E-9 Job Changes: No-Fault Moves Escape Korea's Three-Move Cap, Not the Re-Entry Test

Ask how many times an E-9 worker in Korea can change jobs and the answer is one number: three. It sits in "제25조 제4항", Article 25(4), of "외국인근로자의 고용 등에 관한 법률", the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers. But the same paragraph ends with a proviso that lifts the no-fault moves, those made on grounds not attributable to the worker, out of the count, and the re-entry rule in Article 18-4 reads that class back in.

The Scene

Two E-9 workers, call them the welder and the packer, start on the same day at a metal-parts plant outside Seoul. Each changes employers twice inside the initial period.

The welder's first move comes when the plant closes. Closure of business is one of the grounds Article 25(1)2 lists as not attributable to the worker. At the second employer, wages arrive late and then stop. The employer's violation of the terms and conditions of employment is on the same list, and the welder moves again under the same subparagraph.

The packer's moves look calmer and count for more. The packer's first contract runs out and the employer declines to renew it on a justifiable ground, which is Article 25(1)1. At the next plant a hand injury leaves the packer unfit for the press line but able to work elsewhere, the situation the Enforcement Decree attaches to Article 25(1)3.

Against the cap in Article 25(4), the welder has used none of three, if the Minister's notice covers both events, because both moves then fall under the proviso that excludes subparagraph 2. The packer has used two of three. Against the re-entry rule at the end of the stay, neither can take the cleanest route, which asks whether the worker “has not transferred to another business or place of business during the work period under Articles 18 and 18-2”. Four moves in all: the cap counts two of them, and the re-entry rule sees every one.

What the Rule Actually Says

The text used here is the official English translation by the Korea Legislation Research Institute, Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers, showing Act No. 21065 of 1 October 2025 as its latest amendment, with the Korea Legislation Research Institute, Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Employment of Foreign Workers as amended by Presidential Decree No. 32844 of 2 August 2022. The addenda to Act No. 21065 defer a list of provisions to 2 January 2026; Articles 18 to 18-4 and 25 are not on it.

Article 25 has four paragraphs, and paragraph (1) has three subparagraphs. A foreign worker, “excluding a foreign worker under Article 12 (1)”, “may file an application for transfer to another business or place of business with the head of an employment security office” when one of three events occurs.

The first sits on the employer's side without being a fault: “If his or her employer intends to terminate the labor contract during the contract period, or intends to refuse renewal of the labor contract after its expiration, on a justifiable ground”.

The second is the one that matters for the count. It applies “Where the Minister of Employment and Labor gives public notice, as he or she deems, under a social norm, that the foreign worker is unable to continue to work in the business or place of business on a ground not attributable to him or her, such as temporary shutdown, closure of business, revocation of employment permission under Article 19 (1), limitation on the employment under Article 20 (1), provision of a dormitory in violation of Article 22-2, or the employer's violation of terms and conditions of employment or unfair treatment”. The list opens with “such as”, so it gives examples, and the category runs through the Minister's public notice, so the working list sits in a ministry instrument.

The third is “Where any other cause or event prescribed by Presidential Decree occurs.” Decree Article 30(1) says this “means where it is deemed that a foreign worker is unfit to continue service in the business or place of business due to his or her own injury, etc., but it is possible for him or her to work for another business or place of business”. Its paragraph (2) was deleted on 14 May 2012, and paragraph (3) has the employment security office send the immigration office a list of those who must leave under Article 25(3).

Paragraph (2) of Article 25 applies Articles 6, 8 and 9 mutatis mutandis when a new employer hires a worker who applied for a transfer. Paragraph (3) sets two clocks. A worker who does not obtain permission for the new workplace within three months from the application, or does not apply within one month after the labor contract expires, must leave Korea, with a proviso: “provided, for a foreign worker who cannot obtain permission for transfer to workplace or file an application for transfer to workplace due to causes, such as an accident on duty, illnesses, pregnancy, or childbirth, such period shall be calculated from the date on which such cause ceases to exist.”

