Set up your Korean entity, the right way.
A Korean limited company (유한회사) is a powerful asset — but only when it's set up at the right time, with the right paperwork, and the right banking relationships. Done wrong, you end up with a rejected business registration, a frozen ₩1M-per-day bank account, and months of lost momentum.
We've personally walked over a thousand foreign brand executives through this exact process. We know where it breaks, why it breaks, and how to keep yours from breaking.
A Korean entity isn't required to sell in Korea. It's required to scale in Korea.
Plenty of brands sell into Korea without a local entity — and many should, especially at the start. The question isn't whether you can avoid forming one. It's whether forming one now makes financial sense, or whether it would be a premature commitment.
Cross-border (no Korean entity)
Ship internationally, customer pays import duties, no local seller-of-record.
Best for
Validating Korean demand. Testing categories. Low-volume premium SKUs where customers tolerate slow shipping.
Limits
Limited to the ~5–10% of Korean buyers who shop cross-border. No Rocket Delivery, no local CS, no marketplace visibility on Coupang's main flow.
Spark — Kontactic as IoR/SoR
We act as the Importer of Record and Seller of Record using our own Korean entity. Your products go local on Coupang under a compliant consignment model.
Best for
You have validated cross-border demand and want to go local fast without forming a Korean company yet. Up and running in 2–4 weeks.
Limits
Coupang-only. You don't yet own a Korean entity, balance sheet, or banking relationship — by design. This is the on-ramp, not the destination.
Your own Korean entity (유한회사)
We set up your fully-owned Korean limited company. You become the importer, the seller, the brand owner — at scale.
Best for
You have proven demand, you've operated on Spark for 3–6 months, and you're ready to expand beyond Coupang (Naver, Kakao, SSG, Gmarket, Auction, 11st) and own the full operating P&L.
Limits
Requires non-trivial paperwork, a tax-office review of your business plan, and a bank that will give you a real corporate account. This is what this page is about.
Most brands do option A or B first, then move to option C once Korea is clearly a real market for them. Skipping straight to C is technically possible but, as you'll see in the next section, increasingly hard to get approved.
Two ways to set up your Korean entity — and FDI is not the only one.
One of the most common misunderstandings: foreigners think Korean law forces them to incorporate as a Foreign-Invested Enterprise (FDI / 외국인투자기업). It doesn't. The Foreign Investment Promotion Act defines who qualifies for FDI benefits — it doesn't require you to be one. Here are the two real options, and the one most e-commerce brands actually need.
FDI — Foreign-Invested Enterprise
외국인투자기업 (외투기업)
Qualifies if
- Paid-in capital of ₩100M or more (about $70K+)
- 10% or more of voting shares held by the foreign investor
- Both conditions must be satisfied
How you file
Foreign Investment Notification (외국인투자신고) submitted to a designated foreign-exchange bank under the Foreign Investment Promotion Act.
What you get
- D-8 (Investment) visa eligibility for the foreign director
- Foreign-investment corporate tax incentives (where applicable)
- Statutory guarantee of profit repatriation, dividend remittance, and capital recovery
- Eligibility for various government FDI support programs
Standard Korean LLC (유한회사)
일반 상법상 유한회사
Qualifies if
- Any paid-in capital amount — no minimum since the 2011 Commercial Act revision
- Most foreign-owned e-commerce brands fall here
- Technically possible to incorporate with ₩1M or ₩10M
How you file
Securities Acquisition Filing (증권취득 신고) submitted to a foreign-exchange bank under Article 18 of the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act — NOT under the FDI act.
What you don't get
- No D-8 investor visa eligibility
- No FDI tax incentives
- No statutory profit-repatriation guarantee (you'll need the Securities Acquisition Filing on file to actually wire dividends out)
- No automatic access to FDI-only government programs
The Misconception, Cleared Up
The Foreign Investment Promotion Act sets the requirements for receiving FDI benefits — it does not force foreigners to incorporate under it. Korea's own official agency, Invest Korea (KOTRA), explicitly states: 'Even if a foreigner invests less than ₩100M, incorporation is still possible — the company simply does not qualify as a Foreign-Invested Enterprise and is subject to a Securities Acquisition Filing under the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act.' For most foreign brands setting up a Korean operating entity for e-commerce, a standard LLC under Option 2 is the right and fully legal path.
