Visa Application

D-2-6 | Exchange Student visa

Overview

We will send your coordinator your admissions packet by registered mail via the Korean postal service. We use a tracking service to monitor all of our outgoing documents and can see when they arrive, or if there are delivery errors.

Tracking

You can find the tracking number in your application portal, and you can track the documents using your country's national post office website or:

Average Shipping Times

Once we send them out via registered air mail, the packets on average take about 11 days to arrive, though the most common time frame is 14-20 days.

    • Mexico: 30-45 days

For certain countries and when time is short, we will use DHL.

If you haven't received your documents 2 months prior to the start of your exchange period, please let us know so we can re-print them and send them out to your coordinator by DHL at that point.

Admissions Packet

Applying for Your Visa

You must apply at a Korean Embassy or Consulate in your home country to apply for your visa. Although it is possible to apply for a D-2-6 visa outside of your home country, or to change from a tourist visa to a student visa in some cases, this requires more paperwork and is more complicated than doing it at home. Therefore, we strongly advise applying for your student visa as soon as possible in your home country so that you can travel later if you need to.

Since the pre-arrival visa is only valid for 3 months, please apply for it starting from June (Fall Semester start) or December (Spring Semester start), even if you get the documents earlier.

If you do not have a D-2-6 by the first official day of the semester (usually September 1 or March 2), the Seoul Immigration Office will fine you 200,000 KRW.

As you saw in the Pre-Arrival page, the International Office of Admissions and Management will have sent your home university coordinator a packet with the following three documents:

    • Letter of Invitation

    • Certificate of Admission

    • Business Registration Copy

1. Review the Certificate of Admission

If you notice any errors in your Certificate of Admission such as the wrong birth date, misspelled name, or wrong gender, incorrect passport number (or you got a new passport), please contact us as soon as possible so we can get this fixed. We do our best to not make mistakes but they do happen. Any certificate with these kinds of mistakes will be invalid so we will have to send you a new copy and it can slow down your ability to apply for a visa.

2. Three Month Time Limit

You have three months to apply for your visa from the date on the certificate of Admission. After three months, this document will no longer be valid. Moreover, once you have received your visa, you have 3 months to enter Korea on it. If 3 months pass without you arriving in country, the visa will no longer be valid. Since the pre-arrival visa is only valid for 3 months, please apply for it starting from December for Spring entry/June for Fall entry, even if you get the documents earlier.

3. Apply for your Visa

Take these documents and your passport to the Korean Embassy or Consulate and fill out the application form, pay the application fee, and wait for your visa to be processed. If you need additional documents, the Embassy/Consulate will let you know. The Embassy/Consulate will contact you when your visa is ready for you to pick up.

4. Multiple Entry Visa

If you plan to travel internationally after entering Korea but prior to receiving your ARC card, we encourage you to get a multiple entry visa before coming to Korea. This will make it easy for you to travel, such as taking a weekend trip to near by countries like Japan or China.

If you leave Korea without a multiple entry visa (before getting your ARC card), your D-2-6 visa will be cancelled and you will have to apply for a new visa all over again. As an exchange student, the responsibility in getting and maintaining the visa is yours!

Furthermore, once you arrive in Korea, you will need to apply for an alien registration card (ARC) which will allow you multiple entry to Korea. However, it can take 1-2 months to receive this card since this is a very busy time of year for the Immigration Office when thousands of international students come to Korea. Moreover, the most common way to submit your application is by making an appointment which can take a month to receive an available slot. You can, however, visit the Immigration Office from 1pm - 6pm and do a walk-in service, but you may end up waiting 2-3 hours to see an Immigration Officer.

5. Tuberculosis Test Certificate & Health Form

For students who wish to stay in one of HUFS dormitories, you will need a tuberculosis test. However, students from the following countries may need to provide a certificate of health, including a tuberculosis test result, issued by a hospital designated by a Korean Embassy or Consulate due to higher rates of tuberculosis. The following list of countries is determined by the Immigration Office:

      • Bangladesh

      • China

      • Egypt

      • Ghana

      • India

      • Indonesia

      • Iran

      • Kazakhstan

      • Kyrgyzstan

      • Mongolia

      • Myanmar

      • Nepal

      • Nigeria

      • Pakistan

      • Peru

      • Philippines

      • Sri Lanka

      • Thailand

      • Ukraine

      • Uzbekistan

      • Vietnam