New 'Partner with Korea Act' Creates 15,000 Specialty Work Visas Exclusively for South Korean Nationals

This bill, officially titled the Partner with Korea Act, creates a brand-new temporary work visa category specifically for South Korean citizens coming to the U.S. to work in a "specialty occupation." Think of it as carving out a dedicated lane in the immigration highway just for highly skilled Korean workers. Before anyone gets the visa, the employer must first file a labor attestation—essentially a promise—with the Secretary of Labor, who has to sign off before the State Department or Homeland Security can issue the visa. This is meant to ensure that hiring the foreign worker won't negatively affect U.S. workers’ wages or working conditions.

The 15,000 Cap and Who Counts

There’s a hard limit on this new program: the State Department can only approve 15,000 initial applications for these specialty workers each year. That 15,000 number is critical because it reserves a significant chunk of highly skilled work visas exclusively for one nationality. If you’re a U.S. company that needs a specific engineer or designer, and you can’t find them domestically, this opens up a clear, defined path to recruit top talent from South Korea. However, if you’re a specialized worker from, say, Germany or India, this new program doesn't help you, and it potentially intensifies competition for the other existing visa categories.

What “Specialty Occupation” Really Means for Your Job

The term "specialty occupation" is policy-speak for jobs that require highly specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or higher—think software developers, financial analysts, or certain types of managers. The bill ties this new visa category directly to the existing definitions for specialty occupations in current law, meaning the standards for the job itself aren't changing, only the process for filling it with a South Korean national. The Department of Labor’s role in approving the employer’s attestation is the main safeguard here, intended to protect U.S. workers by making sure the job actually requires this level of specialization and that the foreign worker won't undercut local wages.

The Real-World Trade-Off

For U.S. businesses, especially those with close ties to South Korea, this bill simplifies hiring and strengthens international partnerships, which can be a net positive for economic growth. But for U.S. workers in these specialized fields, it means new competition. While the 15,000 cap is meant to control the influx, it’s an annual allocation reserved only for South Korean nationals, creating a nationality-based preference system. This means if you’re a specialized worker from another country, or a U.S. citizen competing for a job, you’re now facing a system that prioritizes a specific national group for a fixed number of roles, regardless of how many other talented people are available domestically or globally. The effectiveness of the labor protection hinges entirely on how rigorously the Department of Labor enforces the attestation requirements.