Last verified: 2026-08-27 07:24 KST
Nobody arrives in Korea with a free month. You land with a job that starts Monday or a semester that starts next week, and a list of admin tasks that all seem urgent and all seem to require each other.
Separate the statutory deadlines below from the suggested weeks for phone, banking and everyday setup. If your own deadline arrives earlier, act on that deadline rather than waiting for the suggested week.
The deadlines that carry penalties
These are set by law rather than by convenience, and missing them costs money and can affect a later visa application.
| Obligation | Deadline | If you miss it |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign resident registration | Within 90 days of entry, where required for your status | Penalty; registration is the precondition for almost everything else |
| Registered foreigner: change of residence after moving | Within 15 days of moving in — Immigration Act art. 36(1) | Fine of up to 1 million KRW — art. 98(2) |
| Change of registered particulars — passport renewal, name, nationality | Within 15 days — art. 35 | Administrative fine of up to 1 million KRW — art. 100(2)(1) |
The address one catches almost everyone, because moving apartment does not feel like an immigration event. It is. And the clock starts on the day you move in, not the day you sign the lease.
Where to file the address report
You have more options than the usual advice suggests. Per Government24’s service listing, a change of residence report can be filed at the immigration office with jurisdiction over your new address, or at the city, county or district office, or at your neighbourhood community centre — the same 주민센터 Korean residents use.
Three details from that listing that save a trip:
- Online filing is available, but only by the person themselves — no proxy.
- When filed online, writing the new address on the back of your residence card is omitted.
- Postal filing is limited to residents of island areas, by registered post.
Checked 2026-08-27. HiKorea also lists change of residence report among the services available for electronic filing — see our online filing guide.
Days 1 to 3: connectivity, and one decision not to make
Get data working and save your address in Korean. That is the whole list.
The decision not to make is opening a Korean phone line on your passport before you understand the line-count rule. Per KT’s published terms, counted across all carriers within a 180-day window, foreign nationals are capped at two lines — and one where the document presented was a passport. Cancelled lines still count. Burning that slot on a tourist product can block the line you actually need.
A transit card needs nothing at all — no ID, no account, no verification. Buy one with cash and you can move. See our T-money guide.
Days 4 to 14: the registration appointment
Book early, and understand what a booking is and is not.
HiKorea states that a visit reservation is a booking of a date and is not the receipt of a civil petition. A confirmed slot after your deadline protects nothing. And where no bookable date exists before your deadline, the published instruction is to attend your competent office in person before it passes.
Registration itself is one of the services HiKorea marks visit-only — it cannot be filed online. Confirm your real deadline with the expiry lookup and your office with the jurisdiction lookup, since jurisdiction follows your registered address rather than convenience.
Use this week to settle your name spelling too — passport form, same order, everywhere. The immigration record is upstream of your bank, your carrier and every app, and a mismatch created now surfaces in week six at a counter that cannot fix it. See our name verification guide.
Days 15 to 21: money
Open the account in a branch rather than an app. A person can look at an employment contract and make a judgement; an app can only pass or fail your carrier verification, which is at its least reliable in your first weeks.
Bring the reason you are in Korea in document form — contract, certificate of enrolment, business registration. New accounts commonly open under transaction limits that ease with history; that is normal and applies to Korean nationals too. See our bank account guide.
Then the postpaid line, with autopay from that account — KT’s terms require a domestic card or account in your own name for postpaid automatic payment.
Days 22 to 30: the things with quiet clocks
Health insurance. Check employee, local or dependent coverage with NHIS rather than assuming everyone waits six months. For eligible foreign employee-insured applicants seeking exclusion based on equivalent coverage, NHIS states that applying within 14 days after acquisition was reported allows loss to take effect from the acquisition date. Evidence and approval are required. See our health insurance guide.
Transit subsidy. Registration on the K-Pass site with a Korean refund account is what turns a card into a subsidy. There is no retroactive claim. See our transit passes guide.
Licence exchange, if you will drive. The embassy confirmation or Apostille must have been issued within one year of your application, so obtaining it far in advance does not help. See our licence guide.
The three mistakes that cost weeks
Treating a booking as a filing. It is not, and HiKorea says so. If the calendar cannot fit you before a deadline, attend in person.
Letting the address report slide. Fifteen days, up to a million won, and it surfaces at your next extension when you least want a conversation about it.
Spelling your name two ways. Every downstream system inherits the immigration record. Fixing it later means another appointment.
The settling-in chain guide explains common dependencies. Branch banking, phone products and app verification have different requirements, so check the provider before treating one sequence as mandatory.
Verification note. On September 24, 2026 an AI-assisted check compared the change of residence report within 15 days of moving in and foreign resident registration within 90 days of entry against Easy Law (Ministry of Government Legislation) (except HiKorea and KT, which cannot be checked automatically), and confirmed the official sources linked in this guide still resolve to the same pages. I publish this guide under my own name and am responsible for what it says. Rules and fees in Korea change often; if you spot something out of date, email hello@90dayskorea.com and it will be re-checked and corrected.
Sources
- Korea Ministry of Government Legislation — Easy Law: change of residence report within 15 days, Immigration Act art. 36(1); fine up to 1 million KRW, art. 98(2) (Korean)
- Easy Law — international students: registered particulars change, administrative fine art. 100(2)(1) (Korean)
- Government24 — foreign resident change of residence report: filing locations, online-by-self rule, island postal exception
- National Law Information Center — Immigration Act, full text
- HiKorea — visit reservation notice: booking is not filing
- NHIS — guidance for foreigners: six-month rule, 14-day withdrawal window
- KT — 5G subscriber terms: line caps, autopay rule (Korean)
Last verified: 2026-08-27 07:24 KST. This is general information, not legal advice. Deadlines and penalties depend on your status. The statutory sources linked above are the authority; 1345 is the authority on your own case.