Insurance for E-9 Workers: Who Pays What, and Why Departure Guarantee Insurance Is Not Your Severance

Start with the deductions column

Two kinds of insurance touch an E-9 worker: the statutory social insurances that every worker in Korea meets, and four more that exist only under the EPS. They are funded differently, and the fastest way to spot a payslip that is wrong is to know which of them may take money from you at all.

Industrial-accident insurance (산재보험) may never appear in your deductions. Article 13(5) of the Premium Collection Act (고용산재보험료징수법) defines that premium as the employer's, and no worker share appears anywhere in Article 13. An industrial-accident line on an E-9 payslip is unlawful.

Employment insurance (고용보험) is mandatory for E-9 workers and still, in most cases, deducts nothing. Article 13(2) of the same Act defines the worker's share solely as total remuneration multiplied by half the unemployment-benefit rate. A worker who has not opted into unemployment benefit (실업급여) has a zero employment-insurance deduction.

The National Pension (국민연금) depends on your country. National Health Insurance (국민건강보험) does not.

The two you pay yourself are both EPS insurances: return cost insurance (귀국비용보험) and casualty insurance (상해보험).

Industrial-accident insurance: your employer pays all of it, and your visa status is not a condition

Article 6 of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act (산업재해보상보험법) applies the Act to every business employing workers, subject to the exclusions in Article 2 of its Enforcement Decree. Two of those exclusions matter to E-9 workers: non-corporate agriculture, forestry (logging excluded), fishing and hunting businesses with fewer than 5 regular employees, and household employment activities. Agriculture and livestock is a major E-9 sector, and small non-corporate farms are exactly where E-9 workers are placed, so check whether the farm you work on is a corporation and how many people it employs.

There is an asymmetry here that surprises people. The parallel small-farm exclusion under employment insurance was deleted with effect from 25 June 2024. A worker on a sub-five-person individual farm therefore has employment insurance but not industrial-accident insurance.

The 2026 rate averages 1.47% — a business-category average of 1.41% plus 0.06% for commuting accidents — held at the 2025 level. There are 28 business-category rates, and the commuting-accident rate is 0.6 per 1,000, uniform across all industries. Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice 2025-91 was issued on 31 December 2025 and took effect on 1 January 2026, running to 31 December 2026. None of it is deducted from you.

Article 36(1) of the Act provides eight benefit types: medical care, temporary disability, permanent disability, nursing, survivors', the injury-disease compensation pension, funeral expenses and vocational rehabilitation. Temporary disability benefit is 70% of the average wage per day, and Article 52 does not pay it where the period unable to work is 3 days or fewer.

Now the part no other insurance shares. In case 94Nu12067, decided on 15 September 1995, the Supreme Court held that the Immigration Act's employment restriction is a regulatory provision aimed at the act of hiring, so the employment contract is not void and the worker was a worker under the Labor Standards Act — and therefore, in the court's words, a person eligible to receive medical care benefit under the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act. The same judgment holds that a labour relationship with a worker lacking work authorisation is suspended and either party may terminate the contract on that ground. It protects accrued labour rights and the accident claim. It does not protect the job. And the workplace still has to be inside the scope of Article 6.

The contrast is what makes that ruling unusual. Article 111 of the National Pension Act Enforcement Decree excludes anyone staying without an extension of their period of stay, and anyone who has not completed alien registration or who has been issued a deportation order. Article 109(2) of the National Health Insurance Act conditions coverage on alien registration or a report of domestic residence, and Article 109(5)1 bars anyone whose stay in Korea is in violation of the law from being either a subscriber or a dependant. Employment insurance requires a listed visa status. Industrial-accident insurance imposes no status condition at all — only the excluded businesses named in the proviso to Article 6.

Employment insurance: mandatory since 2021, and mostly employer-funded

The claim that employment insurance is voluntary for foreign workers is out of date and still widely repeated. Article 10-2(1) of the Employment Insurance Act (고용보험법) states that the Act applies to foreign workers covered by the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers, with the proviso that Chapters 4 and 5 apply only where an application is made under Ministry of Employment and Labor rules. The phase-in by workplace size is complete: 30 employees or more from 1 January 2021, 10 to 29 from 1 January 2022, and under 10 from 1 January 2023.

So the split is: Chapter 3, employment stabilisation and vocational skills development, applies automatically; Chapter 4, unemployment benefit, and Chapter 5, parental leave and maternity leave benefits, apply only on application.

