About SurviveKorea

Why this site exists

Moving to Korea long-term is exciting — and then you hit the paperwork. Opening a bank account, getting your Alien Registration Card, signing a jeonse lease, enrolling in National Health Insurance, setting up a phone plan, figuring out the tax office. Every one of these has its own quirks, and almost none of it is explained clearly in English.

Most resources online are either tourist content ("visit Gyeongbokgung!") or outdated forum threads that contradict each other. SurviveKorea was built to fill that gap: clear, current, step-by-step answers to the questions foreign residents actually ask — written from the inside.

Who's behind it

Joon Shin (신준)

Seoul native · back from NYC

Seoul, South Korea

I'm Joon Shin — a Seoul native, 20-plus years in this city. In my late twenties I moved to New Yorkfor work, and living abroad flipped my perspective: I finally saw my own country through a foreigner's eyes — which forms to bring, which lines to stand in, what nobody bothers to explain because locals justknow it.

Now I'm back in Seoul. Between that outside lens and a lifetime of knowing how things actually work here, I kept ending up as the person friends and coworkers from abroad messaged first — which bank will really open an account, what to say at the immigration office, how to read a 전세 lease before signing it. After explaining 알뜰폰 phone plans and HiKorea visa extensions for the hundredth time, I started writing it all down.

That's the perspective behind every guide here: a local who knows the system, who's also lived as a foreigner abroad, writing for the person standing in line trying to figure it out. I'm not a lawyer or an immigration agent, so for anything official I'll always point you to the government source — but I can tell you what the process actually feels like and where people get tripped up.

What we cover

Everything you need to settle in and stay, organized into the categories that matter most for daily life:

How we keep guides accurate

Rules in Korea change — visa categories get updated, fees rise, government portals get redesigned. We take accuracy seriously:

• Every guide is based on direct, first-hand experience living and dealing with Korean institutions — not copied from other blogs.
• Where official procedures are involved (immigration, taxes, insurance), we point you to the official government source so you can always verify the latest rules.
• When a reader tells us something has changed, we update the guide. Found something outdated? Let us know.

Who it's for

English teachers, exchange students, remote workers, spouses on family visas, engineers on E-7s, digital nomads — anyone living in Korea beyond a short trip. If you're past the tourist stage and trying to actually build a life here, these guides are for you.

A note on honesty

SurviveKorea is reader-supported. Some pages display ads, and a few links are affiliate links — if you book or buy through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This never changes what we recommend. We only point to things we'd actually use ourselves. See our Privacy Policy and Disclaimer for the full details.