Whether foreigners must join National Pension (Korea's public retirement pension system), 2026 premium rates, which visas are exempt, and why the lump-sum refund you get when you leave the country depends so much on your nationality.
As of October 2026
If you take a job at a Korean company, you're required to enroll as a workplace subscriber (사업장가입자) — the category where the company covers half the premium, the same concept as a "workplace subscriber" under health insurance, just called this in National Pension.
That said, some visas — like Student (D-2) and General Training (D-4) — are excluded from enrollment altogether, and even on the same visa, whether you're enrolled can depend on your nationality (covered in detail in Section 1).
As of 2026, the premium rate is 9.5%, split for workplace subscribers as 4.75% from you plus 4.75% from the company.
The most important part of this guide is the lump-sum refund (반환일시금) — the system that returns your paid-in premiums if you leave Korea for good before reaching 10 years of coverage. Whether you can get it depends entirely on your nationality. Nationals of the US, Canada, Australia, and the Philippines can get it, but Vietnamese nationals generally cannot (unless your visa status is one of the exceptions, such as Non-professional Employment (E-9) under the Employment Permit System, in which case you can get it regardless of nationality) — covered in detail in Section 4.
Let's cover two terms first.
Like health insurance, National Pension subscribers fall into exactly two categories — just with slightly different names.
① Workplace subscriber (사업장가입자) — someone employed by a Korean company. The same concept as the "workplace subscriber" category under health insurance. Premiums are deducted automatically from your paycheck, and the company pays half on your behalf.
② Local subscriber (지역가입자) — someone not employed by a company (unemployed, freelance, self-employed, etc.). With no company behind you, you pay the full amount yourself.
Throughout this guide, think of these two terms simply as "employed by a company or not."
In principle, National Pension covers anyone age 18 or older and under 60, and foreign residents of Korea are covered on the same terms as Korean nationals.
Unlike health insurance, though, there's no waiting period like "6 months of residence" — instead, whether you're enrolled depends on ① your visa type and ② your nationality. Let's go through each in order.
① Visa type is the first filter. The following visas are excluded from National Pension enrollment entirely — Diplomat (A-1 to A-3), Tourist/Temporary Transit (B-1, B-2), Short-Term Visit/Short-Term Business (C-1, C-3), Short-Term Employment (C-4), Arts & Culture (D-1), Student (D-2), Technical Training (D-3), General Training (D-4), Religious Activities (D-6), Visiting Cohabitation (F-1), Accompanying Family (F-3), Other (G-1).
Conversely, the following visas are automatically required to enroll — Press/Journalist (D-5), Intra-company Transfer / Corporate Investment / Trade Management (D-7 to D-9), Job Seeking (D-10), Professor through Sailor Employment (E-1 to E-10, including Non-professional Employment (E-9)), Residence (F-2), Overseas Korean (F-4), Permanent Residence (F-5), Marriage Migrant (F-6), Working Holiday (H-1), Working Visit (H-2).
| Category | Applicable visas |
|---|---|
| Excluded from enrollment | A-1 to A-3, B-1, B-2, C-1, C-3, C-4, D-1, D-2 (Student), D-3 (Technical Training), D-4 (General Training), D-6, F-1, F-3, G-1 |
| Required to enroll (automatic) | D-5, D-7 to D-10, E-1 to E-10 (including E-9), F-2, F-4, F-5 (Permanent Residence), F-6 (Marriage Migrant), H-1, H-2 |
② Even if your visa is "required to enroll," your nationality filters things again. Korea checks, country by country, whether that country's own pension system covers Korean nationals the same way (reciprocity), and sorts foreigners' National Pension enrollment status based on the result.
