The Ministry of Justice will relax requirements for the E-7-4 skilled worker visa that guarantees long-term employment, officials said Sunday, noting that its quota will also be increased.

The move comes as industries and local governments have called for the need to ease visa requirements for foreign technicians amid deepening labor shortages.

Under the current rules, foreign employees who have worked legally in Korea for five years could apply for the E-7-4 visa. The ministry said this requirement will now be reduced to four years.

The quota will increase as well. While this year’s quota was already set at 5,000, the ministry said it will expedite the granting of the visa to these 5,000 to July instead of the end of the year, and push for expanding the number of visa recipients within the latter half of the year.

The number of E-7-4 visa recipients has been increasing consistently from 1,000 in 2020 to 1,250 in 2021 to 2,000 in 2022 and to 5,000 this year.

This year’s quota was already raised by 2.5 times from a year earlier. If the ministry recruits additional visa recipients by the end of the year, the number is expected to increase by three to four times from a year earlier.

“We will consult with relevant ministries to increase this year’s quota,” a ministry official said. “We will actively react to labor shortage issues facing industries without affecting Korean nationals’ employment opportunities.”