Getting your National Pension contributions back when you leave Korea

Right now

1. 1Check your payslip for a National Pension deduction. If money left under that line, you are enrolled, and a balance has been building for you to claim on your way out.
2. 2Put your passport and your alien registration card side by side. What decides whether you can claim is your nationality and your status of stay, not your salary or how long you worked.
3. 3If your departure date is set, keep the plane ticket. A document showing you are leaving within a month lets you file the claim before you go.

What to have ready

• Passport: It shows your nationality, and nationality is the first thing that decides whether you can claim.
• Alien registration card: It carries your status of stay. Training Employment (E-8), Non-professional Employment (E-9) and Working Visit (H-2) qualify regardless of nationality.
• Plane ticket: It shows you are leaving within a month. With it, your claim can be filed before you depart.
• A copy of your bank account details: Korean or overseas, hand one in. Submit it even if you have arranged to collect the money at the airport.
• Details of a proxy in Korea: If you have already left, a proxy can visit a branch for you, or you can claim by post yourself.

Phrases you can copy and paste

Step by step

1. 1

   First confirm that you were enrolled

   The National Pension Service states that foreign nationals residing in Korea must enrol on the same terms as Korean nationals. A foreign national aged 18 or over and under 60 who works at a covered workplace becomes a workplace subscriber, and anyone else becomes an individually insured person. If you were employed, contributions came out of your pay, so your payslip settles it immediately. Exemptions are defined too. Trainees, students and diplomats are among those the law excludes from mandatory enrolment, and training employment is not part of that exclusion. Nationals of countries whose own pension systems do not require Korean nationals to enrol are also outside the scheme, as are workers sent from a country with a social security agreement who have submitted their home country's certificate of coverage.

2. 2

   Eligibility splits three ways

   Articles 126 and 127 of the National Pension Act set out when a foreign subscriber receives a lump-sum refund. First, where the law of that person's home country gives Korean nationals a benefit equivalent to Korea's lump-sum refund. The Service calls this reciprocity recognition. Second, where Korea and that country have concluded a social security agreement covering lump-sum refunds. Third, where the person enrolled under Training Employment (E-8), Non-professional Employment (E-9) or Working Visit (H-2) as listed in Annex 1 of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act. That third route ignores nationality. The Service notes that subscribers from countries covered by neither an agreement nor reciprocity were not paid a refund on returning home, but that these three statuses have been paid since May 11, 2007.

3. 3

   Two statuses share the label E-8 and only one qualifies

   The same letter and number do not mean the same status. The Service states plainly that seasonal work E-8, a status created on December 24, 2019, is not eligible for the lump-sum refund. The E-8 that qualifies is training employment. Do not judge by the code printed on your alien registration card alone, check the name of the status as well. If it is unclear, calling the National Pension customer centre and reading out your status is the fastest way to settle it. The number is 1355 with no area code.

4. 4

   The part that turns on nationality is published as a list

   Where:

   National Pension Service lump-sum refund page

   The Service publishes the countries whose nationals can receive a refund in two groups, those covered by a social security agreement and those covered by reciprocity recognition. As of May 2026 there are 24 agreement countries and 26 reciprocity countries. The reciprocity group is divided again by minimum enrolment period: one country at six months or more, eight countries at one year or more, and 17 countries recognised regardless of how long you were enrolled. The countries are named outright, so you can check for your own by eye. If your country is absent and your status is none of the three, the refund is not available to you. Where your country is an agreement country, there is sometimes a route to combine enrolment periods in both countries and receive a pension later instead, so once you find your country on the list, ask at a branch which provision applies.

5. 5

   What comes back is your own contributions plus interest

   The Service states that a foreign national's lump-sum refund, like a Korean national's, is the pension contributions the person paid during the enrolment period plus interest at the rate set by Presidential Decree. The rate used is the interest rate on three-year fixed deposits. It is applied from the month after the month in which each contribution was paid through to the month containing the day enrolled status was lost, whether by reaching 60, death, emigration or loss of nationality, and the amounts are summed. The rate is set each year on January 1 by averaging the rates applied by banks operating nationwide. The 2026 three-year fixed deposit rate the Service records is 2.2 percent. The employer's share is not part of this. What comes back is what you paid.

6. 6

   The money moves only once your departure is confirmed

   Where the claim is made on the grounds of returning to your home country, the refund has been paid only once departure is confirmed since August 29, 2007. The filing itself can happen earlier. Submit a document proving you are due to leave within one month, such as a plane ticket, and the claim can be accepted before you go. In other words, it is better to file in advance than to be gathering papers while you pack on the day.

7. 7

   Claim at any branch, or by proxy or post if you have already left

   Where:

   Any National Pension Service branch

   Cost:

   No fee

   A lump-sum refund can be claimed at any National Pension Service branch in the country. Neither where you lived nor where you worked determines jurisdiction. As a rule the person entitled to the benefit files it, but if you are abroad and cannot visit a branch there are two ways round it. Appoint a proxy in Korea to attend a branch, or claim by post yourself from abroad. Even if you only learned about the scheme after leaving Korea, you are not too late so long as five years have not passed. The National Pension customer centre can walk you through the filing method in detail.

