your roadmap
The whole journey from Nepal to Korea, end to end. Read it as a sequence rather than a checklist — almost every failure here is a step taken in the wrong order.
Nine stages. Two of them are waiting periods you cannot shorten, and one is a scholarship deadline that falls a year before everything else.
GKS, if you are a candidate
The Global Korea Scholarship closes roughly a year before the intake it funds, through the Embassy or a university track. Nepal is eligible, and it bundles the Korean-language year that otherwise forces the D-4 detour. Missing it costs a year, not a place.
Choose your language route
TOPIK 3+ for a Korean-medium degree, an English test for an English-taught one, or the D-4 language visa if you have neither. This decides whether your route has one stage or two.
Sit TOPIK or IELTS
Where your programme requires it. A D-4 needs no prior Korean at all.
Apply and get accepted
Licensed universities and approved language institutes only. Aim at the March or September intake.
Start document verification — the same week
Three to six weeks at the Korean Embassy in Nepal. This is the step that decides whether you make your intake, and it cannot start any earlier than your acceptance letter.
MoEST NOC, then transfer tuition
Nepal's approval first. The university issues the immigration-facing admission certificate after payment.
TB test
At a designated hospital in Nepal. One to two weeks, and the certificate must accompany the visa application.
Apply for the D-2 or D-4 visa
At the Korean Embassy in Kathmandu — individually, or through your university's batch submission where one operates.
Land, and register
Alien Registration Card at your local immigration office within the required period, then national health insurance, a bank account and a T-money card.
Housing in Seoul is competitive rather than merely expensive, so arrange your first landing before you fly.
University dormitories
The simplest arrival, where places exist. Limited and allocated early — apply as soon as you are accepted.
Goshiwon
Small single rooms, cheap and immediately available. A common first few months rather than a year.
Share housing
The usual next step, generally arranged after you arrive and have an ARC.
Carry in hand: passport with the D-2 or D-4 visa, your admission certificate, the MoEST NOC, your embassy-verified documents, financial and fixed-deposit proof, the TB-test certificate, translated documents, some Korean won in cash, and your accommodation details.
Register at your local immigration office for your Alien Registration Card within the required period. It is the key to a bank account, a phone contract and most services.
Then, in roughly this order:
Health insurance: enrol in National Health Insurance — mandatory for D-2 and D-4 students, with a monthly premium
Banking and a phone: open a bank account and get a phone contract — both generally require the ARC first
Getting around: pick up a T-money transit card, usable on buses, the metro and in convenience stores
Book the immigration appointment early — slots in Seoul in particular fill well ahead, and the registration deadline runs from your arrival date rather than from when an appointment happens to be available.
Korea's Nepali community is large and growing, concentrated in and around Seoul, and useful for exactly the problems of the first month: a room, a first job, and someone who has already been through the immigration office you are about to visit.
You generally may not work for the first six months of study, whatever your finances look like by then.
After that, and with permission:
The limits: commonly up to about 25–35 hours a week in term, tied to your TOPIK level, and full-time during official vacations
The permissions: permission from both your university and immigration, before you start
The hour cap is tied to your TOPIK level, which makes Korean worth money in a direct and immediate sense — a higher TOPIK level literally raises how much you are allowed to earn. Working beyond the approved limit puts your status at risk, and the checks are real.
Plan your budget on the assumption that nothing comes in for six months, and treat anything that does arrive after that as easing the second year rather than funding the first.