Korean D-8-1 Visa With a Korean Co-Founder: How Much Do You Need to Invest?
You have found a Korean co-founder and are ready to launch a startup in Korea.
Your partner will invest KRW 100 million. You will invest another KRW 100 million. The new company will therefore have KRW 200 million in capital, with each founder holding 50%.
Does that automatically mean you qualify for a D-8-1 Corporate Investment visa?
The starting point is straightforward: Korea's foreign-investment rules generally use a minimum foreign investment of KRW 100 million and ownership of at least 10% of voting shares as the standard equity-investment structure. The KRW 100 million threshold is measured per foreign investor when multiple foreigners invest.
But a co-founder should not look only at the company's total capital.
Your own investment, the shares you actually acquire, the voting rights attached to those shares, the foreign-investment procedure, and the separate immigration requirements for D-8-1 all matter.
Start With Your Own Investment, Not the Company's Total Capital
Under the Enforcement Decree of the Foreign Investment Promotion Act, the standard equity route generally requires an investment of at least KRW 100 million and ownership of at least 10% of the company's voting shares or total equity contribution.
If two or more foreigners invest, the KRW 100 million threshold is calculated for each foreign investor.
That distinction is particularly important for co-founders.
Suppose a Korean founder and a foreign founder establish a company with total capital of KRW 200 million.
The Korean founder contributes KRW 100 million and receives 50%. The foreign founder invests KRW 100 million and receives 50% of the voting shares.
Here, the foreign founder's own investment reaches KRW 100 million, and the resulting voting ownership is well above 10%.
This is a straightforward example of the standard equity-investment structure.
A Bigger Company Can Create a Different Result
Now change the numbers.
Suppose the company has KRW 1.2 billion in capital. The Korean founder contributes KRW 1.1 billion, while the foreign founder invests KRW 100 million.
The foreign founder has reached the KRW 100 million investment amount.
But if those shares represent only about 8.3% of the company's voting shares, the founder does not satisfy the standard 10% voting-share structure.
This is why saying “I invested KRW 100 million” is not always enough.
For a co-founded company, check both the amount invested by the foreign founder and the ownership created by that investment.
What About the FIPA Rule for Ownership Below 10%?
There is an important legal nuance.
Korea's Foreign Investment Promotion Act framework also recognizes certain foreign investment where the foreign investor owns less than 10% but has invested at least the statutory minimum and appoints or dispatches an executive with authority to participate in important management decisions.
So it would be inaccurate to say:
“Anything below 10% can never qualify as foreign investment under FIPA.”
But this exception needs to be handled carefully in a D-8-1 article.
Recognition of a transaction as foreign investment under FIPA does not mean that every FIPA investment structure automatically satisfies the requirements for foreign-invested company registration or a particular D-8-1 immigration application.
The rules governing foreign-invested company registration expressly use the KRW 100 million and 10% voting-share criteria in relevant cases.
Therefore, if your proposed ownership is below 10%, do not assume that appointing an executive automatically gives you an alternative route to a D-8-1 visa.
Confirm the exact investment, registration, and immigration structure before transferring the funds.
Voting Rights Matter
The standard equity route specifically refers to voting shares.
That means a foreign founder should not negotiate only a headline percentage such as:
“I own 15% of the company.”
You also need to know what rights are attached to those shares.
Common shares will ordinarily carry voting rights, while preferred or other classes of shares can have different rights depending on the company's articles and the terms of issuance.
Before finalizing the founders' deal, check:
- How many shares will be issued?
- How many will you receive?
- What class of shares will you own?
- Which shares carry voting rights?
- What percentage of the total voting shares will you actually hold?
Do not assume that every type of preferred share is automatically excluded or included. The rights attached to the actual shares matter.
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| Starting a business in Korea involves more than choosing a partner and agreeing on a share percentage. |
A Shareholders' Agreement Does Not Replace the Actual Share Structure
A Shareholders' Agreement, or SHA, can govern board appointments, reserved decisions, transfers, buybacks, founder exits, voting arrangements, and other important matters between co-founders.
But an SHA does not replace the company's actual share issuance, articles of incorporation, shareholder records, foreign-investment filings, or immigration documentation.
This matters when the commercial agreement says one thing while the legal ownership structure says another.
