The Seoul Metropolitan Government is working on a plan to hire foreigners as village bus drivers. To facilitate this, the city officially requested the Prime Minister’s Office on the 28th of last month to include “transportation industry” as an eligible sector for the non-professional employment (E-9) visa, as announced on the 18th. The Prime Minister’s Office has reportedly forwarded this proposal to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, which is currently reviewing it.
While the bus industry has long argued for the necessity of foreign drivers due to labor shortages, this is the first time the issue has been publicly addressed at the city government level. The proposal submitted by the city focuses on including the transportation industry in the E-9 visa issuance criteria and extending the employment activity period from three to five years. Currently, the E-9 visa is issued to foreigners employed in sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, and livestock industries.
Foreigners can currently work as drivers using the visitor employment (H-2) or overseas Korean (F-4) visas, but these are only issued to individuals such as ethnic Koreans or marriage immigrants. Therefore, the proportion of foreign drivers on village buses in Seoul is reported to be less than 2%. A city official stated, “It’s challenging to recruit village bus drivers, and their aging workforce is a severe issue. If the Employment Ministry resolves the visa issue by the end of this year, we expect to operate a pilot project next year.”
The Ministry of Labor commented, “We have not yet reviewed the possibility of introducing this measure. We plan to carefully assess the suitability of allowing non-professional foreign workers (E-9) by considering the qualifications, skills, and job requirements needed in the urban bus transport industry.”