Korean institutions under restricted visa issuance
Twenty institutions cannot reliably obtain student visas for the people they admit. Being accepted by one of them does not mean you will be able to come. The list is published once a year by the Korean government, in Korean, as an appendix to a press release, and almost nowhere else.
For one year from the second semester of 2026, student visas for these institutions are refused in principle (비자 발급 원칙적 금지).
Sixteen institutions are designated for their degree programmes and four for their language programmes. The two are different: see the note below the second table.
What this designation is
Every year the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice jointly assess how well institutions recruit and look after international students. The assessment weighs things like the share of an institution's students who fall out of visa status, tuition burden, and whether language ability is actually checked at admission.
Institutions that pass are certified. Institutions that fall far enough short are designated 비자정밀 심사대학, and the Ministry of Justice then refuses student visas for them as a matter of course. The institution can still admit you. It is the visa that will not come.
For the 2025 assessment, 181 institutions were certified for their degree programmes and 123 for their language programmes. The 20 below are the other end of the same exercise.
Degree programmes (16)
| Institution | Type |
|---|---|
| Geumgang University 금강대학교 | Four-year university |
| Suwon Catholic University 수원가톨릭대학교 | Four-year university |
| Joongang Sangha University* 중앙승가대학교 | Four-year university |
| Hyupsung University* 협성대학교 | Four-year university |
| Busan Kyungsang College* 부산경상대학교 | Junior college |
| Busan Arts College* 부산예술대학교 | Junior college |
| Hanyeong College* 한영대학교 | Junior college |
| 구세군사관대학원대학교 No English name published | Graduate school |
| 국제법률경영대학원대학교 No English name published | Graduate school |
| 능인대학원대학교 No English name published | Graduate school |
| 성서침례대학원대학교 No English name published | Graduate school |
| Soonbokeum Graduate University* 순복음대학원대학교 | Graduate school |
| 에스라성경대학원대학교 No English name published | Graduate school |
| 치유상담대학원대학교 No English name published | Graduate school |
| Korea Counseling Graduate University* 한국상담대학원대학교 | Graduate school |
| Hapdong Theological Seminary* 합동신학대학원대학교 | Graduate school |
Language programmes (4)
| Institution | Type |
|---|---|
| Daegu Haany University 대구한의대학교 | Four-year university |
| Sangji University 상지대학교 | Four-year university |
| Howon University* 호원대학교 | Four-year university |
| Mokpo Science University* 목포과학대학교 | Junior college |
These four are designated for their language programmes only. It is a narrower finding than the table above, and it matters because the language track is where fee-charging recruitment concentrates. One of them, 목포과학대학교, is certified for its degree programmes in the same announcement while being restricted for its language programme. An institution is not a single verdict.
About the names
The Korean name on every row is copied exactly from the announcement, and it is the string to match against the PDF if you want to check us. English names are shown where we could establish one. A name marked with an asterisk is widely used in English but we could not confirm it on the institution's own site, and a few of the smaller graduate schools publish nothing in English at all, so those rows carry the Korean name only.
We did not invent romanisations for the rest, because Korean institution names collide easily and the consequence here is not a tidier table. 수원가톨릭대학교 (Suwon Catholic University) is not 수원대학교 (University of Suwon), and 목포과학대학교 (Mokpo Science University) is not 목포대학교 (Mokpo National University). In both cases the other institution is a separate, unrestricted one that a loose English rendering would have accused of something serious.
If you know an institution's own English name and we have it wrong or missing, tell us. We will fix it and log the change on the corrections page.
What to do if your institution is on this list
Ask the institution's international office directly, in writing, whether it is currently under 비자정밀 심사 and what that means for your intake. A straight answer is a good sign. Ask before you pay any deposit, and before you pay an agent.
If someone is recruiting you to one of these institutions and has not told you this, that is worth weighing on its own. The designation has been public since February 2026.
Institutions can be removed from the list. The designation runs for one year, and institutions that want to improve can take consulting from the National Research Foundation of Korea. Check the current year's announcement rather than relying on this page alone.
Absence from this list does not mean an institution is fine
The announcement publishes the names of certified institutions and of restricted ones. It deliberately does not publish two other groups: institutions that are simply not certified, and institutions placed under enhanced screening (컨설팅대학), of which there were 13 for degree programmes. Its own words are 일반대학과 컨설팅대학은 명단 비공개, the lists are not disclosed.
So an institution missing from this page may be certified, may be uncertified, or may be under enhanced screening without that being public. This page tells you about twenty institutions. It cannot tell you that any other institution is safe.
The source
Everything above is transcribed from Appendix 4 of the joint Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Education press release dated 2026-02-12. We host a copy because Korean ministry announcement links are reorganised roughly annually, and a dead citation is no citation.
Our methodology page explains how we check this, and corrections are logged on the corrections page. If we have a name wrong, tell us and we will fix it and say so.