If you have moved to Korea recently or are planning to, this is the short list of websites and apps that actually do the work. Most foreign residents in Korea, regardless of how long they have been here, rely on roughly the same core stack of about a dozen sites for daily life. The other forty are situational: useful for one specific thing, then forgotten.
This page is grouped by what you need to do, not by which company runs the site. Each entry is short and honest, including what to watch out for. The goal is a single page you can bookmark on day one and still be using on day five hundred.
A note on Korean-language sites: about a third of the entries below have Korean-only interfaces. We include them anyway when they are clearly the best option for that need, because leaving out Korean-only sites makes this kind of list useless. Where there is a real English-language alternative we say so.
For the open-source, GitHub-native version of this resource list, see Awesome Living in Korea. It links to the GitHub repo and the language-specific README files.
Visa, immigration, and government
The official portals are not pretty, but they are the only authoritative source for visa rules, ARC procedures, and tax filings. Bookmark them. Avoid relying on third-party blogs (including this one) for filing decisions on visas.
HiKorea (hikorea.go.kr) is the Ministry of Justice's foreigner portal. Reserve in-person immigration appointments here. Walk-ins are no longer accepted at most offices. The English UI is functional but dated. Bookmark the appointment-booking page directly because the homepage is hard to navigate.
Korea Visa Portal (visa.go.kr) handles applications and tracking for most Korean visa classes (A, C, D, E, F, and H). The system is slow and occasionally crashes during peak hours. Save your draft frequently.
EPS Korea (eps.go.kr) is the Employment Permit System portal for E-9 visa workers. Country-specific test schedules, employer-matching results, contract templates. The single official source of truth for the E-9 process.
1345 Immigration Contact Center (call 1345) is the multilingual phone helpline run by the Korea Immigration Service. Twenty languages including English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian, and Mongolian. Use it before going to an immigration office; it saves hours.
Seoul Global Center (global.seoul.go.kr) offers free legal, tax, and immigration consulting plus Korean classes. If you live in Seoul, this is the most useful single resource the city offers foreign residents. Most other major cities have an equivalent (Busan Global Center, Incheon Global Center, Gyeonggi Global Center).
Government 24 (gov.kr) is the government's universal service portal. Apply for residence certificates, ARC reissues, and other official documents online. English UI is partial; some forms still require a Korean co-applicant or a translator.
NTS English (nts.go.kr) is the Korean tax authority's English portal. File year-end tax settlement (연말정산), check withholdings, request your Income Tax Certificate.
NHIS English (nhis.or.kr) is the National Health Insurance Service (국민건강보험). Check your premium, get a foreign-language insurance card, find affiliated hospitals. The premium calculator is hidden under "Health Insurance > Insurance Premium" and worth bookmarking directly.
Liveinkorea / Danuri (liveinkorea.kr) is the Multicultural Family Support portal run by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. Designed for marriage migrants and their families, but the Korean-language and culture programs are open to many residents.
Jobs and careers
Two parallel ecosystems exist: foreigner-targeted boards (smaller, easier, English-friendly) and the major Korean boards (much larger, Korean-only, more professional roles). Use both.
Seoulstart Jobs (seoulstart.com/jobs) is our own filtered Korea job board. Disclosure: this is us. We list it first because the surface is built around what foreign residents need to decide before clicking apply: is the JD in English or bilingual, is the role visa-sponsorship-friendly, what is the actual day-to-day. Every listing shows the visa-tier match and the language requirement upfront, with structured summaries pulled from each posting's job description. For a fuller comparison, see our best job sites in Korea guide.
KOWORK and Seoulstart Jobs are the foreigner-focused job boards to start with. (KLiK, JobKorea's foreigner board, shut down on June 8, 2026; its former members were directed to JobKorea and Albamon.) For a full comparison of boards, see our best job sites in Korea guide.
KOWORK (kowork.kr) is a visa-friendly job platform with resume templates and visa-tier filters. Strong on E-7 and F-2 sponsorship roles. English-Korean bilingual interface.
Saramin (saramin.co.kr) is the largest Korean job board. Korean-only interface, but far more listings than any foreigner-targeted site. Worth learning if your Korean is intermediate or you have a good translator browser extension.
JobKorea (jobkorea.co.kr) is the other major Korean job board. Same caveat as Saramin: Korean-only but worth the effort once your reading is functional.
Wanted (wanted.co.kr) is the default platform for Korean tech and startup hiring. Many listings show salary bands openly, which is unusual in Korea. Foreign-resident-friendly tech employers concentrate here.
