As more than 300 Korean workers were arrested at the construction site of the Hyundai Motor Group–LG Energy Solution battery plant in Georgia, criticism has emerged that the loose visa issuance practices of Korea's corporations are also a problem. In principle, to be put to work in the United States, business travelers must obtain visas such as E (executives or employees of a treaty investor company), H (temporary workers), or L (intra-company transferees), but corporations have relied on the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) or B (business/tourist) visas for reasons such as expense savings. Some say Korea's corporations should increase E visa issuance like Taiwan and Japan.
According to a compilation of ChosunBiz reporting on the 9th, Korea's corporations have mainly used the B visa to dispatch personnel to the United States. The B visa is divided into the B-1 type for business and the B-2 type for tourism, and among these, the B-1 guarantees a six-month stay limited to business meetings, contracts, and seminar visits in the United States. According to visa issuance data released by the U.S. State Department, the number of B visas issued to Koreans last year was 15,495, accounting for 21% of total issuances (73,167). It is the second-highest level after the F (student) visa, which recorded the highest share at about 22%.
ESTA, which allows entry without a visa, is also seen as a common alternative. ESTA is a document that authorizes temporary visa-free entry to the United States, and Koreans can use it for short-term tourism and business trips of 90 days or less. Like B visa holders, ESTA holders are prohibited from labor or revenue-generating activities in the United States, but product installation or repair and training are exceptionally recognized, and it has been used as an implicit workaround. U.S. attorney Kim Ik-tae said, "In the case of ESTA, processing can be completed within a maximum of 72 hours, making it easy to deploy personnel quickly," and noted, "It is true that dispatching personnel using this has become customary."
Deploying personnel using B visas and ESTA is taking place particularly among small corporations. The H visa is effectively unusable in practice because it is issued by random lottery around March each year, and the L and E visas require a lot of time and expense. Large corporations mainly use the L1 visa, known as the standard intra-company transferee visa, when dispatching personnel. It takes about six months to issue and the expense is around 500,000 to 1 million won per person, but conditions such as the timeline for establishing a legal entity are relatively strict. For small firms, issuance of the E2 visa is recommended instead; while its requirements and expense are lower than the L1, it is still burdensome for companies that frequently dispatch personnel to meet delivery deadlines. It is known that most of the employees arrested in the Georgia plant sweep were affiliated with partner companies or dispatching firms.
However, other countries are legally dispatching personnel by using the E visa. In Japan's case, the number of E visas issued last year was about 17,000, roughly double Korea's (about 6,900). This figure is double the number of L1 visas (about 7,000), showing that Japanese small and midsize enterprises, like large corporations, are dispatching personnel through legal means. Taiwan also recorded about twice as many E visas (about 3,300) as L1 visas (about 1,800). For Korea, the ratio of E visas to L1 visas is effectively 1:1 (about 6,600 vs. a similar number), with virtually no difference.
U.S. attorney Park Jeong-yong said, "In Japan and Taiwan, even if a company is a partner rather than a large corporation, there are many strong small and midsize corporations with strengths in 'materials, parts, and equipment,' and they are actively entering the U.S. market," adding, "By contrast, Korean corporations have a relatively smaller U.S. footprint, and unless personnel are dispatched for the long term, there is a prevailing reluctance to invest time and expense."
Given the scale of Korea's investment in the United States, there is also criticism that the U.S. side should create a separate visa program. Korea's corporations currently have a total of 150 trillion won invested in the United States across various industries, including semiconductors, batteries, and shipbuilding, yet the visa issuance process remains excessively rigid. U.S.-based attorney Wi Ja-hyeon, who works in Georgia, said, "Compared with Toyota in Japan and TSMC in Taiwan, which invested on a large scale, Korea has seen diverse corporations invest across all sectors," and argued, "An E4 visa for Korean professionals should be created so they receive corresponding treatment."
Previously, the Korean government has sought since 2012 to persuade the U.S. administration and Congress to legislate the 'Partner With Korea Act (PWKA)' to create an E4 visa. Over the past 10 years, it has poured $5.5 million (about 7.63 billion won) into lobbying groups to establish the E4 visa, but there has been no significant outcome yet. Attorney Wi urged, "Since the start of Trump's second term, the threshold for visa issuance has risen sharply, and Korean corporations are feeling a sense of crisis," and said, "Prompt government action is needed."