(1) Reasons for Proposal

The Enforcement Rule of the Immigration Act is revised to make up for loopholes on persons subject to prohibition of departure, to prepare the details for implementation of electronic travel authorization (“ETA”), newly inserted after the amendment to the Immigration Act, and to correct insufficiency in the existing system by strengthening the expertise of “multicultural society professionals” through reorganization of such courses and increasing of such credits as required for the acquisition of qualification and by adding words of guidance for “whether a foreigner is eligible for employment” on the back of a foreign registration certificate.

(2) Major Provisions

A. Adding “a person who is highly harmful to public health” and “a person wearing an electronic position device” to the subjects to prohibition of departure (Article 6-2)

Prescribe that “a person who is highly harmful to public health” and “a person wearing an electronic position device” shall be added to the subjects to prohibition of departure as the current provisions concerning the subjects to prohibition of departure do not cover the former (i.e., infectious disease patients and their contacts, etc.)” and the latter who need to be necessarily prevented from leaving Republic of Korea without permission. 

B. Establishment of the subjects, standards and procedures for the issuance of “ETA permit” (Article 8-3 and Article 8-4 newly inserted)

Prescribe that the details of subjects, standards and procedures for the issuance of ETA permit shall be prepared because ETA was created for foreigners who are eligible for no visa entry (B-2) in the wake of the amendment to the Act. 

C. Additional reasons for “restriction of issuance” of a visa issuance certificate (Article 17-3 (2))

Where an employer receives a criminal penalty for forced demand of sale of narcotics or delayed payment of wage to foreigners, the issuance of a visa issuance certificate shall be restricted for three years. However, no restriction has been imposed on the same illegal act when committed against Koreans. Given this, prescribe that the Rule shall include three-year restriction of the issuance of a visa issuance certificate where an employer receives a criminal penalty for forced demand of sale of narcotics or delayed payment of wage to Koreans. 

D. Addition of “job, yearly income” and “foreign children’s enrollment in school” to the foreigner registration details (Article 47)

Prescribe that in the foreigner registration details, i) “job, yearly income” shall be added for the government to collect and use related information as its materials for understanding the reasonable scale of influx of foreigners and economic impact thereof, and ii) “foreign children’s enrollment in school” shall be added to check the current situation of preschool children of foreigners and lead them to go to school because school-aged children of foreigners who have a chance of being granted permanent residency or naturalization but are not taking regular school classes are feared to be a social anxiety factor.  

E. Strengthening of the expertise through change of undergraduate or graduate courses for “multicultural society professionals” (attached table 2)

It has been pointed out that multicultural society professionals are not full-fledged because there is no required major subject for them and the number of credits to be taken is small (15 credits for graduate course). Considering these circumstances, prescribe that the courses to be taken by multicultural society professionals shall be classified into i) “general class” (specifically, immigration policy and immigration law shall be designated as required subjects), and ii) “education class” (specifically, multicultural (social) education and immigration policy shall be designated as required subjects), and, moreover, that three subjects, such as border control and understanding of stay, understanding of the refugee law and understanding of the nationality law, shall be added to optional subjects and the number of credits thereof shall be increased.

F. Addition of words of guidance for “inquiry into whether a foreigner is eligible for employment” to a foreign registration certificate (attached form)

If there is a sentence, “Upon hiring a foreigner, an employer can ascertain whether the foreigner is granted a status of stay for employment,” the employer becomes less likely to hire any ineligible foreigner, thus reducing a possibility of being an innocent victim. Thus, prescribe that the words of guidance for inquiry into foreigners’ eligibility for employment shall be added on the back of a foreign registration certificate.