For example, an SHA might repeatedly describe someone as a “co-founder,” but that label does not change the number or voting rights of the shares actually issued to that person.
The safer approach is to design the investment and ownership structure first and then make sure the corporate documents and founders' agreement consistently reflect the real arrangement.
Follow the Foreign-Investment Procedure Before Sending the Money
For the standard establishment of a new Korean corporation through foreign investment, the official process begins with a foreign investment notification.
The notification can generally be filed through KOTRA or a designated foreign exchange bank.
The usual sequence is:
- File the foreign investment notification.
- Bring or remit the investment funds through the appropriate foreign-exchange procedure.
- Complete incorporation registration.
- Complete the necessary business and tax registration.
- Complete foreign-invested company registration.
Foreign-invested company registration is not something to leave indefinitely after incorporation. Under the applicable rules, registration is generally required within 60 days after the relevant investment payment or acquisition event.
The important point is that the investment is not merely a private transfer between two founders.
It is part of a documented foreign-investment process.
Does the Money Have to Come Directly From Your Own Overseas Account?
A transfer that clearly traces the investment funds from the foreign investor is usually the simplest structure.
But the statement “a third-party transfer is automatically rejected” is too broad.
Official InvestKOREA guidance recognizes circumstances in which an agent or another person transfers or carries investment funds on behalf of a foreign investor. Additional documentation may then be needed to establish that the funds belong to the foreign investor and were transferred on that investor's behalf.
The practical lesson is not that every investment must follow one single banking path.
It is that the source, ownership, and movement of the investment funds should be clearly documented.
Do not route the investment through a Korean co-founder's personal account merely for convenience and assume that the resulting paper trail will be treated exactly like a direct investment remittance. If your transfer route is unusual, confirm the documentation requirements before sending the money.
What About Two Foreign Co-Founders?
The per-investor rule becomes especially important when there is more than one foreign founder.
Suppose two foreign founders each want to establish their own qualifying foreign-investment position in the same Korean company.
They cannot simply say:
“Our company received KRW 100 million of foreign investment, so both of us meet the KRW 100 million threshold.”
The statutory investment amount is considered for each foreign investor.
The same discipline applies to ownership.
Check what each founder personally invested and what voting shares each founder actually acquired.
Do You Have to Be a Registered Director?
Do not reduce the answer to another internet shortcut such as:
“A D-8-1 applicant must always be a registered director.”
The foreign-investment rules and immigration requirements need to be distinguished, and the applicant's actual role can matter depending on the structure and the documents submitted.
A passive shareholding, an executive appointment, and an active management role are not interchangeable concepts.
For a co-founder who intends to live in Korea and operate the business under D-8-1 status, the intended management role should therefore be checked together with the investment and immigration structure rather than added later simply as a title on the corporate registry.
Before You Meet an Immigration or Foreign-Investment Professional
For a co-founded startup, prepare the structure before asking whether it works.
Bring a simple capitalization table showing:
- Total corporate capital
- Korean founder's contribution
- Each foreign founder's contribution
- Number and class of shares
- Voting rights attached to each class
- Each founder's voting percentage
- Planned management roles
- Source and route of the foreign investment funds
If drafts already exist, also bring the articles of incorporation and Shareholders' Agreement.
Then the question becomes specific:
“Here is the investment and ownership structure we plan to create. Does it satisfy the current foreign-investment registration requirements and the D-8-1 requirements for this applicant?”
That is much more useful than asking only:
“Is KRW 100 million enough?”
The Key Point
Having a Korean co-founder does not prevent you from using Korea's foreign-investment framework.
But your Korean partner's investment does not substitute for your own qualifying investment.
For the standard equity route, start with two numbers: your own investment amount and your percentage of voting ownership.
Then check the rights attached to the shares, the foreign-investment notification and registration process, the source and path of the investment funds, and the current D-8-1 immigration requirements before finalizing the founders' deal.
A 50/50 startup in which the foreign founder invests KRW 100 million is very different from a KRW 1.2 billion company in which the foreign founder invests the same KRW 100 million but receives only about 8.3% of the voting shares.
For a foreign co-founder, the company's total capital is not the number to look at first.
Start with your own money and your own voting rights.
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