the current amount and confirm at your office how to pay. That is the government's fee; the Service's pages name no other charge.

The Mobile Residence Card on Your Phone

Under the Immigration Act, a mobile residence card has the same effect as the physical one, and it is issued to a phone registered in your own name. If you hold an IC residence card, you issue it yourself through "IC residence card" in the mobile ID app; if not, you visit your immigration office and scan a QR code there (the Service's page, last updated 4 October 2024).

After You Have Your ARC: Carry It, Report Changes, Return It

Once registered, carry your passport or your ARC (the mobile version counts) at all times, and show it when an immigration or other public officer asks; the Immigration Act exempts under-17s.

Moving house? Report your new address within 15 days of moving in, at your new city, county or district office or local community centre, or at the immigration office (Article 36). A new passport, or a change of name or nationality: within 15 days too. For working statuses including E-9, the Service's page on changes adds a change of occupation or annual income.

Lost or damaged? Tell HiKorea through its online loss report and apply for a replacement within 14 days, as the Service's guide says; the re-issue fee is the same KRW 35,000.

Do not leave for good without returning it: on a final departure, it goes back to the immigration officer, under the same Act. A trip home is different: a registered foreigner returning within one year, or before the permitted stay ends if that comes sooner, needs no re-entry permit, the Service says. Time abroad of more than a year, up to two, needs a multiple re-entry permit first.

Protect Your Passport, Your ARC and Your Money

Under the Immigration Act (Article 33-3), no one may take a foreign national's passport or residence card as security for a job contract or a debt, or force them to hand either over. Your passport stays in your hands. Using someone else's ARC or registration number is also prohibited by the same provision.

Registering is the State's service at the State's fee, booked on hikorea.go.kr. A site with a similar name is not the Service. If someone offers to file for you for a fee, check that they appear on HiKorea's list of registered agencies for civil petitions, and never pay anyone who promises a date. The official line is 1345, the Immigration Contact Center (weekdays 09:00–22:00, excluding public holidays; call charges apply; +82-2-1345 from abroad).

Registering Is Where Your Working Life in Korea Starts

The National Health Insurance Service lists foreigners registered with the Immigration Office who work at a covered workplace among those enrolled as employees. When your period of stay nears its end, the Service accepts extension applications from four months before it expires. And for working statuses, a change in your occupation or annual income is a change you report too.

We see the first 90 days as the first project in Korea that is wholly yours: a deadline, a folder, a booking, a report on time. Treat it like that, and you are already practising the habits an extension, a new contract and a stronger next application will ask of you. Readiness is built in small, owned steps like this one.

A Filipina farm worker harvests a cluster of oyster mushrooms from a growing shelf at an indoor mushroom farm in South Korea, calm and practised.

Your First 90 Days: A Checklist

  • Note your arrival date and the day your 90 days end.
  • Find your immigration office on HiKorea or through 1345.
  • Book a visit on hikorea.go.kr before the deadline (E-8: the non-reservation counter).
  • Prepare your passport and copies, a 3.5 × 4.5 cm photo, the form, your housing document and your status document.
  • Bring KRW 35,000 and confirm the payment method at the office.
  • Once your ARC is issued, carry it and remember the 15-day rule for a new address or a new passport.
  • Never hand your passport or ARC to anyone as a guarantee.

The Questions Filipinos Ask Us Most

Where can I get a certificate of alien registration?

You can get it on GOV.KR, online and free of charge, or in person at an immigration office for KRW 2,000; GOV.KR says it is processed within one day.

What is the alien registration card called in Korean?

In Korean it is 외국인등록증; the Korea Immigration Service's English pages call it the residence card.

Can I travel home and come back with my ARC?

Yes, if you return within one year, or before your permitted stay ends if that comes sooner: a registered foreigner then needs no re-entry permit, the Service says. Keep your ARC; only a final departure means returning it.

I am a student. What do I add?

A student adds a certificate of studentship from the school to the same core documents, and the ARC application keeps the same 90-day deadline.

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