Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mikejelai]

Now is a pretty good time to change won to dollars. So I go to KEB today to do just that and am told that I can only change the equivalent of $10,000 (USD). No more. And if I want to change more than that I must leave Korea and then come back (ie, can change a max of $10,000 during each "stay" in Korea).

One branch of KEB told me that this is Korean law. Another branch told me that it is not law, but rather KEB bank policy.

Anybody got the skinny on this? Are all banks similar?

[Captain Corea]

Exchanging is one thing, transfering it out of the country quite another.

You can set up an foreign currency account at KEB and exchange all you like.

[Adam Carolla]

[Adam Carolla]

Incidentally, I found that KEB's online banking was a pretty good option for transferring money. They've got an English version of their website, and while it was a bit of a headache to set up, after the first use it was a breeze. Also, you get a really great rate on the exchange, low transfer costs, and the money usually showed up in my foreign account in a few hours. As a bonus, you can access the website and do transfers while overseas.

[Konglishman]

So, if you have more than 50 million Won in your bank account when you are about to leave Korea to back home to live, you cannot transfer all of your saved money to your home country?

[Gnawbert]

[nate1983]

I definitely transferred over $10,000 with KEB during a single "stay" in Korea, so that part's not true.

Interestingly, you can't trade Korean won offshore like you can yen or the euro, but you shouldn't have any problem in Korea unless it is foreigner-specific or bank policy. And you may have to show proof of income/source of money (which is a reasonable anti-money laundering measure). Although if you inherited $2m from your rich Korean uncle I can see the knucklehead clerks insisting "we need proof of income," but trust me that's not the law.

[Adam Carolla]

[Captain Corea]

To transfer large sums... very large sums, you'll often need approval from the Tax Office. They'll want to see records of how your earned it, and if you're Korean, why you're sending it overseas.

[Chokse]

Actually, the $10,000 part is correct, but it is based on conditions. It is there to prevent illegal teachers from sending a lot of money out of the country.

If you walk into the bank without a work visa and try to transfer money, they will let you do it, but they will stamp the last page of your passport, they will write the amount you transferred in a blank space in that stamp, and they will put it on a central computer system linked to your passport number.

You can see the logic behind this. The government is trying to prevent people from teaching on tourist visas and sending lots of money back home.

If you are here on a work visa, then your salary is your only cap (provided you bring a copy of your pay slip each time you send money). You are legally allowed to send 100% of your annual salary back home. You can do it monthly, weekly, yearly... however you like. As long as you have pay slips to prove how much you earned (after taxes and deductions), you are allowed to send that amount over the course of the year. In addition to your annual salary, you may still send the additional $10,000 per year, though this will get marked in your passport.

So, if you earned 25 million won per year, you could legally send all of it home, simply by bringing your pay slip with you when you send the money. You would also be able to send about 10 million won from "other sources" and this will get marked in your passport. So, the person in this example could send about 35 million won per year without any legal issues.

The $50,000 per year limit is for Koreans only or bank accounts only. It is in place to monitor how many people have kids studying overseas. If you are walking into the bank each month and sending money with a pay slip in hand, there is no $50,000 limit. The limit is your salary.

Koreans can send more than $50,000 per year, but they have to fill out forms and explain why they are sending the money.

My wife (Korean) and I have transferred several hundred thousand dollars each (between $350,000 - $500,000 each time), on 3 different occasions, and each time we simply had to fill out some forms explaining where the money came from (the financial records from our business here in Korea) and why we were sending it to the US (to buy real estate).

So, bottom line, if you're here on a work visa you've got nothing to worry about. You can easily send all of your money home, as well as some income from "other sources".

[Mikejelai]

My American passport clearly states that no one except authorized officials are to make any "notations" in my passport, which is property of the US government, by the way. I take that to mean immigration officers, custom officers, etc., and not private bank employees. What is your take on this??

[Adam Carolla]

[Chokse]

The Korean banks don't seem to care about US law (obviously). Their rule is to write it on the last page of your passport. If you let them do this, you get to send your money out (assuming you are not on a work visa, in which case you would use your pay slip in place of a stamp in your passport). If you refuse, they won't let you transfer money. Pretty simple really.

Again, this is only an issue for people who are not working legally (this includes people working legally but getting extra income from non-legal sources).

If you are getting non-legal income and are really worried about having something stamped in your passport, there are several other ways to get money from point A to point B, bypassing the bank altogether.

[hubbahubba]

[hubbahubba]

So what happens if I ivest my "salary" in Samsung stock,and it appreciates, am I prevented from sending the profits back to the states?