That means even on the same Non-professional Employment (E-9) visa, you may or may not actually be required to enroll depending on your nationality. Here's what the National Pension Service's survey found as of February 2025.
| Category | Meaning | Example countries |
|---|---|---|
| ① Both workplace and local subscription apply automatically | Treated exactly the same as Korean nationals | United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, China, Philippines, and 76 countries total |
| ② Only workplace subscription applies automatically | Enrolled only if employed by a company — not required if self-employed or unemployed | Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Mongolia, India, and 37 countries total |
| ③ Excluded from both workplace and local subscription | Not subject to National Pension enrollment at all, regardless of visa | Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Timor-Leste, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, and 21 countries total |
This classification is data the National Pension Service updates periodically, so it can change over time — the most accurate way to check which category your own nationality falls under is to contact the NPS directly (1355). Note that nationals of countries not listed in this table are, in principle, treated as required to enroll.
To sum up — if you hold Vietnamese, Thai, or Cambodian nationality and are employed by a Korean company (a workplace subscriber), you're required to enroll in National Pension, but if you're unemployed or self-employed with the same nationality (the situation that would make you a local subscriber), you're not required to enroll. Nepali and Myanmar nationals aren't required to enroll in National Pension even while employed by a company.
One more thing — unlike Korean nationals, foreigners cannot apply for "voluntary enrollment (임의가입)" to join ahead of time by choice. You're only enrolled if you meet the mandatory-enrollment criteria above.
The National Pension premium rate is 9.5% as of 2026 (it was 9% through 2025).
Workplace subscribers split this 9.5% as 4.75% from themselves plus 4.75% from the company, deducted automatically from their paycheck.
Local subscribers have no company to split it with, so they pay the full 9.5% themselves.
Under the pension reform passed by the National Assembly in March 2025, the premium rate will rise in stages by 0.5 percentage points every year starting in 2026, reaching 13% by 2033.
Foreigners are subject to this same increase schedule as Korean nationals — no exceptions.
Premiums aren't calculated on your full salary (or declared income for local subscribers) — they're calculated only within an upper and lower band called the income assessment cap (기준소득월액), the reference amount used for calculating premiums. No matter how high your actual income is, the portion above this cap is excluded from the premium calculation.
From July 2026 through June 2027, the cap is KRW 6.59 million a month and the floor is KRW 410,000 a month — even if your salary exceeds KRW 6.59 million, your premium is calculated based only on the KRW 6.59 million figure.
Foreigners don't face a higher or lower premium rate — you're subject to exactly the same rate and the same cap/floor as Korean nationals.
If you're a workplace subscriber, there's nothing you need to do separately — your company enrolls you in National Pension along with the other four major social insurances the moment you join. If you see a "National Pension" deduction line on your payslip, you're already enrolled.
If you're required to enroll as a local subscriber (meeting all the visa and nationality criteria from Section 1), the NPS often cross-references immigration records and enrolls you automatically on its own authority, much like health insurance. As mentioned earlier, foreigners cannot apply on their own for voluntary enrollment just because they want to join.
If you want to check whether you're required to enroll, or whether you're already enrolled, you can check directly.
Visit an NPS branch office (bring your Alien Registration Card (ARC)), call the hotline at 1355, or log in to the My NPS app/website with an accredited certificate (공동인증서) or simplified authentication (간편인증) to immediately check your enrollment status and coverage period accumulated so far.
1355 only offers support in Korean. If Korean is difficult for you, we'd recommend visiting a branch office in person to ask whether interpretation support is available, or calling together with a Korean-speaking acquaintance.
National Pension is designed so that you need 10 years of coverage or more to receive a monthly pension after age 60.
But if you fall short of 10 years and ① turn 60 with less than 10 years of coverage, ② pass away without a surviving family member eligible for a survivor's pension, or ③ lose your nationality or leave Korea for good — you can get your paid-in premiums back in one lump sum, plus interest. This is called the lump-sum refund (반환일시금).
For most long-term foreign residents, it's the third scenario (leaving Korea for good) that applies.
Unlike Korean nationals, foreigners cannot get the lump-sum refund by default. You can only get it as an exception if you fall under one of the three cases below.
