S.Korea to add India, Lithuania to list of nations eligible for E-9 visa

South Korea plans to allow non-professional workers from India and Lithuania to apply for the E-9 visa as the country struggles with a shrinking workforce at its major businesses amid a falling birth rate and an aging population.

The government is also considering raising the E-9 visa quota from the current 110,000 foreign workers to 120,000 to ease chronic labor shortages in industries that do not require special skills, a government source said on Monday.

If carried out as planned, it would mark the first time since 2017 that Korea has expanded the list of countries eligible for the E-9 visa and its quota for that visa category.

Korea’s prior attempts to widen the door for E-9 workers have been thwarted due to the cross-border travel restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have been issuing E-9 visas to unskilled workers from Southeast Asian countries. But we now see the need to expand the scope [of countries] to address severe labor shortages in sectors such as shipbuilding and steel,” said the government official.

Korea is in talks with relevant countries to iron out differences in human resource management, he said.

For skilled foreign workers, Korea has granted the E-7 visa in areas such as engineering, the natural sciences and information technology. Applicants for the E-7 visa, however, must undergo complex procedures, including verification of their skills, which pose limitations on hiring a large number of professional workers.

INDIA’S STRENGTHS IN SHIPBUILDING, STEEL, IT SECTORS

Government officials said India, with the world’s largest population of 1.43 billion people, has strengths in the shipbuilding, steel and IT sectors, where Korea suffers a dire shortage of skilled workers.

Lithuania, meanwhile, has strengths in advanced industries such as precision laser technology, officials said.

An increase in the number of E-9 visa workers from these two countries would mean a labor quality upgrade for Korea’s major sectors, they said.

The government’s move to expand the E-9 visa quota to 120,000 workers is also expected to ease labor shortages in labor-intensive jobs such as cleaning at hotels and restaurants and assistants in restaurant kitchens.

According to the Ministry of Justice, workers from Nepal topped the list of E-9 visa holders with 45,841 people as of the end of July, followed by Cambodia (42,150), Vietnam (35,340), Indonesia (33,050) and Myanmar (25,720).

“Language barriers, as many of them don’t speak Korean or English, also pose a problem at workplaces,” said an industry official.

In a recent survey by the Korea Enterprises Federation of 615 companies with fewer than 300 employees, 53.5% of respondents said communication was the most significant issue when employing foreign workers, while 11.1% said weak job skills were a concern.

E-7 VISA WORKERS AT SHIPBUILDING FIRMS

Korea’s leading shipbuilders such as HD Hyundai Co. and Samsung Heavy Industries Co. have been employing dozens to hundreds of workers from India through the E-7 visa program since early this year.

Industry officials said on-site evaluations of those workers are positive.

"They have a high understanding of their tasks and their manual skills are excellent. Their English proficiency also ensures effective communication,” said an official at a domestic shipbuilder.

To ease a labor supply shortage in the shipbuilding industry, Korea said in April it is setting a separate visa quota for shipbuilders.

Korea has been expanding visa quotas or upgrading the visa status of skilled foreign workers to support its rapidly aging society.

Statistics Korea, the country’s official statistics agency, said in August that Korea’s total fertility rate, already the world’s lowest, slid back to its historic trough of 0.7 in the second quarter, deepening the demographic time bomb looming over Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.

Korea’s fertility rate has seen a rapid decline. Among OECD members, it is the only country with a total fertility rate below 1.0, a level it reached in 2018.

The country faces a grim demographic outlook. Experts forecast it becoming the country with the largest ratio of elderly in the world, with about half of its population aged 65 or older by 2070.

Write to Yong-Hee Kwak and Woo-Sub Kim at kyh@hankyung.com
In-Soo Nam edited this article.