Jecheon City has announced that it will reorganize its existing support programs for overseas Koreans and expand them to cover foreign residents.
On the 18th, the city signed an entrustment agreement with Daewon University. It plans to rename the existing Overseas Korean Support Center as the "Foreigner Support Center" and to support the settlement of a wide range of foreign residents in the local community, including foreign workers, international students and marriage migrants.
The city explained the reason for the change: as the Ministry of Justice's region-specific visa program brings in more foreign workers, the city recruits more international students and marriage migration grows, residents now hold many different types of residence status (visas), and there is a greater need for a support system that covers both stable settlement and daily life.
As of the end of June 2026, Jecheon had 4,400 foreign residents, more than double the 1,916 at the end of 2022, in a little over four years.
The Jecheon Foreigner Support Center plans to run programs closely tied to daily life, such as:
- Short-term accommodation support
- KIIP (Korea Immigration & Integration Program) and Korean language classes
- Job skills development programs
- Help with immigration matters for region-specific visa holders
- Counseling on problems such as labor, legal and real estate issues
- A childcare playroom
In particular, the city plans to provide short-term accommodation for four months to foreign residents who wish to work and settle in Jecheon, to help them adjust to the area. The city said it will use this, together with the special administrative measures for region-specific visas, as a key support measure to encourage foreigners to settle in Jecheon.
From next year, the city also plans to place interpreters for seven languages, including Vietnamese, Chinese, English, Nepali and Russian, to make the center easier to use. This is likely to be a great help to foreigners who are not yet comfortable with Korean.
In addition, the city plans to add an online application system for KIIP classes on its website, and to build a system that keeps records of each person's use of the center, such as counseling, education and daily-life support, so that it can get an overall picture of how foreign residents are settling in.
The Jecheon Foreigner Support Center will hold a signboard unveiling ceremony in October and will continue preparing for full operation, including setting up its website system by December.
We hope this will be a great help to foreign residents of Jecheon who hold various types of residence status (visas).