GlobeQuest

Moving from South Korea to United Kingdom

What your passport gets you at the border — and what it takes to actually stay.

South KoreaUnited KingdomShort stay
Travel authorisation

South Korea passport holders need an electronic travel authorisation before flying to United Kingdom. It's an online form, usually approved quickly, and lighter than a full e-visa.

This is short-stay visitor policy only. It does not let you work, study or settle in United Kingdom — that needs a residence permit.

Passport Index · updated 17 February 2026United Kingdom's official immigration service
Long stay

How you actually move to United Kingdom

Work / sponsoredHigh confidenceVerified July 2026

Skilled Worker visa

Anyone with a job offer from a UK employer holding a sponsor licence. The dominant work route since Tier 2 was replaced.

What you need
  • Certificate of Sponsorship from a licensed UK sponsor
  • Salary of at least £41,700, or the published 'going rate' for the occupation code — whichever is higher. The floor rose from £38,700 on 22 July 2025 and is reset against Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data, so it moves
  • Job at RQF level 6 (degree level) or above — the skill threshold was raised back to degree level on 22 July 2025, closing the route to a large band of occupations that qualified before
  • English at B1 (CEFR) across all four components
  • Immigration Health Surcharge and, for the employer, the Immigration Skills Charge
How long it lasts
Up to 5 years per grant, extendable.
Path to permanent residence
Indefinite Leave to Remain after 5 years of continuous residence — but at the settlement stage you must meet the full £41,700 or going rate with no new-entrant or transitional discounts applied.
Cost
Application fee, plus the Immigration Health Surcharge at £1,035 per adult per year of visa granted — for a family over five years this runs to five figures, payable up front. The Immigration Skills Charge falls on the employer.
Processing time
About 3 weeks applying from outside the UK, 8 weeks from inside; priority services are faster.
Worth knowing
  • The going rate, not the headline threshold, is what prices most people out — for many occupation codes it sits well above £41,700.
  • The government has proposed extending the settlement qualifying period from 5 years to 10 for most work routes, with reductions for higher earners and other contribution tests. The 'A Fairer Pathway to Settlement' consultation ran from 20 November 2025 to 12 February 2026 and drew over 200,000 responses; the government response had not been published as of mid-2026. It is still a proposal, not law — but anyone planning around the 5-year clock should watch it.
  • There is no UK digital nomad or remote-work visa. Working remotely for a foreign employer is not a basis for UK residence.
  • The Health and Care Worker route is no longer a way in from abroad for care work. Entry clearance for care workers and senior care workers (SOC 6135 and 6136) closed on 22 July 2025; only in-country switching remains, and that ends on 22 July 2028. Other health occupations are unaffected. Guides still describing care work as an accessible UK route are describing a closed door.
  • The visa is tied to the sponsoring employer and the specific role; changing either needs a new Certificate of Sponsorship.
Sources:GOV.UK — Skilled Worker visaGOV.UK — Visas and immigration
Work / sponsoredMedium confidenceVerified July 2026

Global Talent visa

Leaders and potential leaders in academia and research, arts and culture, or digital technology. No employer, no job offer, no salary threshold.

What you need
  • Endorsement from a Home Office-approved endorsing body in your field, or a qualifying prestigious prize
  • Evidence of recognised achievement (exceptional talent) or early-career promise (exceptional promise)
  • No sponsor and no minimum salary
How long it lasts
Up to 5 years, extendable without limit.
Path to permanent residence
Settlement after 3 years for those endorsed as exceptional talent, or 5 years for exceptional promise — the fastest mainstream route to ILR.
Cost
Two-stage fee (endorsement then visa), plus the Immigration Health Surcharge.
Processing time
Endorsement typically several weeks, then about 3 weeks for the visa itself.
Worth knowing
  • The endorsing bodies and their criteria have been reorganised more than once — confirm which body currently covers your field on GOV.UK before assembling evidence.
  • It carries no employer tie at all, which makes it far more durable than a Skilled Worker visa for anyone who qualifies.
Sources:GOV.UK — Global Talent visaGOV.UK — Visas and immigration
InvestmentMedium confidenceVerified July 2026

Innovator Founder visa

Founders bringing a genuinely new, viable and scalable business idea to the UK.

What you need
  • Endorsement from an approved endorsing body, which then monitors your progress at 12 and 24 months
  • A business plan judged innovative, viable and scalable
  • English at B2
  • No minimum investment sum since the route replaced the Innovator visa
How long it lasts
3 years, extendable.
Path to permanent residence
Settlement after 3 years, subject to meeting the endorsing body's contact-point criteria.
Cost
Endorsement fee plus the visa fee and Immigration Health Surcharge.
Processing time
Endorsement is the long pole; the visa itself is around 3 weeks from outside the UK.
Worth knowing
  • Removing the investment minimum did not make it easier — endorsing bodies apply the innovation test strictly, and a conventional consultancy or shop will not pass.
  • You must remain engaged with the business; the route is not a passive investment vehicle.
Sources:GOV.UK — Innovator Founder visa
FamilyMedium confidenceVerified July 2026

Family visa (spouse or partner)

Partners and dependent children of British citizens and people settled in the UK.

