Last verified: 2026-08-27 07:30 KST
Every English guide to extending your stay in Korea says the same two things: use HiKorea, and start early. Both are true and neither tells you the thing that decides your week — whether your particular task can be filed online at all, and what happens if the answer is no.
HiKorea publishes that answer as a table. This page reads it.
An online permit is not a lesser permit
Start with the sentence that should remove any hesitation about the online route. HiKorea states that a civil petition granted through the online electronic service has the same effect as one granted by visiting an office. Checked 2026-08-27.
The equivalence concerns a permit that has been approved. Submitting an application is not the approval itself: keep the receipt, check the processing result, and retain the permit confirmation when granted.
Two operational notes attach to that. Some services require a Korean joint certificate (공동인증서) to submit. And once a petition is approved, HiKorea instructs you to print and keep the permit confirmation from the electronic petition status screen — that printout is your evidence, and nobody sends you a card.
What can actually be filed online
HiKorea’s electronic civil petition page lists the services it handles, marking each as an online filing or a visit reservation. These appear on that list:
| Service | Online | Visit |
|---|---|---|
| Extension of stay — registered foreign nationals | Yes | Yes |
| Extension of stay — F-4 residence report holders | Yes | Yes |
| Extension of stay — short-term stayers | Yes | Yes |
| Extension filed by a school officer for students and language trainees | Yes | Yes |
| Change of status — registered foreign nationals | Yes | Yes |
| Change of status — short-term stayers | No | Yes |
| Grant of status — registered or short-term | No | Yes |
| Extension for departure — both categories | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple re-entry permit | Yes | Yes |
| Foreign resident registration application | No | Yes |
| Overseas Korean domestic residence report | No | Yes |
| Change of residence report / residence transfer | Yes | Yes |
| Registered particulars change report (passport change) | Yes | Yes |
| Residence card reissue | No | Yes |
| Activity outside status permit | No | Yes |
| Workplace change — E-9 | Yes | Yes |
| Part-time work permit and employer change — D-2, D-4-1 | Yes | Yes |
| Change-of-circumstance report — H-2 and E-9, integrated | Yes | Online only |
| Change-of-circumstance report — other categories | Yes | Yes |
| H-2 commencement of work, integrated report | Yes | Yes |
| Certificate for visa issuance | No | Yes |
| Naturalisation application | Yes | Yes |
| Nationality restoration, acquisition, choice, loss, retention | No | Yes |
| Residence report for C-3 re-entrants | Yes | Yes |
Three readings of that table are worth stating plainly.
Your first registration cannot be done online. Foreign resident registration is marked visit-only. So is the overseas Korean residence report. The document you need most urgently is the one that requires attendance.
Neither can a card reissue. If you lost your residence card, that is a counter visit. So is an activity-outside-status permit, and so is a certificate for visa issuance.
Moving apartment can be done online. Change of residence report is available electronically, and so is a registered particulars change after a passport renewal. Both create obligations with statutory deadlines that people miss because they assume another day off work is required.
One row runs the other way: the integrated change-of-circumstance report for H-2 and E-9 is marked for electronic filing with no visit-reservation option, and it is a joint filing with the Ministry of Employment and Labor — one submission covering two ministries.
Two different windows, and the one that closes first
“Start four months early” is real advice — Government24 states that an extension can be applied for from four months before your period of stay expires. But that is the window for the process as a whole, and it is not the window for filing online.
| Electronic filing | Visit reservation | |
|---|---|---|
| When you can apply | 60 to 3 days before expiry, excluding weekends and holidays | Up to 1 day before expiry |
| Too early? | Outside the window | Bookings more than 60 days out are generally not accepted — call 1345 first |
| Filing hours | Weekdays 07:00–22:00 | Year-round booking |
| Fee | 60,000 KRW — 30,000 KRW for marriage migration (F-6). Not refunded once accepted. | |
| Processing | Within 14 days of receipt in the Government24 service record; this is not a promise of approval or a guaranteed individual processing time | |
Checked 2026-08-27. Read the first row twice. The online window closes three days before your expiry date, and it does not count weekends or public holidays. A long weekend can therefore close it earlier than the calendar suggests, and after that your only route is a visit reservation up to the day before.
