What the Business and Investment Service Covers
The entity decision and the people decision are made together here, because the visa route open to your assignees follows the form you register. Everything below is scoped for a foreign company entering Korea, not for a Korean company expanding abroad.
Choosing the form, with the visa consequence stated
Foreign-invested subsidiary, Korea branch office or liaison office, assessed against what the Korean operation will actually do in its first years — and against which of D-7, D-8 or D-9 that opens for the people you intend to send.
Foreign investment notification and foreign-invested company registration
The notification is made in advance of the investment; the registration follows once payment of the object of investment or the acquisition of the shares is complete. Both are received by KOTRA or by the head of a foreign exchange bank, to whom the authority is entrusted.
Incorporation and business registration
Articles of association, appointment of directors and the representative director, capital structure, registration of incorporation at the competent court registry, and business registration at the district tax office.
Branch and liaison office establishment notification
Notification to the head of the designated foreign exchange bank under the Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations, business office registration in the commercial register for a branch, and the unique number for a liaison office.
The duties that continue after registration
Amended registration, remittance of net profit abroad, closure notification and the tax clearance that goes with it — the part most entries forget to plan for.
How Foreign-Invested Company Registration Runs
Under the Enforcement Decree of the Foreign Investment Promotion Act, foreign investment means an investment of KRW 100 million or more where the foreign investor holds at least 10 percent of the total voting shares or total equity investment, or holds shares while dispatching or appointing an executive to the company. Everything in the sequence below is built on that definition.
Structure review
Who invests, how much, for what shareholding, and whether an executive will be dispatched or appointed. We confirm here whether the plan qualifies as foreign investment at all, and what it means for the assignment visas.
Foreign investment notification
Filed in advance of the investment at an Invest Korea office or the designated foreign exchange bank; the certificate of notification is issued on filing.
Remittance through the notified channel
The remittance confirmation and the certificate of foreign exchange purchase produced here are the documents that later evidence the investment — in the registration and in a D-8 application.
Registration of incorporation
A company comes into existence upon registration of incorporation at the location of its head office. Where the representative is a foreign national, the registration records their alien registration number, or their date of birth where there is none.
Business registration
Obtained from the district tax office. Until it exists the company is registered but not operational.
Foreign-invested company registration
Made once payment of the object of investment or the share acquisition is complete. The certificate is what opens the D-8 route and what has to be amended when the shareholding or trade name later changes.
How Branch and Liaison Office Setup Runs
The Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations divide a non-resident's domestic establishments into a branch, which conducts revenue-generating business in Korea, and an office, which performs only non-business functions such as liaison with the head office, market research and research and development. The notification goes to the head of the designated foreign exchange bank — or to the Minister of Economy and Finance where the establishment is for non-banking financial business such as lending, arrangement and brokerage of overseas finance, card business or instalment finance, for securities or insurance-related business, or for business not permitted under other statutes.
For a branch, the Commercial Act then requires registration at the location of the business office within three weeks of the establishment date, and a foreign company may not carry on continuous transactions before that registration is made. A liaison office instead receives a unique number from the district tax office.
| Item | Subsidiary | Branch / liaison office |
|---|---|---|
| Head office corporate documents, legalised and translated | Yes | Yes |
| Board or representative resolution on the Korean establishment | Yes | Yes |
| Power of attorney to the filing agent | Yes | Yes |
| Statement of the business content and scope in Korea | Not required as such | Required attachment to the notification |
| Capital remitted into Korea | Yes — through the notified channel | No — operating funds are brought in through the designated bank instead |
| Representative in Korea | Director / representative director recorded in the register | A representative in Korea, or a representative domiciled in Korea |
"Legalised" means an apostille where the issuing country is party to the Hague Apostille Convention and consular legalisation where it is not; a Korean translation is required either way. Sources: Foreign Investment Promotion Act and Enforcement Decree; Commercial Act arts. 172, 614 and 616; Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations arts. 9-32 to 9-34.
What Continues After the Entity Is Registered
A foreign-invested company must file an amended registration when the foreign investment ratio, the trade name or other prescribed particulars change, when shares acquired by the foreign investor are transferred, or when the shareholding falls through a capital reduction. Registration must be cancelled where the foreign investor transfers all of its shares to a Korean national or entity.
A branch has its own set. Net profit for the settlement period is remitted abroad through the designated foreign exchange bank, and where net profit reaches 100 percent or more of the operating funds brought in, or exceeds KRW 100 million, an audit certificate from a certified public accountant accompanies the remittance application. On closure, a closure report goes to the authority that received the establishment notification, and remitting the proceeds of disposing of domestic assets requires a tax clearance certificate from the head of the competent district tax office.
We keep these on a calendar for the entities we register, because they surface at exactly the moments a head office is least expecting them — a group reorganisation, a first profit repatriation, a wind-down.
Where Korea Entity Setup Goes Wrong
Three failure modes account for most of the delay we see, and none of them is about the paperwork itself.
Legalisation started too late
Foreign public documents have to be apostilled or consularised and translated before a Korean registry or bank will accept them. This is routinely the longest link in the chain and the one the head office controls, so we confirm the exact list against the registry and the bank before collection starts.
A liaison office asked to do a branch's work
A liaison office may not conduct profit-making activity. Contracting with customers, invoicing and recognising revenue all require a branch or a subsidiary, and the notified scope is what the establishment is afterwards permitted to do.
The entity chosen without reference to the assignment plan
D-8 belongs to the subsidiary route and applies to an already-incorporated company; D-7 is the intra-company transfer route and assumes a registered establishment plus one year of prior service. Choosing the entity first and the visa later is how a company discovers in month three that the person it wants to send cannot be sent.
Business & Investment Service — Frequently Asked Questions
How much has to be invested to register as a foreign-invested company?
An investment of KRW 100 million or more by a foreign investor, with at least 10 percent of the total voting shares or total equity investment, or with share ownership plus the dispatch or appointment of an executive. The right amount for your case is usually driven by the business plan and the visa route you intend to use rather than by the minimum.
Is a branch faster to establish than a subsidiary?
A branch avoids the foreign investment notification and the capital remittance, but still needs a foreign exchange notification, business office registration and business registration, and depends on the same legalised head-office documents. In practice the schedule is set by how quickly the head office produces apostilled documents, not by the form.
Can you handle the entity and the visas together?
Yes — that is the point of the single intake. The entity registration, the assignment visas that depend on it and the housing and settlement work that follows are handled by the same office, so the entity and the people move on one timeline.
Related
Statutory references on this page were checked against the current text of the Foreign Investment Promotion Act and its Enforcement Decree, the Commercial Act and the Foreign Exchange Transactions Regulations on the National Law Information Centre (law.go.kr). Review periods at the registry, the tax office and the bank are not fixed by statute and are not estimated here. Pricing is not published on this site — scope and fees are quoted individually after a consultation.
Deciding how to enter Korea?
Tell us what the Korean operation will do and who you plan to send — we will set out the entity route and the visa route together.
Discuss Your Entity Setup →