Residence Status Included in Career Guidance for Migrant-Background Students… Ministry of Education Guide Distributed Nationwide

The Ministry of Education is distributing to schools a “Residence-Status-Based Career Planning Guide” that considers both the residence status of students with migrant backgrounds and their pathways to further study and employment. Announced on September 22, the guide is designed to help career counselors check not only students’ preferred majors and occupations, but also their nationality, residence status, and period of stay, and connect them with support organizations when needed.

The guide itself includes a career-guidance checklist for teachers and guidance cases organized by residence status. The key point is that it goes beyond general advice on further study and employment to show what information schools should check and whom they should work with.

The checklist starts with nationality and period of stay

The checklist on page 9 of the guide starts by checking the student’s nationality, registration card and residence status, and expiration date. It then separately considers whether the student can enter the university and major they hope for and whether they can take the job they want, before linking the process to guidance for guardians and coordination with the staff member responsible at the school.

The guide explains that this tool can be used at the beginning of a term, during career-planning week, and in interviews with students expected to graduate. Even students who want the same occupation may have different remaining periods of stay and be at different stages of further education, so these checks are built into the counseling schedule.

High-school admissions case links the education office and local organizations

Page 49 presents a high-school admissions guidance case involving a student who entered Korea mid-schooling and held F-1 (visiting/cohabitation) residence status. It describes the difficulties the student encountered while trying to enter high school and how the student was connected to a school through the education office. The case reconstructs a 2017 consultation by the Gyeonggi Immigration and Social Integration Support Center; it is not a student case newly reported in 2026.

The case shows both the need to check residence-status information and the need to find support organizations that can help the student continue studying. Rather than having a school reach a conclusion on its own, the guide’s concrete route is to work with the education office and local support centers and connect issues requiring specialist advice to professional counseling.

Adding “when and where to check” to a student’s desired career path

Taken together, the checklist and cases show that the guide’s role is not simply to recommend an occupation to a student. It helps counselors consider, within a single counseling process, when the student’s period of stay expires and the next stage of education while also connecting guardians, school staff, education offices, and specialist counseling organizations. This is the practical significance suggested by the guide’s tools and cases.

The cases in the guide do not guarantee the same further-study or employment outcome, or a change of residence status, for every student. Immigration procedures and eligibility decisions for an individual student must be checked against the current guidance of the relevant authorities, while the school’s role is to continue supporting the student’s studies and career planning through that process.

Available as a digital file and through teacher training

The guide can be read as a public PDF on the Multicultural Education Portal. The Ministry of Education also announced distribution of materials through the Multicultural Education Portal, Korean for Everyone, the research center at Seonggyeol University, and other channels, as well as 3 related training courses at the Central Education Training Institute. School counseling staff can use the checklist alongside cases that fit their own counseling situations.

The distribution plan and training information appear in the Ministry of Education announcement of September 22.