LinkedIn is the best path for international companies and English-first roles. Several multinationals operating in Korea, including Coupang, NVIDIA Korea, and AWS Korea, recruit actively here.
Albamon (alba.co.kr) covers part-time and hourly work. Korean-only. Common starting point for international students with D-2 or D-4 part-time work permits.
Work24 (work24.go.kr) is the Korean government's unified employment portal, the rebranded WorkNet as of September 23, 2024. It consolidated nine government employment services, including the old WorkNet, Employment Insurance, HRD-Net, National Employment Support, and foreign-worker employment management (which absorbed parts of the EPS workflow). Use it for public-sector listings, unemployment benefits, and government-funded training. The English UI is partial.
Housing and apartments
Korean rental sites have far larger inventories than English-only alternatives, even before language is a factor. The major Korean apps are worth learning to use.
Zigbang (zigbang.com) is the largest Korean rental app. Many listings include 3D walkthroughs. Korean-only UI, but listing photos and KRW figures are universal. Filter by deposit (보증금) and monthly rent (월세).
Dabang (dabangapp.com) is the second-largest rental app. Stronger on jeonse (전세) listings than Zigbang, slightly weaker on monthly rent.
Naver Real Estate (land.naver.com) has the largest pool of listings overall, including older apartment complexes that smaller apps miss. Korean-only.
Stay Korea (staykorea.org) lists goshiwon, hasuk-jib, and shared housing without large key-money deposits. Useful for short-term stays under one year.
Craigslist Seoul (seoul.craigslist.org) is where many foreign residents post sublets and shared apartments when leaving Korea. Heavily date-sorted; older posts are often dead.
Facebook housing groups. Search for "Seoul Apartments and Housing for Foreigners," "Seoul Housing Sublets," and the equivalents for Busan and Incheon. Active daily for short-term and roommate situations. Tighter community moderation than Craigslist.
Onepick Real Estate is a foreigner-facing agency based in Songdo, Incheon, the planned international district. Higher fees than going directly to Zigbang or Dabang, but they handle contract translation and key-money negotiation.
Daily-life essentials
These are the apps you will install in your first week and use every day.
Naver Map (map.naver.com) is Korea's default mapping app. More accurate than Google Maps for walking, public transit, and small businesses. The English version is partial; many place names appear only in Korean.
KakaoMap (map.kakao.com) is the alternative to Naver Map. Some prefer it for indoor navigation in malls and subway stations.
KakaoTalk is the default messaging app in Korea. You will not be able to coordinate with delivery drivers, landlords, or most service workers without it. Free to download and use.
Kakao T is for hailing taxis and ride-shares. English UI. The default choice for most foreign residents.
Naver Papago (papago.naver.com) is a translation tool more accurate than Google Translate for Korean, particularly for context-heavy phrases and slang.
Coupang (coupang.com) is Korea's largest e-commerce platform. Same-day or next-morning delivery on most household items. Korean-only checkout, and a Korean-issued card is usually required.
Gmarket Global (global.gmarket.co.kr) is the English-language e-commerce alternative. Slower than Coupang, but accepts foreign credit cards and ships internationally.
Olive Young (oliveyoung.co.kr) is the Korean cosmetics and skincare chain. Both online and physical stores; in-store is often easier for foreign residents.
Coupang Eats (coupangeats.com) is now the leading English-friendly food-delivery app. Full English UI, English menus, and English checkout make it the easiest starting point for foreign residents. Baemin (baemin.com) is the largest app overall but is Korean-only and requires a Korean phone number to register. Yogiyo (yogiyo.co.kr) is a third option, with limited English support.
Daangn / Karrot (daangn.com) is Korea's dominant neighborhood second-hand marketplace, used by tens of millions of people. Most foreign residents use it to furnish a new apartment cheaply on arrival, and it doubles as a board for local meetups and part-time gigs. Korean-only, but the listings are mostly photos and prices.
Subway Korea route apps (also bundled into Naver Map and KakaoMap) are reliable. Seoul Metro, the merged operator since the 2017 combination of Seoul Metro and Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit, publishes live disruption notices.
Money, banking, remittance
A Korean bank account is required for rent, utilities, salary, and most direct-debit subscriptions. Opening one requires an ARC.
Toss (toss.im) is the dominant Korean banking super-app. Send money domestically, split bills, manage cards. Korean-only interface, but the UX is famously good.
Hana Bank (formerly KEB Hana Bank; the name reverted to Hana Bank in 2019) is the most foreigner-friendly traditional Korean bank. English mobile banking and English-speaking staff at major branches. Kookmin (KB), Woori, and Shinhan are also viable; Hana has the best English coverage.
