Review Opinion

The client wants to hire a foreign national with a bachelor's degree in business administration and two years of marketing experience as a 'web developer', and asks whether an E-7 application can be filed on the current draft employment contract.

Confirmed by documentsA. Facts confirmed from the documents provided

1. The candidate holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from a university abroad (degree certificate).
2. After graduating, the candidate worked for two years as a 'digital marketing officer' at a company abroad (employment certificate).
3. The draft employment contract describes the duties as “front-end development and maintenance of the company's web service”.

Client statement · unverifiedB. Facts as explained by the client

The client says the candidate edited the company landing page directly while working in marketing. No document showing this was provided.

C. Scope and limits of this review

Only the two documents above were reviewed. Employer-side requirements such as headcount, revenue and wage level are outside this review. The decision rests with the immigration office, and this opinion does not guarantee the outcome.

• Immigration Act, Article 18 — Paragraph 1: a foreign national who wishes to work in Korea must hold a status of stay that permits employment. Paragraph 3: no one may employ a person who does not hold such status.
• Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act, Attached Table 1-2, item 20 — Specific Activities (E-7): a person who intends to engage in an activity specially designated by the Minister of Justice under a contract with a public institution, private organisation or similar body in Korea.
• Ministry of Justice visa issuance and stay management guidelines — Set the permitted occupations and the education and experience standard for each (for example, a master's degree in a related field, or a related bachelor's degree with at least one year of experience). The guidelines change from time to time, so the standard must be checked again at the time of application.

1. First decide what the candidate will actually do at the company (development or marketing).
2. If development: check whether official evidence of development experience exists (employment certificate, portfolio, etc.). If not, consider other candidates.
3. If marketing: rewrite the contract, job description and statement of reasons to match the actual work, and check the employer-side requirements for that occupation.
4. Just before applying, check the occupation, education and experience standards in the Ministry of Justice guidelines again.

Filing on the current draft contract (web development) is not recommended. We recommend first deciding the actual role, then aligning all documents consistently with the matching occupation before applying. If you want us to prepare and file the application, this can proceed under a separate drafting and filing engagement, and review work that overlaps with this opinion is not charged again.