8. 8

   Collecting it in foreign currency at Incheon Airport

   Where:

   National Pension counter at Incheon Airport and Woori Bank exchange desks

   A foreign national departing for home through Incheon Airport can receive the money in cash at the airport on the day. You apply for this at the same time as you file the claim. Several conditions have to line up in advance. If your workplace has not reported your departure from the job by the day before you fly, airport payment is not available. It is also unavailable if your departure day is a Saturday, a Sunday, a public holiday or the last business day of December. The scheduled departure time matters as well: it must fall between 10:30 and midnight on a weekday at Terminal 1, or between 11:00 and midnight on a weekday at Terminal 2. Payment comes in one of 16 currencies including the dollar, euro, yen and yuan, and never in won. Submit a Korean or overseas account as well, in case airport payment falls through or an additional amount comes up.

9. 9

   On the day, the airport route has four stops

   How long:

   From a branch visit within a month of departure to the duty-free area on the day

   First, within one month of your departure date, go to a National Pension branch or counselling centre, file the refund claim and apply for airport payment at the same time. Bring your passport, your alien registration card, a plane ticket showing departure within one month, and a copy of an additional account. You leave with the refund claim receipt. Second, on the day you fly, go to the National Pension counter at Incheon Airport. It sits in booths 7 to 8, between exits 1 and 2 on the first floor of Terminal 1, and opens from 09:00 to 18:00. Hand over your passport and the receipt and you receive the payment decision notice and the payment order. Third, before immigration, go to the Woori Bank exchange desk inside the terminal. At Terminal 1 that is the airport financial centre on basement level 1 for amounts of 10,000 dollars or more, and the exchange desk in front of counter H on the third floor for less. At Terminal 2 it is the branch on basement level 1 for 10,000 dollars or more, and the exchange desk in front of counter A on the third floor for less. Hand in the payment order and take the exchange receipt. Fourth, after immigration, collect the foreign currency at the exchange desk inside the duty-free area. At Terminal 1 it is near boarding gate 11 and at Terminal 2 near boarding gate 250, both open from 09:00 to 21:00. Hand in your passport and the exchange receipt.

The Korean words

국민연금gungmin yeon-geum, the national public pension

This is the name that appears on your payslip too.

반환일시금banhwan ilsigeum, contributions paid back in one payment, with interest

It is settled as a single sum rather than drawn as a pension.

수급권sugeupgwon, the right to receive a benefit

The five years are counted from the day this right arises.

소멸시효somyeol sihyo, a right lapsing once its time limit passes

For the lump-sum refund it is five years.

사회보장협정sahoe bojang hyeopjeong, a treaty two countries sign to settle pension questions

Which countries have one is published as a list by the Service.

상응성 인정sang-eungseong injeong, paying because the other country gives Korean nationals the same benefit

Some countries carry a minimum enrolment period with it.

체류자격cheryu jagyeok, status of stay, the visa category

Your alien registration card carries both the code and the name.

사업장가입자saeopjang gaipja, someone enrolled through an employer

The departure report has to clear before airport payment works.

공항지급gonghang jigeup, collecting the money in foreign currency at the airport on departure day

It only opens if you apply for it when you file the claim.

Easy to miss

• ·Reading E-8 off the alien registration card and assuming you qualify. Training employment E-8 does, but seasonal work E-8, created on December 24, 2019, does not.
• ·Putting it off on the assumption you can apply after you leave. A plane ticket lets you file before departure, and collecting at Incheon Airport means one branch visit within a month of flying.
• ·Assuming the company has filed your departure from the job. If that report has not cleared by the day before you fly, airport payment is blocked.
• ·Thinking you do not need an account because you are collecting at the airport. Submit one anyway, for the cases where airport payment falls through or an extra amount comes up.
• ·Booking a weekend or holiday departure and expecting to collect at the airport. The airport does not pay out on those days.
• ·Expecting won to exchange yourself. Airport payment goes out in foreign currency only.
• ·Looking into it after five years have passed. Once the limitation period is over you cannot take it as a lump sum.
• ·Counting the employer's share into the total. What comes back is your own contributions plus interest.

You can skip this if

• If you are a student, a trainee, a diplomat or otherwise excluded from mandatory enrolment by law, you were never a subscriber, so there are no contributions to return. Training employment is not part of that exclusion.
• Workers sent from a country with a social security agreement who submitted their home country's certificate of coverage are not enrolled in Korea.
• If your country is neither an agreement country nor a reciprocity country and your status is not training employment, non-professional employment or working visit, the lump-sum refund is not for you.
• If you are staying in Korea rather than leaving, the returning-home ground this guide covers does not apply.
• The rules here were checked on September 18, 2026, and the country lists are the ones the Service dates to May 2026. Lists change, so look again on the Service's page before you file.

Where this comes from

• Pension benefits for foreign nationals, lump-sum refund, National Pension Service
• National Pension enrollment for foreign nationals, National Pension Service
• Frequently asked questions on enrollment and benefits for foreign nationals, National Pension Service
• National Pension Act, Korean Law Information Center
• Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act, Annex 1 on statuses of stay, Korean Law Information Center