🇩🇪 Germany vs 🇰🇷 South Korea: Digital Nomad Visa Compared

Germany has no visa officially called a "digital nomad visa". South Korea offers Digital Nomad (Workation) Visa - F-1-D. Every figure below comes from each country's own sourced, dated fiche - compare income, duration, tax, family rules, fees and processing time before you decide. Germany's initial visa period runs longer than South Korea's: 24 months versus 12.

🇩🇪 Germany🇰🇷 South Korea

Minimum income

TBD

Germany has no digital nomad visa and the Freelance permit has NO fixed income minimum - you must show financial viability. IMPORTANT: it requires German/EU clients (economic integration); it is NOT open to people working full-time for a foreign employer. Not a pure remote-employee route.

105,000,000 KRW / year

Per the 2026-07-07 Ministry of Justice announcement (visa relaunched as permanent 2026-06-30, replacing the pilot's flat 2x-GNI rule with this tiered formula). The rule is denominated in WON, not dollars: it keys off the Bank of Korea's published prior-year per-capita GNI (KRW 52.41 million for 2025), so 2x = ~KRW 105 million and the relaxed tier = ~KRW 52.4 million. This resolves the USD 65,800-vs-73,926 split tracked here since 2026-07-29: both were conversions of the SAME KRW 105 million rule at different exchange rates (~1,596 and ~1,420 KRW/USD respectively), not competing thresholds - which is why neither could ever be sourced to a distinct official figure. Publishing the won amount removes that FX artifact; any dollar equivalent drifts with the rate (the site's own FX table, used only by the eligibility shortlister, was itself found stale during this same pass and refreshed - see lib/matcher.ts). RE-CHECKED 2026-08-03/05: Korea Herald's post-launch visa Q&A independently corroborates a third tier - ages 18-34 intending to live in Greater Seoul need 1.5x GNI (~KRW 78.6 million) - and notes holders who relocate into Greater Seoul after approval must meet the higher threshold at renewal or move back out within 6 months. Not marked 'official' - hikorea.go.kr, immigration.go.kr and mofa.go.kr all still 403 on direct fetch, so no primary Korean-government page has been read. The full official multiplier table for other intermediate age/region combinations remains unpublished anywhere found - treat the three tiers above as the load-bearing ones, not a complete table.

source · verified 2026-08-06

Visa duration

24 months, renewable

Issued 1-3 years (typically 2 for first-timers), renewable; permanent settlement possible after 5 years with B1 German and pension contributions.

source · verified 2026-07-08

12 months, renewable

1-year initial grant, renewable annually, extended from a 2-year to a 3-year total cap per a 2026-07-07 Ministry of Justice announcement - corroborated across 5+ independent secondary sources (incl. a EY Global tax alert and an immigration law firm), not yet read on an official Korean government page directly (hikorea.go.kr/immigration.go.kr/mofa.go.kr all 403 on direct fetch).

source · verified 2026-07-25

Tax regime

Living in Germany more than 183 days generally makes you a German tax resident, taxed on worldwide income. Freelancers register with the Finanzamt and receive a Steuernummer.

source · verified 2026-07-08

Remote income earned for a non-Korean employer or client - the only kind the F-1-D visa permits - is not taxed by Korea for the common case (physical presence under 183 days/year). Employees who do qualify as tax resident can elect an optional 19% flat tax rate instead of Korea's progressive brackets; freelancers and sole proprietors are not eligible for that flat rate.

Multiple independent tax-focused outlets (Greenback Tax Services, Bright!Tax, krinsider, Nomad Tax Guide) converge on Korea not taxing foreign-sourced remote income while the visa's own ban on Korean employers holds. Several of the same sources flag that guidance on the >183-day resident-status threshold is still evolving/unsettled - noted here rather than presented as resolved. Not marked 'official': hikorea.go.kr/immigration.go.kr/mofa.go.kr still unreachable on direct fetch, so this is search-result-synthesized secondary reporting, not a primary Korean-government page read.

source · verified 2026-08-16

Family (spouse / children)

Spouse + children admitted

source · verified 2026-07-08

Spouse + children admitted

Independent secondary coverage (Y-Axis, Bright!Tax, VisasUpdate, SharedHomies, Trenity Consultants) consistently reports that a spouse and minor children may accompany the primary F-1-D applicant as dependents, that only the primary applicant must meet the income threshold (dependents are not separately income-tested), that dependents cannot work in Korea, and that each dependent needs their own private health insurance. No source reports a distinct per-dependent income uplift for this program, so upliftPerDependent is left unset rather than guessed. Not marked 'official' - hikorea.go.kr/immigration.go.kr/mofa.go.kr still unreachable on direct fetch.

source · verified 2026-08-16

Application fees

100 EUR

Residence-permit fee reported around EUR 100; confirm with the local Auslanderbehorde.

source · verified 2026-07-08

90 USD

USD 90 for the initial 1-year multiple-entry visa application, plus 60,000 KRW (~USD 41) per annual extension up to the 3-year total cap. Three independent secondary sources converge on this figure (Korea Herald's post-launch visa Q&A, an EY Global tax alert, an Envoy Global news alert), replacing the previously-scattered range (~USD 45-100 depending on nationality/fee type) - a materially more specific and better-corroborated figure than before. Not marked 'official' - hikorea.go.kr/immigration.go.kr/mofa.go.kr still 403 on direct fetch, so no primary Korean-government page has been read; by-nationality fee variance may still apply and is not ruled out. RE-CHECKED 2026-08-19: no comprehensive by-nationality fee table found this pass either - the general pattern (USD 90 default; USD 45 flat reciprocity fee applying to ALL Korean visa categories for US nationals, not F-1-D-specific; CAD 121.50 via the Canada consulate's F-1-D page) is reconfirmed, not contradicted. No material change.

source · verified 2026-08-06

Health insurance

Required - Comprehensive private expat health insurance required; travel or basic 'nomad' insurance is routinely rejected by the Auslanderbehorde.

source · verified 2026-07-08

Required - Private health insurance covering medical treatment AND repatriation, minimum KRW 100,000,000 (~USD 75,000-76,000) coverage, for the full duration of stay.

Graduates out of TBD this pass: the KRW 100,000,000 figure, previously only a search-snippet-level lead, is now traceable to a consulate-level MOFA page (Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Seattle, F-1-D program page) plus 5+ independent secondary guides (Seoulstart, HaniSeoul, krinsider, koreaplus-lifes, americanvisitorinsurance.com) converging on the same figure for medical treatment AND repatriation - several sources warn 'repatriation' must be explicitly named on the policy or the application is rejected. Not marked 'official' - hikorea.go.kr/immigration.go.kr/mofa.go.kr root pages remain 403 on direct fetch, so this rests on a consulate sub-page plus secondary corroboration, not a primary ministry page read.

source · verified 2026-08-19

Processing time

Varies by city; reported 8 weeks to 7 months in 2026 sources (Berlin moved fully online from March 2026)

source · verified 2026-07-12

TBD

Figures marked TBD are not yet verified and are never shown as facts. Last full review: Germany 2026-09-15, South Korea 2026-09-15.