How to Open a Store in Korea as a Foreigner — The Step-by-Step 2026 Process
Most applicants start by thinking of F&B
The industry most applicants first consider when pursuing Business Immigration to Korea is mainstream F&B — Korean, Chinese, or Korean street-food (bunsik) restaurants. It is familiar, they often have prior experience at home, and the market is large. As of the end of 2025, Korea had roughly 180,000 F&B franchise stores, accounting for about 48% of the entire franchise sector. Korean food and coffee are among the fastest-growing segments, and Vietnamese pho has gone mainstream, with several brands now operating nationwide store networks.
In practice, however, many applicants change direction as the pre-consultation and main consultation proceed. The reasons are usually similar: Korean-language ability and prior residency in Korea.
Prior residency experience drives industry selection
The single most important factor we use in advising Business Immigration clients on their project is not the size of their capital or their nationality. It is whether they have lived in Korea before. That one condition changes the direction of industry selection significantly.
For applicants without prior residency in Korea, we first recommend industries with limited service interaction. Unmanned businesses and distribution businesses such as convenience stores fit this profile. Starting an F&B business without prior residency in Korea tends to create difficulties not in opening the store but in operating it afterward.
For former international students or applicants with prior residency experience, the situation is different. Those who attended school in Korea or previously held E-7 or D-10 status are already familiar not only with the Korean language but also with local practices and business culture. Such applicants can realistically manage industries with high customer interaction. Home-country cuisine restaurants, cafés, general F&B — they can choose the direction they prefer. The D-9-5 visa is designed for this profile; Episode 2 covered the D-9-5 structure and the path of changing status while already residing in Korea.
Low-interaction industries as an alternative
Industries with limited service interaction fall broadly into two categories: unmanned businesses and distribution businesses.
Unmanned businesses operate through kiosks, CCTV, and automated systems. Examples include unmanned ice cream discount stores, self-service photo studios, unmanned cafés, unmanned meal-kit shops, and unmanned ramen shops. The owner visits the store once or twice a day to restock, clean, and check the CCTV. Staff hiring is generally unnecessary, and direct customer conversation is rare. This is the option with the lowest Korean-language burden and also the smallest initial investment among the three choices. However, market saturation is advancing rapidly, so location analysis is decisive.
Among distribution businesses, convenience stores occupy a distinctive position. They do involve face-to-face customer service, but that interaction is highly standardized. Payment, tobacco sales, parcel pickup, utility bill payment, and most other tasks follow manuals built into the POS system, while the headquarters provides continuous operational support through supervisors. Even with elementary or intermediate Korean, the POS system and manuals make operation feasible — and there are in fact already foreign-owned stores in operation. Four headquarters — GS25, CU, 7-Eleven, and Emart24 — hold 97.2% of the Korean convenience store market, each with a different revenue-sharing model.
Industry decisions, illustrated through examples
Take, for example, an applicant with home-country restaurant experience and 300 million KRW ready, but no prior residency in Korea and only elementary Korean. In this case, we would first examine opening two unmanned stores in sequence. Running two stores together naturally satisfies the 300 million KRW investment threshold for D-9-4, and allows the applicant to settle in without a language burden. The home-country restaurant experience is not immediately utilized, but becomes the foundation for a later transition into another industry once the applicant is settled.
Conversely, consider an applicant who completed studies in Korea and then worked at a Korean company for two to three years. Their Korean is at intermediate or higher level, and they are familiar with Korean commercial practices — so they can start directly in high-interaction industries such as a home-country cuisine specialty restaurant or a café. In this case, D-9-5 rather than D-9-4 may apply (see Episode 2). D-9-5 has a lower barrier to entry than D-9-4: a 100 million KRW investment requirement for holders of a Korean master's degree or higher, or a bachelor's degree plus 30+ OASIS points.
and we will outline the feasible pathways and budget range for you.
Pre-consultation and main consultation
The pre-consultation is free of charge. Through our consultation thread, we confirm the five conditions above and provide a preliminary outline of which paths are feasible for Business Immigration to Korea and whether the budget and timeline are realistic. This stage is also when the client evaluates our way of working, and when we come to understand the client's circumstances.
The main consultation is a paid engagement. Once the client decides to proceed after the pre-consultation, the main consultation follows. It covers concrete franchise candidate selection, budget structuring, and risk analysis. If the client decides to engage us after the main consultation, the consultation fee is credited against the retainer.
Procedures in the onboarding stage
Once engagement is decided, four work streams proceed in parallel or in sequence.
Project design
Based on what was decided in the main consultation, we extract the smallest-unit tasks from pre-preparation through settlement, build the process schedule and fast-track, and establish a risk management plan.
Operations design
We build the project timeline, assign owners to each task, and select collaborating vendors.
Due-diligence visit coordination
This is the stage where the client travels to Korea in person to meet the franchise headquarters, visit candidate locations, and have in-person meetings with our law firm and collaborating vendors. Entry is on a C-3 (Short-term Visit) visa, typically for a 3-night-4-day or 7-night-8-day itinerary, accompanied by an interpreter-coordinator.
Final review meeting
After the due-diligence visit, the client and our team jointly decide between proceed, redesign, or discontinue. It matters that all three options remain open at this early stage of onboarding. Depending on what was discovered, part of the project can be redesigned, or the engagement can be discontinued if proceeding is judged inappropriate. This is the last decision point before moving into the settlement stage.
