Getting Ahead of the Game: Esports and the Korean E-6 Visa

Competitive video gaming is a serious business, having grown into a billion-dollar industry globally. While more traditional forms of sports have had to take a backseat during the pandemic, esports, on the other hand, has unsurprisingly flourished as a form of recreation, boosting its already massive presence.

Korea has emerged as a powerhouse destination in the realm of esports and it shows no signs of slowing down. In 2000, clearly ahead of the game, the Korean government established the Korean e-Sports Association (KeSPA) to manage esports under its Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism –and the rest is history. Korea has since taken center stage as it hosts the largest of e-gaming events, attracting millions of viewers as well as multinational companies (MNCs) bidding to get a piece of the action. 

As Korea earned the reputation of being the “esports capital of the world,” it spurred a steadily growing demand from MNCs which required immigration assistance in bringing in their esports teams to Korea. The relevant visa for gaming professionals and their entourage is the E-6 Culture and Entertainment Visa (E-6 Visa), which is one of the most technically difficult Korean work visas to obtain. The E-6 Visa is expansive in scope, as it covers talents from the fields of music, art, literature and entertainment. However, the demand for the E-6 Visa in these fields lags behind that for esports. 

While there are specialized non-law firm visa agencies that assist with E-6 visa applications, they customarily cater exclusively to Korean companies. MNCs, which have a strong preference for working with law firms mainly due to the latter’s bilingual capabilities in Korean and English, were approaching Korean law firms only to be told that the E-6 Visa is not among its service offerings, leaving the MNCs’ need for E-6 Visa support largely unaddressed. 

It’s not surprising that many law firms have avoided assisting with the E-6 Visa given its highly specialized and complex nature, the need to coordinate with and secure a government-issued recommendation letter from KeSPA (which is not easy to obtain), and the strict, unyielding rules of the E-6 immigration regulatory environment.   

Approaching our immigration work with a sense of mission has challenged us to look beyond the familiar and offer more to our clients, especially where their needs remain unaddressed (and policy permits our support). To bridge this gap, Fragomen, in partnership with its co-counsel, Kim Chang Lee, pioneered an advisory practice for E-6 Visas for MNCs. From the moment we began offering E-6 Visa assistance, we’ve been met with much enthusiasm, perhaps even relief, from MNCs keen to bring their teams of esports professional players, coaches, managers, commentators and other entourage members (noting that the entourage ratio to players must be reasonable) into Korea. And through the E-6 Visa work that has been entrusted to us, our team has since accumulated significant experience and success (especially in working with KeSPA) to further pave what was once an untraveled road. 

We are proud to announce the expansion of our E-6 Visa service capabilities. We can now support MNCs through advisory work on the technical E-6-related regulations, obtaining the recommendation letter from KeSPA that is required for the E-6 Visa for esports teams, E-6 Visa application preparation and providing advice on compliance.

It is an exciting time as we walk into this new arena of esports. While the work is demanding, requiring precision and deep knowledge, very much like the thrill of esports itself, it comes with rewards. It has given us a front seat to the action that continues to draw the attention of millions of gamers worldwide.

Jung Un is a Partner at Kim Chang Lee where he leads the firm’s corporate immigration practice. Kim Chang Lee is a corporate, finance and litigation law firm in Seoul, Korea. It is Korea’s oldest law firm.

Need to Know more?

For further information about the Esports Visa, please contact Angela De Guzman at [email protected]. Please stay tuned as a podcast on the same topic will be released in due course. This blog was published on 15 November 2021, and due to the circumstances, there are frequent changes. To keep up to date with all the latest updates on global immigration, please visit our dedicated COVID-19 site, subscribe to our alerts and follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.