"The cost for finding a proxy (exam taker) and forging identification is 2.2 million won. I'll give you a discount to 2 million won."
When asked if they could take the Employment Permit System-Test of Proficiency in Korean (EPS-TOPIK) on behalf of foreigners wishing to work in Korea, the proxy exam company replied as such.
To gain the E-9 visa status for non-professional employment in Korea, foreigners must first pass the EPS-TOPIK that is administered abroad. When expressing concern about the risk of being caught for proxy exams, the company said, "This has been our business for several years. There's nothing to worry about. Don't worry." They claimed proxy testing is possible in all countries where the EPS-TOPIK is held. The EPS-TOPIK is conducted in Nepal, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Vietnam, and others.
The company presented the expense for the proxy exam as 2.2 million won and asked for a deposit of 500,000 won. Payments should be made via Cultureland mobile gift certificates or through Tether (stablecoin), an asset whose value is linked to a fiat currency. A company representative noted, "If operators are caught, customers can also be investigated through account transaction records, so we conduct transactions through gift certificates for mutual safety."
As the number of foreigners looking to work in Korea increases, illegal companies are thriving that lure foreigners with poor Korean language skills by promising to help them pass the EPS-TOPIK. On online portal sites and social media, promotional posts related to exam misconduct, such as "proxy exams", "forged identification cards", and "foreign identification production", can be easily found.
The EPS-TOPIK is held abroad under the management of local dispatch organizations that have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Human Resources Development Service of Korea (HRD Korea), and the examiners are mostly local nationals by country. The proxy exam companies advertise that they guarantee passing because they bribe the exam supervisors, thus eliminating any risk of being caught. In response, the Human Resources Development Service of Korea stated, "We appoint and utilize local examiners fairly according to internal standards."
The number of foreign exam takers for the EPS-TOPIK dropped to 30,000 in 2021 due to the special circumstances of COVID-19, surged to over 220,000 in 2022, and has increased to around 400,000 in 2023 (around 490,000) and 2024 (around 430,000).
There is a significant difference in the pass scores for the EPS-TOPIK by country. According to data collected by the Human Resources Development Service of Korea regarding the "average scores of EPS-TOPIK passers by country over the last five years", Nepal had the highest average score among the 16 countries dispatched under the employment permit system last year, reaching 191.9 points out of 200. This score is overwhelmingly higher than the lowest average score of East Timor (112.3 points).
Passers are determined in descending order of scores and are included in a job seeker pool made up of three times the number of candidates expected to be selected by country. Korean employers select foreign workers from this pool, which is based on a combination of objective indicators such as Korean language scores and functional exam scores, taking into account preferred nationality, age, and physique.
A representative of a manufacturing company employing foreign workers stated, "I heard that many foreigners buy Korean language test scores to come work in Korea. Cases of being caught and punished are extremely rare."
There are many complaints in domestic industrial fields that the Korean language proficiency of foreign workers is lacking. According to a report by the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises released last April, among 1,177 small and medium enterprises that utilized foreign labor last year, 61.7% cited a lack of Korean language skills as the main reason for not being satisfied with the employment permit system. Even with high EPS-TOPIK scores, effective communication is difficult, making the scores hard to trust.
Entering the country without basic Korean language skills to find a job decreases work efficiency and increases the risk of safety accidents. In a manufacturing company in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, about 90% of factory workers are foreign. Many are from Vietnam, the Philippines, and China, and apart from a few, they generally cannot speak Korean, leading them to communicate only with workers of the same nationality.
The representative of this company said, "Even the Korean administrators have difficulties communicating with foreign workers. The issue is not just productivity; there's a lot of concern that communication barriers may lead to safety accidents."
There are calls within the industry for stricter monitoring of cheating in the EPS-TOPIK exam. If caught taking a proxy exam, the offender faces a four-year ban from testing and may be subject to criminal penalties for obstructing business, but the number of incidents is relatively low.
In 2020, 52 Nepalese who requested proxy EPS-TOPIK exams and six proxy exam takers were caught in Korea. Of the 52, 51 were forcibly deported, and five of the six proxy takers were detained. Many of the requesters were at a level where they could not even read the Korean test questions, yet some scored perfect marks. In the year leading up to their arrest in 2019, the average score for Nepalese EPS-TOPIK passers was 192.6 points, which dropped to 152.5 points in 2023 after the arrests, before rising again to 191.9 points last year.
The Human Resources Development Service of Korea does not disclose statistics on detected cheating. A representative from the service stated, "If the current status of cheating were to be made public, it could undermine the credibility of the organization and the system itself, infringing upon the legitimate interests of the organization."
Regarding the fact that last year's EPS-TOPIK average score for Nepalese examinees was close to perfect, the service remarked, "They did well due to their hard work. Many are risking their lives to do this, and they are very competitive."
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