Proposed amendment to give more job opportunities to foreign graduates

Foreigners look at job postings at the Job Fair for International Students in October last year. [YONHAP]

An amendment to the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers was proposed Monday to allow international students to apply for non-professional jobs that were only allowed for E-9 visa holders.

The bill, proposed by Rep. Hong Suk-joon of the People Power Party, would allow D-10 visa holders who graduated from Korean universities to work in fields such as manufacturing, construction and fisheries.

Under the current act, only E-9 visa holders are allowed to apply for jobs in those fields.

Those with the D-10 job seeker visa are only allowed to apply for jobs that correspond to E-1 to E-7 visa status, which include professor positions, foreign language instructors, researchers and technicians.

"A lot of international students want to get a job in Korea after graduation, but there are a lot of obstacles due to job restrictions," said Rep. Hong. "We need to give more job opportunities to international students to help companies that are facing labor shortage problems and prevent international students from becoming illegal immigrants."

Hong added there aren't that many jobs available for foreigners that correspond to the E-1 to E-7 visas.

There were 134,062 students studying in Korea with the D-2 student visa in 2022, up 20.6 percent compared to the previous year, according to Ministry of Justice data acquired by the office of Rep. Hong. There were 1,360 foreigners who had previously stayed in Korea with the D-2 visa but were able to change their visa status to the E-1 to E-7 visas during the same period, up 8.5 percent on year.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]