Procedures in the settlement stage
Once the decision is to proceed, the settlement stage begins. The tasks performed in this stage are as follows.
Investment remittance and foreign investment declaration
This is the central procedure underpinning D-9-4 visa issuance. A foreign investment declaration is filed with a foreign exchange bank, and the investment is remitted from the client's own overseas account to a virtual account in the client's own name at the Korean foreign exchange bank, with the purpose of remittance specified as "investment in a business in Korea." The foreign exchange bank issues a certificate of declaration, which later serves as the documentary basis for investment capital at the visa application stage.
Franchise agreement and commercial lease
The two contracts must be linked on mutually conditional terms. The headquarters may reject a specific location during franchise review, or conversely, no leasable property matching the headquarters' required site conditions may become available. The two contracts are therefore negotiated in parallel, with only the final signing timing being coordinated. Our law firm reviews the draft contracts and negotiates with the headquarters and the landlord on provisions disadvantageous to the client. The rider clauses in the commercial lease and the renewal and termination clauses in the franchise agreement are points that must be verified.
Business registration and industry-specific licensing
These are administrative procedures handled domestically in Korea. Business registration is filed with the competent tax office, and sole-proprietor registration under a foreign national's name is permitted. Licensing varies by industry. General F&B requires a food service business filing and completion of mandatory food hygiene training; convenience stores additionally require a tobacco retailer designation and a liquor sales license beyond the food service filing. Afterward, a business account is opened in the sole-proprietor's name, and upon transferring the investment funds in foreign currency into that account, the Foreign-Invested Company Registration Certificate is issued.
Visa acquisition
This proceeds only after the procedures above are substantially complete. Because D-9-4 has no inviter within Korea, unlike the corporate investment visa (D-8), the application goes through direct application at a Korean diplomatic mission abroad, rather than through the Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance (CCVI) route. Through a domestic agent in Korea, the investment remittance and business registration are completed; the client then applies for the D-9-4 visa directly at the competent Korean diplomatic mission in their home country. Review periods vary by country and typically take 2 to 6 weeks. Once the visa is issued, the client enters Korea and completes alien registration at the competent Immigration Office within 90 days of arrival.
Accompanying family invitation
This proceeds after the principal applicant's status of stay is confirmed. Spouses and minor children can be invited on F-3 status. The principal applicant files for an F-3 Certificate for Confirmation of Visa Issuance (CCVI) within Korea, then conveys the issued number to family members abroad, who apply for an F-3 visa at their local Korean diplomatic mission. Since employment is restricted on F-3 status, a separate change of status should be considered if a spouse wishes to work in Korea.
Opening preparation
This proceeds in parallel with the procedures above. The franchise headquarters orders the interior construction, supplies fixtures, equipment, and initial inventory, and installs the POS and management systems. For unmanned businesses, the installation of kiosks, CCTV, and remote-control systems is added. Store-owner training varies by headquarters in duration, and where interpretation is needed, our team supports either in-person accompaniment or advance translation of training materials.
Procedures in ongoing support
Once the settlement stage is complete and the business is up and running, the legal and administrative matters that arise thereafter fall within the ongoing support area. This includes residential lease renewals, dispute resolution with the franchise headquarters, review of employment contracts when hiring additional staff, D-9 period-of-stay extension applications, and advisory on transitioning to a long-term residency status. The detailed structure of this area is covered in Episode 4.
Frequently asked questions
Common mistakes
Allocating all investment funds to business capital
For Business Immigration, extension proceeds smoothly only after at least one year of operating performance has accumulated post-investment. Pouring all investment funds into franchise fees and interior construction — without securing initial operating cash and living expenses — creates a cash-flow crisis in the early months of operation. How to split the 300 million KRW between business capital and operating reserves is one of the core design questions of the onboarding stage.
Selecting a headquarters based on the brochure alone
The Franchise Disclosure Document is a public filing registered with the Korea Fair Trade Commission, and differs fundamentally from promotional brochures. Financial condition, closure rate, and any legal violations by the headquarters' executives must be verified via the disclosure document. In unmanned businesses especially — where headquarters proliferate — careful review of the headquarters' operating history and financial condition in the disclosure document is essential.
Signing the commercial lease before the franchise agreement
If the commercial lease is signed first but the franchise review is not passed, the security deposit and contract penalties become a problem. The two contracts should be negotiated in parallel, with mutually conditional linkage.
Starting home-country document preparation at the settlement stage
The home-country criminal background check certificate, academic credential certificates, and family relationship certificates take several weeks to issue, and must additionally go through apostille authentication. Starting preparation early in the onboarding stage prevents delays at the settlement stage.
Starting extension preparation only when the deadline is near
D-9 period-of-stay extensions can be filed starting four months before expiration. If revenue records, tax payment records, and business operation records are organized routinely, there is no need to scramble when the extension deadline approaches.
Five stages, one team
The process described above is organized into five stages: pre-consultation, main consultation, onboarding, settlement, and ongoing support. These five stages matter because the decisions at each stage are the premises of the next. If industry direction is set incorrectly at pre-consultation, the path advised at the main consultation is misaligned; if the onboarding-stage project design does not match reality, contract signing and visa acquisition in the settlement stage are delayed.
Lawyeon Visa & Immigration Center brings together experienced attorneys from Law Firm Lawyeon, interpreter-coordinators, and startup immigration specialists to support Business Immigration for foreign nationals residing abroad. Initial consultations are free of charge, and applicants can submit inquiries directly from their home country through our consultation thread.