Refugee applicants approved for Korean universities are being demanded to prove their financial capability with “no identity verification”.

In 2023, G, a freshman at a Korean university who passed the non-Korean examination, faced difficulties in completing his application. Alongside the application form, he had to provide a financial deposit certificate of 30 million won ($26,430). G had trouble obtaining the money since he received refugee status from the government due to his family’s economic activities, as well as having the qualification to apply for permanent residency. Experts argue that it is unfair to demand proof of financial capabilities from refugees who already have stable residency qualifications.

Among the 14 universities with a large number of foreign prospective students, five universities, including Korean University, Kyunghee University, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul National University, and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, require “proof of financial capabilities” from refugee applicants applying under the non-Korean admission process.

Refugee applicants are required to provide a certificate showing they possess more than $20,000 USD (about 26.43 million won) in the name of themselves or their parents. Although some universities considered the refugee status and accepted substitute documents such as real estate registration certificates or lease deposit documents, several still require bank statements showing balances in the tens of millions of won. According to Go Amugae, who assisted in preparing for the university admissions of refugee applicants last year, “refugees face significant difficulties right from the beginning when preparing their applications.”

These universities’ requirement to provide deposit certificates is in line with the Ministry of Justice’s “Guidelines for Issuing and Managing Visas for Foreign Students”; the ministry demands that financial requirement details should be shown for issuing student visas to foreign students (D-2 visas), to prevent them from becoming unregistered residents in Korea due to their inability to cover tuition fees and living costs. However, refugees are already issued F-2 visas, which grant them virtually permanent residency status. An F-2 visa is issued to foreigners who stay in Korea for a long-term period with the intention of obtaining permanent residency, fundamentally differentiated from a student visa with a limited period of stay. Due to the absence of unregistered residency possibilities and the grant of permanent residency, there is no reason to require financial proof of capabilities from refugees. As a result, universities such as Konkuk University, Seoul National University, Sungkyunkwan University, and Yonsei University now only require financial proof from foreign students who need a student visa.

Kim Sagan, a refugee specialist and research fellow at the Research Institute for Migration and Human Rights, states that F-2 visas issued to refugees are a “stable residency qualification certifying that foreign students can graduate from university, work, and acquire alien registration before obtaining permanent residency.” She went on to argue that “it makes no sense to demand proof of financial capabilities when refugees who attended middle and high school in Korea enter university without any sudden change in residence status and without any reason to apply for a student visa. The authorities need to create complementary guidelines”.

It has been argued that refugees should be considered as receiving a standard level of social security benefits that are equivalent to Korean citizens under the Refugee Act. Kim added that although it is an extreme example, “if a refugee on basic livelihood assistance deposits tens of millions of won in the bank to apply for university entrance exams, there could be cases where the family’s livelihood is threatened if rejected during assessment.”

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