Healthcare & Support: Insurance & Visas
Once you're settled, these are the systems that keep you covered and looked after: health insurance, immigration, and free help in a language you actually speak.
National Health Insurance (NHIS)
Stay in Korea longer than six months and, as a foreign resident, you're generally required to join the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) - which is what makes clinics and hospitals so much cheaper. If you're employed, your workplace usually enrols you. If not, you sign up as a local subscriber once you've settled in with your Residence Card.
Long-stay visa holders normally get enrolled automatically after six months here, and some groups, students among them, are covered earlier. Just stay on top of the premiums - fall behind and it can trip up your visa extension.
- NHIS picks up a large share of your bills at clinics and hospitals.
- Let premiums lapse and your visa renewal can stall - keep them current.
Visa extensions and immigration
Sort your extension before your current permission runs out. Overstay and you're looking at fines and re-entry headaches. HiKorea, the government immigration portal, takes appointments, and for a registered foreign resident it also handles extensions and changes of address or status online. Some things still need a counter: your first foreign registration, a short-term visitor changing status, and a replacement Residence Card.
Moved house? You have 15 days to report the new address, and the fine for letting that pass runs to 1 million won under the Immigration Act. You can file it on HiKorea, at the immigration office for your area, or at the community service centre (주민센터, jumin senteo) covering your new address. If you're not sure where your case stands, the immigration help line below can talk it through in your language.
- Apply to extend before your permission expires - never after.
- Report an address change within 15 days - HiKorea, an immigration office, or your local community service centre.
Help lines and support centers
What separates these lines is who picks up. The Immigration Contact Center is the one for anything about your visa, your stay, or the paperwork behind either - and it keeps weekday office hours, so a Saturday question waits until Monday. The travel hotline is the general-purpose line and answers at any hour, which makes it the better bet for a train, an address, or a bag left on a bus. Between the two sits the Danuri line, staffed for multicultural families and the questions that come with a Korean spouse or child.
None of those are emergency numbers. Police is 112, and 119 covers fire and ambulance both; Travel Essentials walks through what happens once you call. Away from the phone, the Seoul Global Center and the Global Centers in other cities do free counseling, legal advice, and Korean classes in person.
Local information: 120 and your district office
In Seoul, 120 (the Dasan Call Center) is your line for city services, transport, and general local information, with foreign-language support - other cities run their own version. For anything on paper, your district office (gu office) deals with residence paperwork and community services.
That district office is also where you'll wrap up the move-in steps from the Living in Korea guide, so keep it in mind the moment you have an address.
- In Seoul, 120 (Dasan Call Center) covers city info in several languages.
- Residence paperwork goes through your gu (district) office.
Quick answers
Do I have to join NHIS?
What number do I call for visa questions in English?
Where can I get free help in my language?
By Hyouk Seo · Last updated: 2026-09-03