EPS-TOPIK Sectors: What Does 'Forestry' Actually Mean?

Introduction

When you write "forestry" on your application, which place do you picture?

Many people picture a thick forest of tall trees. The place where you actually work on an E-9 visa is more specific than that. It may be a steep mountainside where you cut the grass around young trees. It may be a field where young trees are grown for planting in the forest. It may be a site full of chainsaw noise, where you clear up the trees that have been cut down.

This article shows you that place in advance. First, what forestry work is, and who is allowed to hire foreign workers. Next, a self-check on what kind of work feels comfortable to you. Then the kinds of workplaces there are, and how the rules differ from manufacturing. Finally, the words you will actually hear on the mountain.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Always verify visa and immigration procedures with HRD Korea's official website or the relevant authority.

Part 1 · What does forestry work involve?

Forestry means making and caring for forests, and getting wood from them. Korean law lists, as one kind of forest project, "projects carried out to create, grow, and use forests, such as afforestation, forest tending, and felling" (조림(造林), 숲가꾸기, 벌채 등 산림의 조성ㆍ육성ㆍ이용을 위하여 시행하는 사업).¹ Afforestation (조림, jorim) means making a forest by planting trees or sowing seeds, and felling (벌채, beolchae) means cutting trees down.² Forest tending (숲가꾸기, sup gakkugi) means looking after planted forests and natural forests so they grow healthy.³

The Employment Permit System (EPS) recognizes four forestry industries: forestry seed and seedling production (임업 종묘 생산업), silviculture (육림업), logging (벌목업), and forestry-related services (임업 관련 서비스업).⁴ Seedlings (종묘, jongmyo) are the seeds or shoots of plants, or the young trees grown from them. Silviculture (육림, yungnim) means raising trees by planting them or sowing seeds, and logging (벌목, beolmok) means cutting down the trees in a forest.²

Not every forestry business can hire foreign workers. Among these four industries, only businesses registered as corporations can hire. The Korea Forest Service lists them as forest project corporations (산림사업법인), national forest management teams (국유림영림단), forestry cooperatives and their national federation (산림조합(중앙회)), log producers (원목생산업자), and forest seedling producers (산림용 종묘생산업자).⁵ This means you cannot work in E-9 forestry for a mountain or farm run by a private individual. The kind of job (occupation) is also fixed as "simple forestry worker" (임업 단순 종사원).⁴

Forestry is a newcomer to the EPS. The government issued a notice on December 1, 2023 newly permitting forestry (Ministry of Employment and Labor Notice No. 2023-552), and the sector opened with the third application round on August 5, 2024.⁶

Forestry recruits from six countries

According to the Korea Forest Service, the sending countries for forestry are six: Nepal, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Myanmar.⁵ HRD Korea's list of exam date notices also posts forestry (Forestry) recruitment separately for each country. The list checked in October 2026 included forestry notices for Nepal, Myanmar, and Vietnam.⁷ Check your own country's notices to see whether, and when, it recruits for forestry.

In 2026, the EPS will admit 80,000 foreign workers in total. That is 70,000 assigned by sector, plus 10,000 not tied to any sector and assigned where needed (flexible allocation). The 70,000 by sector are manufacturing 50,000, agriculture and livestock 10,000, fisheries 7,000, construction 2,000, and services 1,000.⁸ This announcement sets no number for forestry alone.

Part 2 · What kind of work suits you?

You do not choose which mountain or which site you go to. That does not mean there is nothing to do right now.

There is one thing worth knowing in advance: what kind of work feels comfortable to you. Knowing this tells you what to prepare now, and it makes settling in easier once you arrive.

Work in the forest has a few clear features. Answer the questions below one by one for yourself.

There is no correct answer. No answer here is better or worse than another.

But if one row made you think "that one would be hard for me," that is where your preparation starts. If steep paths worry you, build up your legs by walking uphill for long stretches. If machines worry you, start with the skills test tasks in Part 3. Tools you really use on the mountain, like the brush cutter, are part of those tasks.

Part 3 · Kinds of workplaces and the daily work

Now let us put names to those five questions you just answered.

Before that, there is something worth looking at. Korea has already published what forestry work involves, in the form of exam tasks. In rounds run under the point system, candidates who pass the EPS-TOPIK take a second-stage skills test. Applicants for forestry get four tasks for their sector.⁹

• 예초기 사용 (yechogi sayong / using a brush cutter): handling the machine that cuts grass (예초기, yechogi)
• 측정 및 절단 (cheukjeong mit jeoldan / measuring and cutting): measuring a length (측정, cheukjeong) and cutting to that set length (절단, jeoldan)
• 로프정리 및 매듭 (ropeu jeongni mit maedeup / arranging ropes and tying knots): laying out a rope (로프, ropeu) so it does not tangle, and tying it the set way
• 파이프 볼팅 (paipeu bolting / pipe bolting): joining one pipe to another by tightening bolts and nuts

Besides these four, 핀꽂기 (pin kkotgi / pin insertion) is a common task that every sector takes. The tasks are picked at random for each round. The same page also lists the fitness test (grip and back strength, burpee test, carrying equipment, pushing a hand cart) and the interview items.⁹ The task list can change from round to round, so prepare from the notice for your round and the official study materials.

The same page also lists the job competency points. Related experience of one year or more is worth 2 points, related training of 120 hours or more is worth 1 point, a related major at junior college level or above is worth 1 point, and one or more related national certificates is worth 1 point, for a maximum of 5. Which rounds this applies to, and how you prove it, must be checked in the recruitment notice.⁹

Now the kinds of workplaces. The day's work changes with the four EPS industries.

