The E-6-2 visa

Why there is no self-check for this visa

We do not give a yes-or-no answer on E-6-2, and that is a deliberate choice rather than a gap. This is the route most associated with people arriving in Korea for one job and being held to another, and the requirements below exist because of that history. A one-line "you look eligible" would be the wrong thing for us to hand you here. What we can do is set out what the manual actually says.

What the route is. E-6-2 covers performing or working in entertainment at hotels, entertainment establishments and tourism businesses where the work does not fall under E-6-1: singers, instrumentalists, acrobats and magicians, for instance. Like every E-6 visa it is issued on a Certificate of Visa Eligibility that the Korean host files before you apply. A grant runs to a maximum of two years at a time.

Where a recommendation is issued at all. For instrumental music, singing, acrobatics and magic at tourism establishments, the Korea Media Rating Board does not issue a performance recommendation except at a defined set of venues: US Eighth Army on-base clubs, tourist hotels rated grade 3 or above, tourist cruise ships, resort condominiums, tourist theatre entertainment businesses, restaurants exclusively for foreigners, and ancillary facilities of international conference facilities. Registered performance venues under the Public Performance Act (the manual names hotels such as Walkerhill and Lotte Busan), amusement facilities such as Everland, Lotte World and Seoul Land, and ancillary facilities at international conference venues including COEX and BEXCO are also covered for song-and-dance performances. If the place you are being offered is not in that world, the recommendation your application depends on may simply not be available.

Where you have to apply. Nationals of the 21 countries listed for high rates of overstaying, the 3 designated as sponsors of terrorism, and the 10 barred from visa-free entry to Jeju must in principle apply and be issued at the Korean mission in their own country. The exception is someone who is a permanent resident of a third country, or has lived there continuously for two years or more, who may apply at the Korean mission there.

What the paperwork demands. Beyond the certificate application, passport and photo, the host provides its business registration and the employment contract, and the application needs a performance recommendation from the Korea Media Rating Board, an entertainment activity plan, a qualification or career certificate covering three years or more, authenticated by apostille or confirmed by the Korean mission in your country, a performance facility status confirmation, a letter of guarantee, a legal guardian's consent where the applicant is a minor, and a worker dispatch business permit where that applies. Where local systems make a formal career certificate hard to obtain, the manual accepts other objective evidence: social media posts, photographs and video of your work, wage receipts. If you previously worked two years in Korea on E-6-2 and left properly, the career requirement drops from three years to two.

Things worth holding on to. Your passport is yours; no employer or agent has any right to keep it. What the venue actually is, and what you will actually be asked to do there, are worth establishing in writing before you travel rather than after. If you are already in Korea and the work is not what you agreed to, that is not a situation you have to solve alone: the Ministry of Justice runs a foreigner information line on 1345, with interpretation, and the emergency number is 112.