Critical: Securities Acquisition Filing is not optional
Whether you're FDI or standard LLC, if a non-resident foreigner is wiring capital into Korea, the Securities Acquisition Filing must be on file with a foreign-exchange bank. Without it, you may be physically unable to remit dividends, capital recovery, or sale proceeds out of Korea later. We handle this filing in-process — see Step 4 of our setup process — by opening a temporary FX account at our partner foreign-exchange bank, receiving your capital wire from the parent company into that account, and filing the Securities Acquisition Filing form with the bank in the format the regulator expects.
Statutory references
- · Commercial Act (상법) Arts. 170–171, 543–613 — limited company formation; no restriction on foreign founders
- · Foreign Investment Promotion Act (외국인투자 촉진법) Art. 2(1)(4), Art. 5 — FDI definition and notification
- · Foreign Exchange Transaction Act (외국환거래법) Art. 18 + Foreign Exchange Transaction Regulations Ch. 7, Form 7-6 — Securities Acquisition Filing
When is the right moment to incorporate?
There is a specific, well-defined sequence that makes Korean entity setup go smoothly. Most brands that get stuck — rejected business registrations, frozen accounts, banker friction — got the order wrong. Here's the sequence that works.
Stage 1
0–6 months
Cross-border
Sell to Korea internationally. You're collecting the only thing the Korean tax office will actually trust later: real, dated, repeatable orders from Korean consumers. Save every order record.
Stage 2
3–6 months
Spark (Kontactic IoR/SoR)
Move local under our Korean entity. Now you have Korean-side sales records, Coupang seller data, import declarations, and Korean tax filings — all under a compliant Kontactic-handled structure. This is the operating track record the tax office wants to see.
Stage 3
4–6 weeks
Your own Korean entity
Now you incorporate. You walk into the tax office not as a stranger who 'wants to do business in Korea' but as a proven operator with months of clean Korean sales history, real shipments, and a clear business plan. Approval becomes a much smaller hurdle.
Heads upSkipping Stage 2 used to be normal. In the last two years it has become risky — and increasingly, simply doesn't work.
Non-resident foreigner business registration is the hardest it has ever been.
We won't sugarcoat it: the Korean tax office has tightened the review of non-resident foreigner incorporations dramatically. Anonymous shell-company filings used to slip through. Today, business registration applications without a credible operating story are routinely rejected, asked to re-file, or sent back with extensive questions.
Stricter intent verification
Tax officers want a real business — not a paper company set up for someone else's purposes. They look for genuine local operations, real revenue prospects, and an actual operator behind the entity.
More documentation required
Lease contracts, business plans, proof of products, evidence of demand — what used to be a checklist is now a substantive interview-style review with follow-up questions.
Lower tolerance for vague answers
If your application can't clearly explain who buys your product, where, why, and how you'll run the Korean operation — it gets bounced. Polished translations of a generic plan won't pass.
Sales history is the unlock
Brands that have actually been selling to Korean customers — and can show invoices, shipments, and tax filings — sail through. That's exactly what Stage 2 (Spark) gives you.
If you arrive with a Spark track record, you're not a stranger. You're an operator who's already running compliant business in Korea, just looking to formalize ownership. That changes the conversation completely.
Two specific approvals decide whether your Korean entity actually works.
The court will register your company. That's the easy part. The two things that actually determine whether you can run a real business are the tax-office business registration and the corporate bank account. Get either of those wrong and you have a legally-registered company that can't trade.
Business Registration (사업자등록) at the Tax Office
Without 사업자등록 your company cannot issue tax invoices, cannot legally import, cannot register as a Coupang seller, and cannot be a real operating business. Approval rests on the tax officer's review of your intent, your plan, and your operating history.
How Kontactic clears it
We submit applications with a complete narrative — operating history, demand evidence, Korean sales records, distribution plan, real lease, real director, real intent — drafted by people who do this several times a month and know exactly what tax officers look for.
Corporate Bank Account (법인 통장)
Your company isn't operational until it has a working corporate bank account that can actually move money. Most foreigners discover this gate after the company is already formed, and many discover it the hard way.
How Kontactic clears it
We handle this through long-standing banking relationships — covered in detail in the next section.
₩1,000,000/day vs. essentially unlimited.
This is the single most undersold benefit of working with Kontactic — and the one that quietly destroys foreign companies that incorporate without the right partner.
