A single day past your authorised stay creates an illegal-stay risk. It does not end at a fine: it reaches your re-entry, your next visa, and your residence history. Student, worker, accompanying family, working holiday — the order is the same.
What decides how bad it is
Under the Immigration Act certain violations can carry up to three years' imprisonment or a fine of up to 30 million KRW, and being caught can bring deportation and an entry ban. In practice many cases resolve through a penalty notice.
Two things separate the outcomes: how long you overstayed, and whether anything else happened while you did — unauthorised work, out-of-status activity, an unreported address change.
The penalty by length
- Under 1 month — 500,000 KRW
- 1 to 3 months — 1,000,000
- 3 to 6 months — 2,000,000
- 6 months to 1 year — 5,000,000
- 1 to 2 years — 10,000,000
- 2 to 3 years — 15,000,000
- 3 to 5 years — 20,000,000
- 5 to 7 years — 25,000,000
- 7 years or more — 30,000,000 KRW
"Only a few days" reads very differently the moment it crosses one month. Today's count is the number that matters most.
Three things to do today
- Recheck the expiry — trust the period printed on your residence card, passport or permit, not your memory
- Call before anything else — 1345 can confirm the options for your visa type (extension, change, departure, voluntary departure), your competent office, and what to bring
- Gather evidence — hospitalisation or diagnosis records, flight cancellation or delay proof, accident or disaster documents, official letters from your company or school. This is the material a reduction is built from
Reaching 1345
Weekdays 09:00 to 22:00, with Korean, English and Chinese the focus after 18:00. From overseas, +82-2-1345. Consultations run in 20 languages.
What to check now
- The expiry printed on your residence card
- How many days over you are today
- Whether you worked during that time
The same overstay ends differently depending on circumstances, visa type and length, and the decision rests with your competent immigration office. The less sure you are, the worse doing nothing is. Real worked cases are on the WeBring blog.