That split decides your payslip. Article 13(4) of the Premium Collection Act puts the employment-stabilisation and skills-development premium entirely on the employer, and Article 13(2) defines the worker's share solely as half the unemployment-benefit rate. That rate is 18 per 1,000, split evenly — 0.9% each side. The employer-only account is 0.25% below 150 employees, 0.45% at 150 or more for a priority-support enterprise, 0.65% from 150 to under 1,000, and 0.85% at 1,000 or more and for national and local-government projects. Those figures are in Article 12 of the Act's Enforcement Decree, in force since 23 December 2025 and unchanged since the increase of 1 July 2022.

One structural fact about the opt-in: Article 2(1) of the Employment Insurance Act Enforcement Rule makes the employer, or the subcontractor, the filing party for a foreign worker's employment-insurance application to the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service (근로복지공단). The employer files it, so in practice the opt-in depends on the employer.

And a second one, before you count on jobseeker's benefit. Article 40 of the Employment Insurance Act requires 180 days or more of insured units within the 18 months before you leave the job, the will and ability to work, a reason for leaving that is not caught by Article 58, and active job-search effort.

National Pension: whether it is deducted depends on your country. The refund does not.

The proviso to Article 126(1) of the National Pension Act (국민연금법) is the gate: where the foreigner's home-country law does not apply an equivalent pension to Korean nationals, the Act does not apply to them. Nothing is deducted, because nothing is owed.

The National Pension Service publishes the country-by-country position in its survey of foreign pension systems, updated 19 March 2026 and covering 136 countries. E-9 workers are workplace-based subscribers, so the workplace column is the one that applies. Among the countries where the EPS-TOPIK is currently held, coverage is automatic for the Philippines, China, Uzbekistan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Laos and Kyrgyzstan. It is excluded for Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Timor-Leste. Two transition dates on the same table are worth knowing because older articles get them wrong: Vietnam from 1 January 2022, Cambodia from 29 March 2023. Tajikistan does not appear on the table at all.

Now the correction that matters more than any of it. For an E-9 worker, nationality does not decide the refund. The National Pension Service lists three independent qualifying routes for the lump-sum refund (반환일시금): the home country's law pays an equivalent benefit; a social security agreement covering the refund exists; or the person was enrolled while holding E-8 (training employment), E-9 (non-professional employment) or H-2 (working visit) status. That third route is Article 126(4)2 of the Act, and it works regardless of reciprocity or any agreement. E-8 seasonal work, created on 24 December 2019, is excluded from it.

So nationality decides only whether you were enrolled at all. Anyone who tells a Nepali or Burmese worker that they cannot claim their pension refund has it backwards: they were never charged for it.

The agreement route exists, for completeness. As of May 2026 there are 24 social security agreement countries: Germany, the United States, Canada (including Quebec), the Czech Republic, Hungary, Australia, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Austria, India, Türkiye, Switzerland, Brazil, Peru, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Croatia, Uruguay, the Philippines and Argentina. The Philippines is the only current EPS sending country on it, and for an E-9 holder the route is redundant — the visa already qualifies. A separate 26-country list of countries recognised as offering an equivalent benefit is a different thing: Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Cambodia appear there, not on the agreement list.

The claim itself: since 29 August 2007 the refund is paid only once departure is confirmed, but it may be filed up to 1 month before departure on proof of a booked flight. The claim period is 5 years from the date the entitlement arises. Claimants abroad may claim by proxy or by post.

What you get is your own contributions plus interest at the 3-year fixed-deposit rate, applied from the month after each contribution month to the month the entitlement arises. The 2026 rate is 2.2%.

Collecting the pension refund at Incheon airport

The lump-sum refund can be paid in cash at Incheon airport on the day you fly, and it is a three-step process rather than one desk.

The conditions are strict. You must be departing within 1 month. Your employer must have filed the loss-of-subscriber-status report that ends your workplace enrolment by the day before departure; without it airport payment is impossible. The departure day must not be a Saturday, a Sunday, a public holiday, or the last business day of December. Scheduled departure must be between 10:30 and 24:00 on a weekday at Terminal 1, or between 11:00 and 24:00 at Terminal 2. Payment is made in 16 foreign currencies, not in Korean won.

Ask your employer to confirm in writing that the report has been filed, before your last day.

The four EPS insurances, and which two you pay

The employer funds departure guarantee insurance (출국만기보험) under Article 13(1) of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers, and wage-arrears guarantee insurance (임금체불 보증보험) under Article 23(1). You fund return cost insurance (귀국비용보험) under Article 15(1) and casualty insurance (상해보험) under Article 23(2).

