[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Ministry of Justice announced on the 19th that it will significantly improve the requirements for the specific activity (E-7) visa related to the shipbuilding sector to resolve manpower shortages and support the introduction of foreign workers.
The specific activity (E-7) visa is granted by the Minister of Justice to allow foreign workers with professional knowledge, skills, or abilities to work in designated fields where their introduction is necessary. In the shipbuilding industry, there are four occupations: welders, painters, electrical engineers, and plant engineering technicians.
The Ministry of Justice decided to abolish the quota system that had been operated for welders and painters, which have the highest demand in the industry. Instead, foreign employment will be allowed only within 20% of the domestic workforce per company to also protect national jobs.
Additionally, to encourage employment of science and engineering students studying in Korea, the special system for domestic students, which was only operated for painters, has been expanded to include electrical engineers and welders. The majors eligible for the student special system have also been broadened from ship painting majors to all science and engineering majors.
Considering the practical difficulty of verifying the experience of overseas workers for painters and electrical engineers, they will be required to undergo practical skill verification by the competency verification team designated by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Those who pass will have relaxed visa issuance experience requirements.
Along with this, improvements such as the regularization of the painter and electrical engineer system that was operated as a pilot project, unification of wage requirements by occupation, simplification of the welder introduction procedure, and the introduction of social integration program completion requirements for entrants have been made.
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