Paragraph (4) is the cap: “Foreign worker's change of business or place of business under paragraph (1) shall not, in principle, exceed three times during the period under Article 18 or two times during the extended period under Article 18-2 (1); provided, the foregoing shall not include cases of change of business or place of business on any ground prescribed in paragraph (1) 2.” The proviso names one subparagraph out of three. Moves under subparagraph 1, a justified termination or refusal to renew, and under subparagraph 3, the worker's own injury, stay inside the count. That proviso is the only exception to the cap written into Article 25.

The periods come from Articles 18 and 18-2. Article 18: “Any foreign worker may engage in employment activities for up to three years from the date of entry into the Republic of Korea.” Article 18-2(1) says “any of the following foreign workers may be granted an extension of the period of employment activities only once within a term of less than two years”; its two subparagraphs cover workers whose employer, under Article 8(4) or under a special-case certificate in Article 12(3), asked for re-employment before the worker left at the end of the three years. Paragraph (2) adds a separate extension of up to one year for infectious disease or natural disaster, and paragraph (3) leaves procedure to a Ministerial Decree.

The re-entry rule is where the excluded moves come back. Article 18-3 bars work under the Act “before the lapse of six months from the date of his or her last departure from the Republic of Korea”. Article 18-4 has four paragraphs. Under paragraph (1), where the employer applies before the worker leaves at the end of the extended period, the Minister of Labor “may permit the re-employment of the foreign worker pursuant to this Act after the lapse of one month from the date of his or her last departure”. The worker must meet each of the three subparagraphs, and subparagraph 1 offers four alternative items.

Item (a) is the clean record quoted in the scene. Item (b) covers a move “due to a reason falling under Article 25 (1) 1 or 3”, limited to where the contract with the applying employer “is at least one year left until the end date of the period of employment activities”, and the worker then “shall satisfy the standards, such as the period of continuous service in the same type of business, which are determined and publicly notified by the Minister of Employment and Labor”. Item (c) covers a subparagraph 2 move, where “the period of his or her labor contract with the employer who applies for employment permission after re-entry shall be at least one year left until the end of the period of employment activities”. Item (d) covers a subparagraph 2 move with less than one year left, where “the head of the employment security office recognizes it appropriate to grant employment permission after re-entry after hearing the opinion of the Councils for Protection of Rights and Interests of Foreign Workers”.

Subparagraph 2 requires work in a business where the Policy Committee finds employing nationals impractical. Subparagraph 3 requires that the worker “should have entered into a labor contract with the employer for more than one year in effect from the date of starting work after he or she re-enters the Republic of Korea.” Paragraph (2) switches off Articles 6, 7(2) and 11 for these applications. Paragraph (3) says “Employment after re-entry under paragraph (1) shall be permitted only once” and applies Articles 18, 18-2 and 25 mutatis mutandis after re-entry. Paragraph (4) leaves the filing procedure to a Ministerial Decree.

The Numbers

The initial period runs up to three years from entry. The extension is granted once for less than two years, so the two periods together stay under five years. Counted moves stop, in principle, at three in the first period and at two in the extension: five across the two periods, with subparagraph 2 moves outside both totals.

The clocks run on a different scale: one month from contract expiry to filing, then three months from filing to permission, counted instead from the end of an accident on duty, illness, pregnancy or childbirth that intervenes. So the Act uses three three times, as years in Article 18, as months in Article 25(3) and as moves in Article 25(4), and only the last is cut down by the subparagraph 2 proviso.

One more figure comes from the employer's side. The Human Resources Development Service of Korea, EPS employer guide to foreign worker employment management tells employers to report an employment change, such as the termination of a labor contract, to the employment center within 15 days of learning of it, and warns that a fine may be imposed for failing to do so. That report puts the employer's account of the change on file, and subparagraphs 1 and 2 lead to different counts.