Ⓐ Your home country is one that refunds its own pension contributions to Korean nationals under the same conditions (reciprocity)
Ⓑ Your home country has signed a social security agreement with Korea that includes a provision to "pay the lump-sum refund"
Ⓒ Your visa status is Non-professional Employment (E-9) or Working Visit (H-2) — this applies regardless of nationality
※ NPS's own guidance also lists "E-8" under case Ⓒ, but that refers to the old Trainee Employment (former E-8) status, not today's Seasonal Worker (E-8) visa. If you currently hold an E-8 (Seasonal Worker) visa, don't assume this exception applies to you — confirm directly with NPS (1355).
There's a point that trips a lot of people up here. Looking at Ⓑ above, it's easy to think "my country has an agreement with Korea too, so I should be able to get it" — but Ⓐ (reciprocity) isn't a treaty at all; it's just the NPS's own determination, and social security agreements vary in what clauses each one actually contains. In other words, just because "an agreement exists" doesn't tell you whether you can get it.
Social security agreements broadly serve two functions.
Period totalization combines your coverage period in Korea with your coverage period in your home country to determine whether you've reached "10 years or more" — if this exists, it opens a path to the regular pension (paid monthly).
Contribution exemption simply prevents posted workers from paying premiums twice, to both Korea and their home country.
The key point is that these two functions are completely separate from the lump-sum refund. Whether an agreement provides totalization or exemption, that alone doesn't decide refund eligibility — the agreement needs a separate clause that specifically says "the lump-sum refund will be paid." In fact, the US and Canada have agreements that include both totalization and exemption AND a lump-sum refund clause, so their nationals can get it; conversely, New Zealand and Ireland have totalization agreements but no refund clause, so their nationals cannot.
So don't take comfort just from hearing "my country has an agreement with Korea" — it's important to separately check whether that specific agreement includes a lump-sum refund clause (call 1355 or check the NPS website).
| Nationality | Lump-sum refund (if not E-9/H-2) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| US, Canada, Australia, Philippines | Available | A period-totalization agreement country that also includes a lump-sum refund clause |
| Thailand | Available | Only if coverage period is 1 year or more (reciprocity) |
| Indonesia, Cambodia | Available | No coverage-period requirement (reciprocity) |
| UK, Japan, China | Not available | Only has a contribution-exemption agreement (no totalization), no refund clause |
| Vietnam | Not available | Its 2024 agreement includes a totalization clause, but it's currently deferred and not in effect, and there's no refund clause at all |
| New Zealand, Ireland | Not available | A period-totalization agreement country, which favors regular pension benefits, but not eligible for the lump-sum refund |
This table is compiled from National Pension Service data as of June 2026. Since the list of eligible countries is updated from time to time, please confirm directly with the NPS (1355) or on the NPS website before you leave the country to find out exactly which category your own nationality falls under.
The most important point — even if your nationality is on the "not available" list, if your visa status is Non-professional Employment (E-9) or Working Visit (H-2), you can get the lump-sum refund regardless of nationality.
For example, among Vietnamese nationals, an E-9 worker who entered under the Employment Permit System (EPS) can get it, but a Vietnamese national on an E-7 or F-6 visa status cannot. So the claim "Southeast Asian nationals can never get it" is half right and half wrong. (Today's Seasonal Worker (E-8) visa is not covered by this exception, so check your own case separately.)
If you're not eligible, what happens to the money you paid in? You won't get it back, but the record itself is preserved. If your nationality has a period-totalization agreement, you may be able to combine it with your home-country coverage period to meet the 10-year requirement, and if you enroll again on a future return to Korea, it picks up where your previous coverage period left off.
The application process works like this.
If you have proof of an upcoming departure, such as a flight ticket, within 1 month of leaving, you can file the claim in advance before departure, with actual payment made once your departure is confirmed. If you've already left, you can also file by mail, through a representative, or through a local institution that has an MOU with the NPS (available in Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, and Indonesia).
