Foreign residents in Korea join health insurance after 6 months' stay

This guide is for foreigners and overseas Koreans living in Korea, and for employers who hire them. Since July 16, 2019, most registered foreigners join the National Health Insurance (국민건강보험) automatically after 6 months in Korea. Unpaid premiums can stop benefits and shorten visa extensions. Rules are current as of October 2026.

Who is covered, and from when

Employees join first. If you work at a workplace covered by health insurance and have done alien registration (외국인등록) or, as an overseas Korean, a domestic residence report (국내거소신고), you are an employee subscriber (직장가입자) from the day you start work (National Health Insurance Act, Article 109(2)). Your employer pays half of the premium.

Everyone else joins as a local subscriber (지역가입자) after 6 months of stay (Article 109(3); Enforcement Rule, Article 61-2). The 6 months count from your first entry, so if you entered on January 1, you join on July 1. Days abroad that total 30 or fewer within the 6 months still count as residence. If you leave once for more than 1 month, the count starts again from your return.

Some groups join on the day they enter Korea: permanent residents (F-5), marriage migrants (F-6), non-professional workers (E-9), and students in qualifying study on D-2 or F-4, or at primary and secondary schools on D-4 or F-4. Foreign students have joined this way since March 1, 2021.

Local enrollment is open to these statuses (Enforcement Rule, Appendix 9): D-1 to D-10, E-1 to E-10, F-1 to F-6, H-1, H-2, and G-1 only for people with a humanitarian stay permit and others the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS, 국민건강보험공단) designates. Diplomatic and official statuses (A-1 to A-3) and short-term visitors are not covered. You also cannot be insured while staying without an extension permit or after a deportation order (Enforcement Decree, Article 76).

Family members of employees: a foreign dependant (피부양자) who entered Korea on or after April 3, 2024 also needs 6 months of residence, except a spouse and children under 19 (Article 109(4)).

Opting out: if you have equivalent cover under a foreign law, a foreign policy bought before you registered, or your employer's contract, you can apply for exclusion (가입 제외). A local subscriber who has paid nothing, or who first paid less than 14 days earlier, and applies within 6 months of joining loses membership from the join date.

How the premium is set

Each foreign local subscriber is a separate household (세대). On application, you can group your spouse (not a de facto partner) and children under 19, including your spouse's children, into one household. Family documents issued abroad need an apostille or confirmation by the issuing country's foreign ministry, plus a notarized Korean translation or one by a certified translation agent (외국어번역행정사).

The premium is calculated like a Korean local subscriber's, from income and property. If the result is below the average premium (평균보험료), you pay the average. NHIS sets the average from November data and applies it from January to December of the next year. The floor does not apply to households headed by an F-5 or F-6 holder. Because the floor applies to each household, grouping the family means it applies once.

Discounts, if household income and property are within NHIS limits:

Paying, and what arrears cost

Foreign local subscribers pay in advance: each month's premium is due by the 25th of the month before (Article 109(8)). The March premium is due by February 25. Korean subscribers pay by the 10th of the following month (Article 78). Arrears (체납) do not end your membership; unpaid premiums keep adding up.

The benefit rule changed on April 23, 2025, after the Constitutional Court ruled on September 26, 2023 that the old rule did not conform to the Constitution. Under the old rule, a single missed payment stopped benefits. Now:

• If a premium due on the 25th is still unpaid by the 25th of the next month, benefits stop from the month after that. The arrears must reach 1 month (Enforcement Decree, Article 76-5).
• Holders of D-8 (except some sub-types), E-1, E-3, E-4, E-5 and F-2 keep benefits while fewer than 3 monthly premiums are unpaid in total (Article 76-6, Appendix 6-2).
• Care received during a restriction still counts if you pay the arrears by the payment deadline of the month in which 2 months have passed since NHIS's notice.

Visa extensions

Immigration officers check tax and health insurance arrears for registered foreigners aged 19 or older. If you pay when you apply, you get a normal extension (usually 2~5 years, depending on status). If you do not, the extension is limited in principle to 6 months or less.

Your card, reports and misuse

NHIS issues a health insurance card (건강보험증) when you join. For most foreign local subscribers, the card shows a validity period once premiums are paid. If details on the card change, apply to NHIS within 30 days. NHIS mail goes to your registered address, so report a move to immigration within 15 days (Immigration Act, Article 36).

Hospitals must check your identity with the card or an ID such as a passport (Article 12). Lending or borrowing a card is banned. Getting benefits by fraud is punishable by up to 2 years in prison or a fine of up to ₩20,000,000 (Article 115(4)). NHIS recovers wrongly paid benefits and pays rewards to people who report fraud (Articles 57 and 104).

Help: NHIS call center 1577-1000; foreign-language lines 033-811-2000 (English, Vietnamese) and 033-811-2001 (Chinese). Employment insurance follows different rules: see Employment insurance for foreign employees in Korea depends on visa status.

Checklist

• Work out the date you reach 6 months in Korea, or check whether you join from entry.
• Pay each month's premium by the 25th of the month before.
• Apply to group your spouse and children under 19 into one household.
• Prepare apostilled family documents with a Korean translation.
• Clear any arrears before you apply for a visa extension.
• Bring your card or ID to hospitals and pharmacies.