The re-entry rule adds its own figures: one month abroad instead of six, at least one year left on the last contract for items (b) and (c), and a new contract of more than one year after return. Among the four items, none describes a subparagraph 1 or 3 move with less than one year left: item (b) carries the one-year limit inside its own parenthesis, and items (c) and (d) are written for subparagraph 2 moves.

Run the scene through those figures. The welder's two moves leave the cap at zero of three; at the end of the extension the welder's record fits item (c) if the last contract has a year or more left, and the discretionary item (d) if it has less. The packer's two moves leave one of three, and the packer's record fits item (b) only, with its one-year limit and the ministry's standards.

Where This Doesn't Apply

Workers on the special-case track are outside Article 25(1) by its own parenthesis. Decree Article 19 says the visa in Article 12(1) “means a person who has status of stay 29. Working Visit (H-2) in Appendix 1-2 of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act”. Article 18-3 carries the same exclusion, so neither the cap nor the six-month wait described here is written for an H-2 worker.

Older moves may sit under older text. A transitional article of Act No. 11276 says “The amended provisions of Article 25 (1) shall apply where a reason for transfer to another business or place of business occurs after this Act enters into force.” Act No. 9798 instead applied its new clocks in paragraph (3) to periods still running when it took effect, and Presidential Decree No. 23785 keeps the former Article 30(2) for causes that arose before it took effect. Paragraph (4) was last amended on 28 January 2014, and that amending act's addenda carry no article on Article 25.

The cap's second number is tied to the extension “under Article 18-2 (1)”. How moves inside the separate Article 18-2(2) extension are counted was not checked here.

Money owed when a contract ends runs on separate rules, set out in The Seoul Footnote, severance pay and dismissal notice pay in Korea. This piece reads the employment permit track only.

What Would Invalidate This

• The Minister's public notice listing the subparagraph 2 grounds was not retrieved. The statute's list is introduced by “such as”, and the category runs through that notice; whether it adds events, narrows them or attaches conditions to them was not checked.
• Any further conditions the ministry attaches to workplace changes by notice or guidance, including where a worker may move to, were not checked.
• The standards the Minister notifies under item (b) were not retrieved, so the extra burden on a subparagraph 1 or 3 record is described by its one named example only.
• How a mixed record, holding subparagraph 2 moves alongside a subparagraph 1 or 3 move, is sorted among items (a) to (d), and whether moves made before departure follow a worker past re-entry, were not checked against ministry guidance.
• The Decree translation is dated 2 August 2022, and a later amendment would not show in it. The Korean originals were not reachable from this working environment, so every quotation comes from the official English translations named above. Article 25(4) has faced a constitutional complaint whose record is listed at the National Law Information Center, Constitutional Court decision record on Article 25(4); that page did not load, and its reasoning is not used.

If You Are Actually in This Situation

Start with the record, not the number. The Employment Permit System (EPS) portal, foreign employment management system carries a workplace change application menu and a workplace change history lookup. Next to each move, write its subparagraph: 1 for a justified termination or refusal to renew, 2 for a ground on the Minister's notice, 3 for an injury that rules out that workplace but not work elsewhere. Only the 1s and 3s count toward the three.

Watch the clocks before the count. The one month to file starts when a contract expires; the three months to obtain permission start when the application is filed. If an accident on duty, illness, pregnancy or childbirth interrupts either step, keep the paperwork showing when it began and ended. Ask the employer what the 15-day report said.

If the plan is to come back, think about the last contract early. Items (b) and (c) both need at least one year left on it to the end of the employment period, so a last change should leave a year or more to run. The employer must apply before departure, the business must sit in a sector the Policy Committee has named, and the contract after return must run for more than one year. Then the wait abroad can be one month instead of six.

If the stay is ending for good instead, the lump-sum pension refund is covered in The Seoul Footnote, pension refunds when a foreign worker leaves Korea. Either way, the useful number is not the three on its own. It is the three after the subparagraph 2 moves are taken out, read alongside the re-entry items that put them back in.