The problem nobody warns foreign founders about
When a brand-new Korean entity opens a corporate bank account — especially one owned by a non-resident foreigner — Korean banks default to a daily wire-transfer limit of roughly ₩1,000,000 (about $700–$750). Sometimes lower. This isn't a quirk; it's the bank protecting itself against fraud. The limit can stay in place for months, sometimes longer, depending on the account's transaction history and the bank's internal anti-fraud review. In practice, this means a freshly-incorporated Korean company physically cannot pay its tax accountant, its 3PL invoice, its logistics partner, or its supplier — because each of those transactions exceeds the daily limit. The business is legally alive and operationally paralyzed at the same time.
What we do differently
Kontactic has spent 15 years building deep working relationships with Korea's major banks. Through those relationships, the corporate accounts we open for our clients launch with effectively unlimited wire-transfer limits from day one — high enough that B2B settlements, supplier payments, tax payments, and intercompany remittances all clear without intervention. We don't 'request a limit review' after the fact. We open the account in a track designed for operating companies that need to actually run a business.
Day-one operating limit
The account opens already provisioned for real B2B transaction volume — not the default fraud-prevention cap.
KRW + FX from day one
Both KRW and foreign-currency (외화) corporate accounts opened together, ready for international remittances and parent-company settlements.
Bank-side compliance review handled
We submit the corporate documentation, the operating plan, and the KYC packet in the format the bank's compliance team expects — so review is fast, not adversarial.
Relationship banker introduced
You get an actual relationship banker, not a call-center number — which becomes invaluable the first time something unexpected happens.
The single most important thing
If you take only one thing from this page: do not let anyone — agency, lawyer, or 'consultant' — set up your Korean entity without a concrete plan for the corporate bank account. A frozen account is the most common silent failure of foreign-owned Korean entities.
How we set it up — nine steps, four to six weeks.
We've done this hundreds of times. The order matters, the timing matters, and the documents have to be in the format Korean regulators expect. Here's exactly what happens.
Discovery & document checklist
Days 1–3We confirm fit, review your Spark / sales track record, and send you a tailored document checklist for your specific situation (parent company structure, products, regulated categories, etc.).
Apostille of foreign corporate documents
Days 4–14Your parent company's articles, certificate of incumbency, and board resolution are apostilled in your home country. We provide templates and walk your team through it — this is the single biggest scheduling variable, so we start it early.
Korean office lease
Days 7–14We secure a compliant Korean business address through our licensed real estate brokers (공인중개사). Your entity needs a real, verifiable registered seat — virtual addresses get flagged.
Securities Acquisition Filing (증권취득 신고) + temporary FX account
Days 14–21Required for every non-resident foreigner wiring capital into Korea — yes, even if you're a standard LLC and not FDI. We open a temporary foreign-currency account at our partner foreign-exchange bank, your parent company wires the paid-in capital into that account, and we file the Securities Acquisition Filing (Form 7-6) with the bank under Article 18 of the Foreign Exchange Transaction Act. This filing receipt is what makes your incorporation legally and operationally valid — without it, future dividend or capital remittances out of Korea can be blocked. Without us, foreign founders often discover this step late, sometimes after the fact.
Court incorporation (법인설립등기)
Days 18–26Our partner judicial scriveners (법무사) file your incorporation with the court registry. The 유한회사 (limited company) is now legally formed.
Tax office business registration (사업자등록)
Days 24–32Critical pass pointThis is the critical pass point. We file the business registration with a complete operating narrative — backed by your Spark sales history and demand evidence — designed to clear tax-office review on the first pass.
Corporate bank account (법인 통장)
Days 26–34Critical pass pointWe open both KRW and FX (외화) corporate accounts through our banking partners, with the elevated wire-transfer limit configured at account opening — not after. The capital held in the temporary FX account is now transferred into the official corporate accounts.
Operational accounts & licenses
Days 30–37Corporate mobile line (법인 휴대폰), digital certificate (공동인증서), mail-order sales license (통신판매업신고증), and importer customs code (사업자통관고유부호) all activated under the new entity.
Coupang seller onboarding + first transaction
Days 32–44Coupang seller account fully provisioned and verified under the entity. First commercial transactions clear through the new corporate accounts. The company is now operating.
What we need from you.
A clean document package is the single biggest factor in a smooth incorporation. We give you templates for everything and walk your team through each one — but here's what to expect.