One naming trap is worth clearing up, because it changes what you can claim. The fourth item is wage-arrears guarantee insurance, taken out for you by your employer. It is not the nationwide substitute-payment fund under the Wage Claim Guarantee Act (임금채권보장법), which is a different scheme with a similar-sounding name.

Departure guarantee insurance is not your severance — it is a floor under it

This is the most damaging misunderstanding in this whole area, and it is worth reading twice.

Departure guarantee insurance is how the employer funds your severance, not what your severance is. Article 13(2) of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers provides that enrolling is deemed to have established a retirement benefit scheme under Article 8(1) of the Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act (근로자퇴직급여 보장법). The employer pays 8.3% of the monthly ordinary wage, or more, and Article 5(4) of the Enforcement Rule defines that ordinary wage as the figure written on your Employment Permit (고용허가서). The 8.3% comes from Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice 2011-33, in force since 1 August 2011 and never amended. Workplaces with 4 or fewer workers have paid the full 8.3% since 2013.

Article 21(1) of the Enforcement Decree sets two conditions for enrolment, and both must hold: the workplace is within the scope of Article 3 of the Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act, and the worker has 1 year or more of permitted employment period remaining. The deadline is 15 days from the date the contract takes effect.

Here is the rule to memorise — Article 21(3) of the Enforcement Decree. Where the employment relationship ends or your visa status changes, and the insurance lump sum is less than the statutory severance pay (퇴직금), the employer must pay you the difference. The trigger is the end of the employment relationship or a change of status. It is not departure.

A gap between the two is systematic, not exceptional. Statutory severance is 30 days' average wage or more for each year of continuous service, under Article 8(1) of the Employee Retirement Benefit Security Act. The insurance accrues 8.3% of the ordinary wage on the Employment Permit. Average wage absorbs overtime, night and holiday premiums and bonuses that the ordinary wage excludes, under Article 2(1)6 of the Labor Standards Act (근로기준법). If you have been doing heavy overtime, expect the lump sum to fall short.

You do not have to take anyone's word for the figure. Article 21(4) of the Enforcement Decree gives both the employer and the worker the right to ask the insurer to confirm the lump-sum amount, and the insurer must confirm it in writing — electronic documents included — without delay. The EPS states that the request needs no prescribed form: a phone call or an official letter is enough.

Our opinion: ask for that written confirmation before you sign anything at the end of your contract. The insurer's written figure is what tells you whether a difference is owed.

Two warnings. First, under one year of service the money is not yours. The proviso to Article 21(2)2 of the Enforcement Decree provides that where the insured person's period of service is less than one year, the lump sum belongs to the employer — and under a year there is no statutory severance entitlement either. Second, the lump sum is paid within 14 days from the date you leave Korea, or, where you apply after the departure date or on a change of status or death, within 14 days from the date you apply. It can therefore be claimed from abroad.

Both departure insurances prescribe 3 years from the date the payment event arose: Article 13(4) of the Act, applied to return cost insurance by Article 15(3). The money does not disappear. The financial institution must transfer it to HRD Korea within 1 month, where a dormant-insurance committee administers it under Article 21-2 of the Enforcement Decree.

Claiming both departure insurances

The gateway document is the report of intended departure (출국예정신고), which can be filed from 1 month before your scheduled departure — 6 months where a replacement worker is being requested. You need the report form, a copy of the air ticket, your passport and your alien registration card, and you file it at an Employment Center (고용센터), by fax, or online at www.eps.go.kr.

The insurance claim itself runs from 1 month before to at least 7 days before the scheduled departure date, through the Samsung Fire & Marine foreign workers' insurance call centre on 02-2261-8400, or by fax.

Where the money reaches you differs by insurance. Departure guarantee insurance is collected at the airport on the day of departure, or paid to a bank account after departure. Return cost insurance is collected at the airport on the day, or paid to a bank account before or after departure.

On return cost insurance timing, two rules govern and you should know both. The EPS states that once the Employment Center has issued the confirmation of intended departure and the insurer has received it, the insurer verifies the payment ground and pays into the worker's own account before the scheduled departure date; a worker still in Korea cannot claim through a proxy. Article 22(1)3 of the Enforcement Decree requires the insurer to confirm the departure with the Korea Immigration Service before paying. Finish the claim by the 7-day deadline rather than counting on the money arriving before the flight.