What you need
  • A genuine and subsisting relationship with a British citizen or settled person
  • Minimum income requirement met by the sponsor — £29,000 following the 2024 increase, with cash-savings and benefit-based alternatives
  • English at A1 initially, rising at extension and settlement
  • Adequate accommodation
How long it lasts
Granted in 2.5-year blocks on a 5-year route to settlement.
Path to permanent residence
Settlement after 5 years on the family route, or 10 years where a longer route applies.
Cost
Application fee plus the Immigration Health Surcharge for each grant — the five-year total is substantial.
Processing time
Around 12 weeks from outside the UK; longer at peak.
Worth knowing
  • Further planned rises in the minimum income requirement were paused pending a Migration Advisory Committee review, so the figure has been a moving target — verify it for the month you apply.
  • How income can be evidenced is unusually prescriptive; most refusals on this route are documentary rather than substantive.
Sources:GOV.UK — Family visas
StudentMedium confidenceVerified July 2026

Student visa (and the Graduate route)

Students on a course with a licensed education provider, plus graduates staying on to look for work.

What you need
  • Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies from a licensed sponsor
  • Proof of funds for tuition and maintenance at the published levels
  • English at the level required by the course
How long it lasts
Course length plus a short wind-down; the Graduate route then adds 2 years on top (3 for PhDs), falling to 18 months for applications made on or after 1 January 2027.
Path to permanent residence
Neither route leads to settlement directly — study and Graduate-route time do not count toward ILR. You must switch into Skilled Worker or another qualifying route.
Cost
Application fee plus the Immigration Health Surcharge, on top of international tuition.
Processing time
Around 3 weeks from outside the UK.
Worth knowing
  • Most taught-masters students can no longer bring dependants, following the 2024 restriction.
  • The Graduate route cut is no longer a proposal: the statement of changes HC 1333 of 14 October 2025 reduces it from 2 years to 18 months for applications made on or after 1 January 2027. PhD graduates keep 3 years. If the 2-year period matters to your plan, the application date is what decides it.
Sources:GOV.UK — Student visa
On the ground

Where you'd land in United Kingdom

London

Global capital of finance, culture, and ambition.

Full London guide
Edinburgh

Scotland's own tax bands, open-ended tenancies, and a December sunset before half past three.

Full Edinburgh guide
Manchester

Greater Manchester's Bee Network gave England its first re-regulated buses since 1986 — and the cheapest big-city fares outside London.

Full Manchester guide
Glasgow

Scotland's largest city — the same tax bands as Edinburgh at a quarter less rent, and the UK's only penalty-based low emission zone.

Full Glasgow guide
Bristol

England's most expensive city outside the South East, with a charging clean air zone and buses nobody defends.

Full Bristol guide
Birmingham

England's second city: the cheapest big-city rents, and the highest council tax bill to go with them.

Full Birmingham guide
Cambridge

Chip design, molecular biology and 31 landowning colleges, in a city that is running out of water.

Full Cambridge guide
Oxford

Colleges, a car plant and four hospitals in one small city — and every shared house needs a licence.

Full Oxford guide
Leeds

Britain's biggest banking and legal centre outside London — and among the largest cities in Europe with no tram, metro or light rail at all.

Full Leeds guide
Liverpool

The second city region in Britain to take its buses back — and the only one that owns its trains outright.

Full Liverpool guide
Newcastle upon Tyne

Britain's first modern metro, running an entirely new fleet since June 2026 — and a clean air zone that charges everything except your car.

Full Newcastle upon Tyne guide
Sheffield

The only English city with a national park inside its own boundary — and a clean air zone that charges your van and never your car.

Full Sheffield guide
Cardiff

A capital with its own parliament, its own property tax and free prescriptions — where you sign an occupation contract, not a tenancy.

Full Cardiff guide
Brighton

Three miles of city pinned between the Channel and a national park — it cannot build outwards, and the rent is the proof.

Full Brighton guide
Nottingham

The only city in Britain where your employer pays a levy on its car park — which is exactly why there are two tram lines.

Full Nottingham guide
Portsmouth

Almost two-thirds of the Royal Navy's surface fleet moors here — on an island so full it is the densest local authority in Britain outside London bar one.

Full Portsmouth guide
Reading

Britain's largest cluster of digital businesses outside London — in a place that has bid for city status four times and is still, legally, a town.

Full Reading guide
Swansea

Occupation contracts, free prescriptions and Land Transaction Tax — with Britain's first protected landscape starting where the city bus route ends.

Full Swansea guide
Luton

A town that owns its own international airport outright — and the densest local authority in England outside London.

Full Luton guide
Belfast

A UK city in a different legal jurisdiction — Irish citizens need no permission at all, your landlord usually pays the rates, and nobody gets a water bill.

Full Belfast guide
Southampton

The port the Titanic sailed from and Britain's cruise capital still — with a national park twenty minutes west and a council-run toll to get into the east of its own city.

Full Southampton guide
Leicester

A city where no ethnic group is a majority, a king turned up under a council car park, and the Council Tax costs more than the rent implies.

Full Leicester guide
Coventry

Flattened in one night, rebuilt as an experiment, and still experimenting — the city that started the British car industry, invented town twinning, and is now testing a tramway shallow enough to lay without moving the pipes.

Full Coventry guide

United Kingdom at a glance

Capital
London
Population
69.5M
Languages
English
Currency
GBP

Where else your South Korea passport takes you

AlgeriaVisa requiredAngolaVisa-free · 30 daysArgentinaVisa-free · 90 daysArmeniaVisa-free · 180 daysAustraliaTravel authorisationAustriaVisa-free · 90 daysAzerbaijanVisa on arrivalBahrainVisa on arrival