Required documents are the benefit claim form, passport, Alien Registration Card, proof of your bank account, and proof of departure. Filing from abroad may additionally require notarization or an apostille.
You can choose to receive the payment via domestic bank transfer, overseas remittance, or cash pickup at Incheon Airport — airport pickup is only available within 1 month of departure, and not on weekends or public holidays.
The statute of limitations (소멸시효, the deadline for exercising your right) is 5 years from the date the right arises. Even past this deadline, you can still file a claim within 10 years of turning 60, or within 5 years for surviving family after the subscriber's death. The exact processing time isn't confirmed in any official source, so if your departure date is coming up soon, it's safer to apply with plenty of lead time.
Non-professional Employment (E-9) workers who entered under the Employment Permit System (EPS) get confused easily because the money they can receive when they leave is split across three different systems. Each one needs to be claimed separately.
| System | Operated by | Details |
|---|---|---|
| National Pension lump-sum refund | National Pension Service | What this guide covers — if you actually enrolled and paid into National Pension, E-9 workers can get it regardless of nationality (but if your nationality is one of the excluded ones covered in Section 1, such as Nepal or Myanmar, you were never enrolled in the first place, so this doesn't apply) |
| Departure Guarantee Insurance (출국만기보험) | Insurance company (e.g. Samsung Fire & Marine) | A system that substitutes for severance pay. The company sets aside 8.3% of ordinary wages each month, and it's paid out after 1 year or more of work once you leave Korea or change your visa status |
| Return-cost Insurance (귀국비용보험) | Insurance company | Insurance the worker enrolls in themselves to cover return travel costs (roughly KRW 400,000-600,000 depending on the country) |
Because Departure Guarantee Insurance is a separate system that substitutes for severance pay, people often mix it up with National Pension and mistakenly assume "you just get one or the other." These are three completely separate payments, and you have to claim all three separately to receive them.
If you take a job at a Korean company, you're automatically enrolled as a workplace subscriber — if it's unclear whether you're required to enroll, start by checking the visa/nationality table in Section 1, "Who Is Required to Enroll".
Above all, the most important thing is to find out ahead of time whether your nationality is eligible for the lump-sum refund — if you don't find out until right before you leave, you could end up missing out on money.
If it's unclear, don't wait — call NPS at 1355 and confirm your own coverage period and lump-sum refund eligibility directly.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What happens if I don't pay the premium? | If a local subscriber keeps falling behind on premiums, the NPS sends reminders, and if you still don't pay, your property or bank account can be seized, in the same way as unpaid national taxes. There's no concept like health insurance's benefit restriction, where "care itself gets blocked," but gaps in your coverage period can work against you later when you're trying to meet the 10-year requirement or claim the lump-sum refund. |
| If I'm not eligible for the lump-sum refund, is the money I paid in completely lost? | No, the record itself is preserved. If your nationality has a period-totalization agreement (New Zealand, Ireland, etc.), you can combine it with your home-country coverage period to meet the 10-year requirement, and if you enroll again on a future return to Korea, it picks up where your previous coverage period left off. |
| What happens if I quit my job? | Once you quit, your workplace-subscriber status ends, and if you're required to enroll under the visa/nationality criteria in Section 1, you're switched over to a local subscriber. The switch doesn't always happen automatically, so it's safer to confirm directly with the NPS after you quit. |
| Can foreigners eventually receive the regular pension (the monthly old-age pension)? | Yes. Once you reach 10 years or more of coverage, you can receive the old-age pension on the same terms as Korean nationals. If your nationality has a period-totalization agreement, you can also combine your home-country coverage period to reach the 10 years. |
This article is for general informational purposes, and figures like the premium rate and the list of lump-sum-refund eligible countries can change over time. Please confirm your exact situation directly with the National Pension Service (1355).