Two more practical items from the same record. Fee exemptions apply to Argentine nationals under 14 and to corporate investment (D-8) status. And electronic filings need documents attached as JPG files under 450 KB — worth knowing before you scan anything at full resolution.
The number that protects you is your expiry date or statutory reporting deadline, because that is what a penalty attaches to. HiKorea’s reservation notice states that visiting after the expiry of your period of stay or after a statutory reporting deadline can result in a penalty or administrative fine.
Do not work from the date you remember. HiKorea publishes a period of stay expiry lookup that gives you the date the system holds. Every rule keys off that one.
Registered residents should check their expiry date on HiKorea. Visa-free visitors can get a safe exit date from our 90-day stay calculator.
If the online route is not open to you
Then you need an appointment, and appointments at busy offices are scarce. The critical thing to understand is that a reservation is not a filing — HiKorea states that a visit reservation books a date and is not the receipt of a civil petition. A confirmed slot after your deadline protects nothing.
When the calendar shows nothing before your deadline, HiKorea’s own published instruction is to go to the office with jurisdiction over you in person, before the deadline passes. That is the procedure, not a workaround. Checked 2026-08-27.
Jurisdiction follows your registered address, and there is a lookup for that too. The rest of the booking mechanics — the three identity verification routes and why passport verification fails from outside Korea — are in our HiKorea appointment guide.
Two things that stop applications before they start
Your name. Enter it exactly as printed in your passport, in the same order, every time. A mismatch between your immigration record, your carrier registration and whatever you type produces a rejection that no counter downstream can fix — the record that everything keys off is the immigration one. Our name verification guide covers repairing it.
Health insurance arrears. The Korea Immigration Service operates a health insurance arrears confirmation system, and unpaid premiums can surface during an extension. If you paid overdue premiums within the last five days at a utility payment machine or through internet giro, HiKorea instructs you to bring the receipt, because the payment record may not have propagated yet. Rates and enrolment rules are in our health insurance guide.
The re-entry permit people forget
Multiple re-entry permit appears on the online list, and it is worth a paragraph because forgetting it is expensive in a way that is invisible until an airport counter.
Depending on your status and how long you will be outside Korea, leaving without the right re-entry arrangement can affect the status you return on. It is not a departure formality — it is a permission granted before you go, and it is on the list of things that can be filed without a counter visit.
If a trip home is coming up and your stay in Korea is long-term, check this alongside your extension rather than after your ticket is booked.
When the answer is not on this page
Extension requirements are status-specific, and a rule that applies to a D-2 holder may not apply to an E-7 holder. The Immigration Contact Center is 1345 inside Korea, +82-2-1345 or +82-2-6908-1345 from abroad, with a fax civil petition line on 1577-1346.
For questions, suggestions or grievances about a Korean administrative body more generally, HiKorea directs users to the national petition portal rather than to immigration.
What we are not telling you
The fee and timing table above summarizes one Government24 record for registered foreign nationals, not every immigration service. That record also lists status exclusions from electronic filing; a general service-table entry does not establish your eligibility. Government24 record checked 6 October 2026. Confirm the requirements shown for your specific case with HiKorea or 1345 before paying or relying on a deadline.
We are also not telling you whether your particular status is eligible for online filing. The table above is what HiKorea lists; whether you can use a given row depends on your status and circumstances, and only the service screen or 1345 can settle it.
Verification note. On September 24, 2026 an AI-assisted check compared processing within 14 days of receipt and documents attached as JPG files under 450 KB against Government24 (except HiKorea, 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
- HiKorea — Electronic civil petition guide: service list, equivalence of online permits, joint certificate requirement
- HiKorea — Electronic civil petition application
- HiKorea — Visit reservation notice: deadline rule, penalty warning, health insurance receipt
- HiKorea — Period of stay expiry lookup
- HiKorea — Competent immigration office lookup
- Government24 — extension of stay service record: filing windows, fee, processing time, attachment limits
- Government24 — foreigner portal: four-month application window
- Korea Immigration Service — health insurance arrears confirmation system (Korean)
Last verified: 2026-08-27 07:30 KST. Extension rules depend on your status and circumstances and they change. The HiKorea pages linked above are the authority; confirm with them or with 1345 before acting.