From your side
- Notarized & apostilled documents (passport and ID copies of foreign directors and shareholders, seal registration form, director acceptance letters, signature verifications, residency certificates, powers of attorney, and so on)
- Proof of source for the initial paid-in capital
- Brand and product information (catalogues, website, anything that shows what you sell)
- Anything else that demonstrates you're ready to do business in Korea (free format)
Prepared on our side
- Korean Articles of Association (drafted to match your parent structure)
- Director acceptance letters in Korean
- Shareholder list in the format the registry requires
- Korean office lease contract (we source and negotiate)
- Business registration application with full operating narrative
- Bank account opening packet, structured for the compliance review
We coordinate the apostille process even if you've never done one before. Most countries can apostille in 3–10 business days. We sequence the timeline so the apostille runs in parallel with our Korea-side work — no idle weeks.
Twelve concrete deliverables. One fixed package.
When we incorporate your Korean entity, you don't get 'a registered company.' You get an entity that can immediately operate — every license, every account, every system you need to actually run a Korean business, all activated and verified on your behalf.
Apostille (아포스티유) coordination
We coordinate the apostille of your foreign corporate documents so they're accepted by Korean authorities. Templates and country-specific instructions provided.
Office lease (사무실 임대)
A compliant Korean business address sourced and negotiated through our licensed real estate brokers — so your entity has a legitimate registered seat from day one.
Entity incorporation (법인설립등기)
Formal incorporation of your Korean limited company (유한회사) with the court registry, handled by our partner judicial scriveners (법무사).
Business registration (사업자등록)
Tax-office business registration filed with a complete operating narrative — so the company can legally invoice, import, and trade.
Corporate mobile line (법인 휴대폰 개통)
A Korean corporate mobile line under the company name — a prerequisite for many Korean operational accounts.
Corporate bank accounts — KRW & FX (법인 통장 개설)
Both KRW and foreign-currency (외화) corporate accounts opened with a major Korean bank under the new entity.
Wire-transfer limit elevation (계좌 이체 한도 증액)
Day-one elevation of wire-transfer limits — done through our banking relationships, not the default cap most foreign-owned entities are stuck on.
Mail-order sales license (통신판매업신고증)
Mail-order sales registration — required to legally sell online in Korea.
Importer customs code (사업자통관고유부호)
Customs unique number issued so the company can act as the Importer of Record on its own shipments.
Coupang seller onboarding (쿠팡 판매자 가입)
Coupang seller account fully provisioned and verified under your new Korean entity, ready for product registration.
Korean digital certificate (공동인증서 발급)
Corporate 공동인증서 issued — required for tax filings, banking transactions, and government portals.
12 months of bookkeeping (세무기장 1년치 포함)
A full year of monthly tax bookkeeping included, performed by our partner Korean tax accountants (세무사).
Everything above is delivered through our partner network of 법무사 (judicial scriveners), 세무사 (tax accountants), 변호사 (attorneys), 공인중개사 (licensed real estate brokers), and 행정사 (administrative agents). One contract, one project manager, one delivery timeline.
Anyone can file paperwork. Very few can make sure it works.
Plenty of Korean law firms and agencies will incorporate a company for you. The difference shows up in the details — the parts that determine whether you actually have a working business at the end of it.
Built around your operating reality
We've trained over 1,000 foreign brand executives on the Korean market. We know what your operation needs to actually run — not just to register on paper.
Spark-to-entity bridge
We're the only operator who can take you from cross-border to Spark to entity in one continuous track — giving the tax office the operating history they want to see.
Banking relationships you cannot replicate
Fifteen years of working with Korea's major banks. Day-one elevated wire-transfer limits. A real relationship banker, not a default account.
Full partner network in-house
법무사, 세무사, 변호사, 공인중개사, 행정사 — every Korean professional you'll need, coordinated under one project manager.
Honest sequencing advice
If incorporating right now is wrong for your business, we'll tell you that on the first call — and recommend Spark instead. We have no incentive to push you into the wrong stage.
After-incorporation continuity
We don't disappear at closing. Bookkeeping, tax filings, operational support, and Coupang management all continue under our Flame or Blaze tiers.
Questions founders ask before incorporating
These are the operational questions we hear most often before clients commit to Korean entity setup.
Yes. Cross-border sales reach Korean consumers without a Korean entity, and our Spark service lets you sell locally on Coupang using Kontactic's Korean entity as the Importer and Seller of Record. Most brands should validate demand through one or both of these before incorporating.
Let's set up your Korean entity properly.
Book a discovery call. We'll review your operating history, your products, and your goals — and tell you honestly whether incorporating now is the right move, or whether Spark first would set you up for a cleaner approval.
Or email us directly at contact@kontactic.com