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Can you sit on a board there?
Pick a market. You get the residency test, the nationality test, the work-authorisation position, the appointment steps in order, and the frictions that actually delay appointments — each cited to the instrument that creates it.
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Open to foreign directorsKR
The Commercial Act imposes no nationality or residency test on a director. Language and board custom are the real barriers, and at the largest globally exposed issuers both are easing.
- Residency test
- None.
- Nationality test
- None.
- Work authorisation
- A non-resident outside director attending board meetings does not require a work visa. Executive and interim operating roles require a D-7 or D-8 visa depending on the structure.
- Board language
- Board papers are usually in Korean; interpretation is provided at large globally exposed issuers but is not universal.
- Tenure limit once appointed
- Six years at one listed company, or nine years counting service at affiliates in the same group — a hard limit set by the Enforcement Decree, and the shortest cap of any market on this Exchange.
- Time commitment
- Typically 8–12 board meetings a year plus committees; audit committees at large companies meet considerably more often than the Asian average.
- What a seat pays
- KRW 50m – 90m a year for an outside director of a large listed company, with the largest financial and industrial groups at the upper end.
- Tax on your fees
- Directors' fees are Korean-source income with withholding for non-residents, subject to treaty relief.
The appointment steps, in order
- 1Election by the general meeting — outside directors are elected individually, and at large companies at least one audit committee member is elected separately
- 2Registration of the appointment in the commercial registry
- 3Provide the certified identity documentation required of a non-resident director for registry filing, which for a foreign national requires notarisation and apostille
- 4For a financial institution, the appointment is subject to the qualification requirements supervised by the Financial Supervisory Service
What actually gets in the way
- The separate election of an audit committee member restricts the largest shareholder's voting power for that seat, which makes those appointments genuinely contested
- Board papers are usually in Korean; interpretation is provided at large globally exposed issuers but is not universal
- The six-year cap is short, so a Korean seat is a shorter-horizon commitment than most
- Apostilled documentation for registry filing is the most common cause of delay for a foreign appointee
The instruments behind these answers
- Commercial Act — Listed companies must appoint outside directors constituting at least one quarter of the board. Companies with total assets of two trillion won or more must have at least three outside directors constituting a majority of the board. (Ministry of Justice)
- Commercial Act — audit committee and nomination committee — Large listed companies must establish an audit committee of at least three members, at least two-thirds of whom are outside directors and which is chaired by an outside director, and an outside director nomination committee. (Ministry of Justice)
- Enforcement Decree of the Commercial Act — Limits an outside director to six years' service at one listed company, and to nine years including service at affiliates within the same group. (Ministry of Justice)
- Capital Markets Act art. 165-20 — A listed company with total assets of two trillion won or more may not compose its board of directors of a single gender. (Financial Services Commission)
- Corporate Value-up Programme — The government and Korea Exchange initiative asking listed companies to disclose plans for improving capital efficiency and shareholder returns, supported by a dedicated index and disclosure guidelines. The Korean counterpart to the Tokyo Stock Exchange's cost-of-capital request. (Financial Services Commission and Korea Exchange)
Reviewed against primary sources in September 2026. This is governance decision-support, not legal or tax advice. Rules change and transitional provisions frequently apply — verify against the primary instrument before you rely on it.
Eligibility is only the first question
Being allowed to sit on a board there is not the same as being read for one.
The mobility index answers the second question: whether your record is legible to a board in that market, whether you hold what it is currently short of, and whether you can do the job in the language its board works in.