Seoul says US must fix its visa system if it wants Korea’s investments

Lawmakers from South Korea’s progressive Jinbo Party deliver a letter of protest to the US Embassy in Seoul on Sept. 9, 2025, demanding an apology for the detainment of Korean workers in Georgia and measures to prevent a similar situation from occurring again. (courtesy of the Jinbo Party)

The Korean government has decided to begin discussions with the US government on measures to improve the visa system for Koreans in the US and to prevent the recurrence of workplace immigration raids after the arrest and detention of Korean citizens at a battery plant in Georgia. 

Calls for systemic improvements have emerged within political circles and beyond, alongside demands for an official apology from US President Donald Trump and the US government.

“We conveyed the public’s outrage over this incident to the US verbatim,” Kim Yong-beom, the policy chief for the presidential office, said at a Korea Broadcasting Journalists Club forum held on Tuesday at the Korea Broadcaster Center in Seoul

Kim said that officials expressed “serious concern and regret in the strongest diplomatic terms,” while the minister of trade, industry and energy issued a protest that “went beyond diplomatic language.”

Addressing concerns about the slow pace of improvements to the US visa system for Koreans, Kim explained, “The Korean government and businesses alike have been aggressively pushing for an E-4 visa [a visa quota for skilled Korean workers] for over a decade. But due to anti-immigration sentiment, the number of lawmakers proposing this measure has decreased, compared to 10 years ago.”

“We must turn this crisis into an opportunity to fix the system,” Kim emphasized. “South Korea is the US’ top investor as a nation. The US seeks more investments from us, but we cannot proceed if these issues aren’t resolved.”

President Lee Jae Myung also expressed disappointment over the US authorities’ actions during his opening remarks at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, citing the need to maintain “mutual trust and the spirit of alliance.”

“I hope that no unfair infringements on the activities of our people and businesses will ever happen again,” he said, emphasizing that such activities “contribute to the shared development of both Korea and the United States.” The president also urged for “active negotiation efforts based on mutual trust and the spirit of alliance to achieve tangible results.”

Outside the US Embassy in Seoul on Sept. 9, 2025, migrant rights groups in Korea protest the ICE raid that resulted in hundreds of Koreans being arrested in the US. (Yonhap)

Kim Young-bae, a Democratic Party lawmaker and vice chairperson of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, suggested that the recent fiasco may have a silver lining. 

“Until now, the US was not in the position of requesting investment from us. But now, we hold the power as investors, and the US must respond to our demands,” he said. 

“It is now time for the US Congress and government to change their attitude. Our demands for legislation that guarantees quotas for Korean professionals, such as the Partner with Korea Act, are legitimate,” he stressed.

Four lawmakers from the progressive minor Jinbo Party, including floor leader Yoon Jong-oh, visited the US Embassy in Seoul’s Jongno District on Tuesday afternoon. They met with Joseph Yun, the US chargé d’affaires in Korea, and delivered a letter demanding an official apology from the US government. 

In the letter, they stated, “Treating Korean workers as felons, shackling them in chains and detaining them, is a clear violation of human rights and an insult to the entire Korean people.”

By Kim Chae-woon, staff reporter; Shin Hyeong-cheol, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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