Application steps - Belgians

As explained in chapter 1, Belgian citizens:

• Must be 18-30 years old at time of application.
• Can stay in Korea for up to 1 year.
• Can work for up to 6 months during their working holiday and up to 25 hours per week.

There is an annual quota of 200 visas for Belgians.

In this chapter, we will walk through how to apply for the Korea Working Holiday Visa as a Belgian citizen.

1. Fill out the application form

You can download the visa application form (Visa Application Form No. 17) from the KVAC website.

A few special fields on the form to be aware of as a Working Holiday Visa applicant:

• 1.7: For National Identity No., you may put your Numéro de registre national/Rijksregisternummer.
• 2.2: For Status of Stay, put “Working Holiday Visa”.
• 8.1: For Purpose of Visit to Korea, select “Other” and indicate “Working Holiday”.
• 8.4: For Address in Korea, put the address of where you plan to stay upon arriving in Korea. It can be a youth hostel or an Airbnb, for example.
• 8.5: For Contact No. in Korea, put the phone number of your accommodation from 8.4.
• 8.7: For Countries travelled to in the last 5 years, if you travelled to more countries than the number of rows on the form, you can simply attach a printed table (from Excel, for example) to your application.
• 9: For Details of Invitation, unless someone has invited you to Korea on this visa, you should indicate “No”.
• 10.1: For Estimated Travel Costs, indicate how much savings you have. Make sure you meet the minimum requirement.

Once the application is complete, make sure to sign it by hand.

2. Gather supporting documents

In addition to the visa application form, you will also need to gather some supporting documents. The following is what is listed on the website of the Embassy of Korea in Belgium.

Unless you receive instruction otherwise, any document not written in English or Korean should be accompanied by a certified translation into English or Korean.

1. Visa application form
2. Proof of sufficient funds equivalent of 3,000,000 KRW (approx. €2,500)
3. Round trip ticket or proof of capacity to purchase one (we recommend having an additional €1,000 in savings)
4. Medical certificate* issued by a doctor confirming that you do not suffer from any disease or infirmity that may endanger public health order.
5. Legal certificate of good conduct* (criminal record check) issued by the competent authorities.
6. Passport valid for at least 15 months and a copy of the ID page
7. 1 recent photo (colour)
8. Travel plans (detailed information on a monthly basis; see sample)
9. Motivation letter
10. Proof of all-risk insurance for the duration of stay in Korea and covering occupational accidents, health care, hospitalization and repatriation. Coverage of at least 40,000,000 KRW (approx. 30,000 euros). To qualify for exemption from Korean public health insurance, the coverage must be 1,000,000,000 KRW (approx. 700,000 euros) and the medical coverage also needs to be equivalent to Korean health insurance. For more information about the Korean health insurance exemption, please visit the official website of the Working Holiday Visa Info Center.

*Must be apostilled.

3. Submit your application

Once you have completed the application form and gathered your documents, you’ll need to submit your application at the Korean embassy in Brussels.

Address: Chaussée de la Hulpe 173-175, 1170 Brussels.

To do so, you must first make an appointment on the 365 Overseas Korean Portal. Note that you can make an appointment no earlier than one month in advance.

On the day of your appointment, you’ll submit your application file and also pay the application fee (€81).

4. Wait for your visa grant notice

Congratulations, you’ve submitted your application! It can take up to 7 calendar days to process.

You can check the status of your application on the Korea Visa Portal. On the left, click on “Check Application Status”. It might take a couple of days for your application to be registered in the system so don’t panic if you don’t see it right away.

Upon approval, you will receive a “visa grant notice”. This is not your visa, it is simply letter of notification. Your actual visa is digitally tied to the passport that you applied with.

Once your Working Holiday Visa is approved, make sure to read the Departure preparation for your working holiday (the full guide).
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