Return cost insurance: you pay it, and the amount depends on your country

Enrolment is within 3 months of the date the contract takes effect, and it can be paid as a lump sum or in up to 3 instalments, under Article 15(1) of the Act and Article 22(1) of the Enforcement Decree.

The amounts come from Ministry of Labor Notice 2004-28, in force since 17 August 2004 and never amended. Because that notice names only seven countries, every other sending country falls to the ₩500,000 residual, which the notice states in terms.

There are three claim triggers in Article 22(2) of the Enforcement Decree: departing at the end of your stay period; departing before it expires for personal reasons, with temporary exits excluded; and a worker who had absconded from the workplace departing voluntarily, or being forcibly deported.

The EPS publishes a payout schedule, which is not set by law: under 1 year from the first payment you receive the principal; 1 year or more returns 101.5% of principal; 2 years or more 102%; 3 years or more 103.5%; and 4 years or more 106%.

Wage-arrears guarantee insurance and casualty insurance: what they cover, and what they do not

Wage-arrears guarantee insurance guarantees ₩4,000,000 per insured worker. That figure is Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice 2021-15, issued and in force on 1 February 2021, doubled from ₩2,000,000 and applying to contracts effective on or after that date. Article 27(1) of the Enforcement Decree puts it on businesses to which the Wage Claim Guarantee Act does not apply, or businesses with fewer than 300 regular employees. Enrolment is within 15 days of the date the contract takes effect, and construction employers hiring only H-2 workers are excluded.

To claim: report the arrears to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, obtain the confirmation of unpaid wages and employer (체불 임금등·사업주 확인서), and claim from Seoul Guarantee Insurance.

There is a trap in the fallback that could cost you the claim. The substitute payment (대지급금) fallback is Article 7 of the Wage Claim Guarantee Act for a worker who has left, or Article 7-2 for a worker still employed — and only where that Act applies to the workplace at all. But Article 27(1)1 of the Enforcement Decree makes the guarantee insurance mandatory precisely where the Wage Claim Guarantee Act does not apply. For those workers the ₩4,000,000 is the ceiling, with no substitute payment behind it.

Casualty insurance is the one you pay for and the one most often misunderstood. It covers only non-occupational death and permanent after-effects of injury. Easylaw states that ordinary injury outpatient and inpatient treatment costs are not compensated, and that a worker compensated under industrial-accident insurance cannot additionally claim on it. It is not medical cover and it does not stack with industrial-accident insurance. Enrolment is within 15 days of the date the contract takes effect, under Article 23(2) of the Act and Article 28(2) of the Enforcement Decree. The EPS publishes a single illustrative cost — ₩9,100 per year for a 30-year-old man — and the premium varies by age and sex. If you depart within the insurance period the remaining premium is refunded.

The penalties for not enrolling do not all fall on the employer

Article 30 of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers carries a criminal fine of up to ₩5,000,000. Subparagraph 1 reaches an employer who fails to enrol in departure guarantee insurance. Subparagraph 2 is written as "a person" — anyone — who fails to enrol in the guarantee insurance or the casualty insurance, and for casualty insurance that reaches the worker.

Article 32(1) carries an administrative fine of up to ₩5,000,000: subparagraph 5 for an employer 3 or more months in arrears on departure guarantee insurance premiums, and subparagraph 6 for a worker who fails to enrol in return cost insurance. The EPS publishes the actual tariff for that last one as ₩800,000 for a first offence, ₩1,600,000 for a second and ₩3,200,000 for a third.

Health insurance dependants: usually not applicable, and here is why

An E-9 holder normally has no dependants in Korea to enrol, because E-9 is not on the list of statuses eligible for an accompanying-family (F-3) visa. That list runs D-1, D-2, D-4, D-5, D-6, D-7, D-8, D-9, E-1, E-2, E-3, E-4, E-5, E-6, E-7 — and stops. H-2 is likewise absent from HiKorea's rendering of it.

If a family member is in Korea on an independent basis, Article 109(4) of the National Health Insurance Act applies — amended 2 January 2024, in force 2 January 2026. It sets a relationship test, the dependant recognition criteria, and a test of how long and why the person has been resident in Korea, with a proviso that none of it applies to the spouse of a workplace subscriber or to children under 19, including a spouse's children. The residence-duration figure is delegated to Ministry of Health and Welfare rules.

And one hard bar sits above all of it: Article 109(5)1 excludes anyone whose stay in Korea is in violation of the law from being either a subscriber or a dependant.