Wise is the most reliable platform for sending money out of Korea. Transparent rates, faster than international bank wires for most corridors.
Hanpass (hanpass.com) is a Korean remittance app with strong corridors to the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. Competitive with banks on rates and faster than wires for most Southeast Asia corridors.
WireBarley (wirebarley.com) is another Korean remittance app. Similar to Hanpass with different country coverage; worth comparing rates per corridor.
Healthcare and insurance
For routine care, neighborhood clinics are inexpensive and fast under NHIS. For complex care or English-language coordination, the major hospital international clinics are the standard pick.
Severance International Health Care Center at Yonsei University Hospital. Bilingual coordinators, online appointments, multilingual interpreters on-site.
Asan Medical Center International Clinic is a top-tier hospital with a dedicated international clinic. Common pick for major procedures.
Samsung Medical Center International Health Service completes the "big three" Seoul hospitals with an international wing.
HIRA Bogun (hira.or.kr) is the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. Look up hospital fees, check whether a procedure is covered by NHIS, find affiliated providers.
Community and connection
Most of the practical "how do I do X in Korea" answers floating around the internet originate in one of these channels. Lurk first, then ask.
r/Living_in_Korea is an active English-language subreddit for practical foreign-resident questions. Banking, visas, deposits, housing, healthcare. Search before posting.
r/korea covers broader discussions, Korean culture, and news. More visitors than residents in the comment section.
r/Seoul and r/CareerKorea are smaller but useful for city-specific and work-related questions.
Facebook: Every Expat in Korea is the largest verified general group, with tens of thousands of members. General help, buy/sell, housing, events, discussion. Active daily.
120 Dasan Call Center (call 120) is the Seoul city helpline. It handles Seoul-resident issues in five languages (English, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Mongolian), Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00. The third leg of the helpline triad alongside 1345 (immigration) and 1577-1366 (Danuri).
InterNations Seoul runs monthly professional networking events. Skews older and more corporate.
Meetup Seoul is the most reliable channel for finding hobby-based friends: hiking, language exchange, board games, sports leagues.
Bilateral chambers of commerce in Seoul, AMCHAM Korea, KGCCI, BCCK, FKCCI, AustCham, and others, sell non-member tickets to most events at a slightly higher price than members pay. Mixed-nationality crowds. Good entry point for professional networking even if you do not have a passport from the country in the name.
Country and national clubs like Royal Asiatic Society Korea (RASKB), ANZA Korea, the Irish Association of Korea, and the American Women's Club of Korea explicitly welcome members of any nationality. Cultural and social events rather than business networking.
See the full directory of chambers and national clubs in the Foreign-community guide or the Communities directory.
News, guides, and what's happening in Korea
For staying informed: a mix of major English newspapers and resident-facing publications.
Seoulstart (seoulstart.com) is plain-language guides on visas, housing, money, healthcare, plus a weekly brief on what's happening in Korea worth knowing about. Available in English, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian, and Chinese. (Disclosure: this is us.)
The Korea Herald (koreaherald.com) is the largest English-language Korean newspaper. Daily news, business, culture.
The Korea Times (koreatimes.co.kr) is one of the major English-language Korean dailies. Strong opinion section, more accessible than the Herald.
Korea JoongAng Daily (koreajoongangdaily.joins.com) is JoongAng Ilbo's English edition. Often syndicates from the New York Times for international coverage.
10 Magazine (10mag.com) is a lifestyle and events publication. Where foreign residents look for things to do on a given weekend.
Expat Guide Korea (expatguidekorea.com) is a long-running directory of English-speaking services: vets, dentists, hair salons, lawyers. Useful complement to this list.
How to use this list
If you have just landed: bookmark HiKorea, Naver Map, KakaoTalk, Kakao T, Papago, Gmarket Global, and either Toss or Hana Bank. That is your minimum stack for the first month.
If you have been here a while: skim the Jobs, Money, and Healthcare sections. The remittance corridors and the international hospital clinics are the entries most often missed by foreign residents who arrived before 2023.
If you are researching from outside Korea: the visa, immigration, and government section is the only one that matters until you have an ARC. Most other services require a Korean phone number and a Korean-issued payment card to function fully.
This list is reviewed and updated quarterly. If a site has shut down, changed scope, or you think we are missing one that actually deserves a spot, let us know.
A GitHub-native version of this list is maintained at Awesome Living in Korea, with the same entries organized for quick reference and open to community pull requests. The repo is also available in Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Russian, and Chinese.