A tree nursery is where seedlings are grown. A field like this is called a 묘포 (myopo, seedling field).² You spend more time on flat ground than on the mountain, and sowing seeds and pulling weeds is similar to farm work.

A mountain where trees are planted and tended is where forest tending happens. The Korea Forest Service divides the work by the age and condition of the forest like this.³

Pruning is added to this. Pruning (가지치기, gajichigi) means cutting off dead branches and similar to get straight wood without knots.³ The brush cutter task in the skills test connects directly to the grass cutting at this site.

A logging site is full of chainsaw noise all day. You cut felled trees to set lengths, trim the branches, and stack the logs so they are easy to move. The measuring and cutting task and the rope and knot task in the skills test are close to the work here. Because you work on slopes, you must always watch which way a tree is falling and what might roll downhill. Part 5 covers this in detail.

Forestry services is hard to understand from the name alone. Even under the same industry name, the work can differ from workplace to workplace, so be sure to check the work in your employment contract.

There is also a limit on how many foreign workers one workplace can hire. If the workplace has 1 to 10 Korean workers enrolled in employment insurance, it can hire up to 15; with 11 to 50, up to 20; with 51 to 100, up to 25; and with 100 or more, up to 30.⁵

Part 4 · What is different from manufacturing?

You sit the same exam and enter on the same visa, but some rules change with the sector.

Let us take the rows one at a time.

Start with the score. All the numbers are on a 100-point scale. HRD Korea lists the sector minimum scores as 60 for manufacturing, 45 for other sectors, and 30 for the fisheries special track. Forestry is neither manufacturing nor the fisheries special track, so it falls under "other sectors." But none of these numbers is a pass mark. HRD Korea states that the exam is graded on a curve, and describes how successful candidates are decided: "Candidates who score at or above the sector minimum are ranked by score, and successful candidates are decided up to the planned selection quota" (업종별 최저 하한 점수 이상 득점자로서, 선발(예정)인원 만큼 성적순으로 합격자 결정).¹⁰ The 45 is the line that lets you join the ranked queue. Whether you pass depends on whether your score lands inside the number of people being selected for that sector in that round.

The rules on working hours are different from manufacturing. Article 63 of the Labor Standards Act lists cases where the rules on working hours, breaks, and holidays do not apply. The first one is "businesses cultivating or reclaiming land, planting, growing, or gathering plants, and other agriculture and forestry businesses" (토지의 경작ㆍ개간, 식물의 식재(植栽)ㆍ재배ㆍ채취 사업, 그 밖의 농림 사업).¹¹ Planting (식재, sikjae) means planting and growing trees or plants, and 농림 (nongnim) means agriculture and forestry together.² So at forestry workplaces, the 40-hour weekly cap, the 12-hour weekly limit on overtime, and one day off per week are not required by law. In busy seasons, your working hours may get longer.

There is one thing to understand exactly here. What is removed is the rules on working hours, breaks, and holidays. The Labor Standards Act as a whole is not removed. For work between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. (night work), there is an interpretation from the Ministry of Government Legislation. In a ruling on a different group under the same Article 63 (workers in monitoring or intermittent jobs), the Ministry limited what the article removes to the rules on working hours, breaks, and holidays and the rules directly tied to them. It then said that night work must still be paid at least 50% more than the ordinary wage.¹² That ruling is not about forestry directly, so check in your employment contract how night hours are calculated. Note also that the Labor Standards Act applies to workplaces with five or more regular workers, and only some of its provisions apply where there are four or fewer.¹¹ Check how this article actually applies to your workplace when you receive your employment contract, and with your local Job Center.

The minimum wage is the same. The 2026 minimum wage is 10,320 won per hour. Calculated on 209 hours per month at a 40-hour week, that comes to 2,156,880 won. It applies to every workplace with no distinction by sector.¹³

If you are hurt, you are compensated through industrial accident insurance. As the fisheries article showed, fishing boats use fishing crew insurance instead of industrial accident insurance. Forestry is different. The Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act applies to every business that employs workers, and the businesses left out are set by Presidential Decree. The only forestry businesses on that list are ones that are not corporations and have fewer than five regular workers, and logging is not left out even then.¹⁴ E-9 forestry employers must be corporations, so they do not fall under this exception. The Korea Forest Service also states that to receive an employment permit, the employer must be enrolled in employment insurance and industrial accident insurance as of the application date.⁵

There are four more weeks of training after you arrive. Forestry workers also start with 16 hours (three days, two nights) of employment training after entry. After that, they take a separate forestry specialized training. According to the Korea Forest Service, it covers understanding forestry, forest project methods and work tools, preventing accidents and first aid, and how to use equipment. The training runs for 120 hours (four weeks) at the Forestry Training Institute of the National Forestry Cooperative Federation (산림조합중앙회 임업인종합연수원) in Cheongsong, North Gyeongsang Province. The first training is mandatory, and it must be taken within two months of finishing employment training. The state pays for the training and for your wages during the training period.¹⁵ It is a period for learning the tools and safety before you start work on the mountain.

Slow periods and the "additional workplace" system

Forestry work changes in amount with the seasons. Citing "the seasonal nature of forestry" (임업의 계절적 특성), the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that it would start an additional workplace system for forestry from October 2024.¹⁶ The government describes it this way: "a foreign worker working in forestry additionally performs duties for another business within forestry under the same employer, or, while keeping the employment contract with the original workplace, signs an employment contract with a different employer for a set period and works there" (임업 분야에 근로 중인 외국인근로자가 동일한 사업주의 임업 분야 내 다른 사업의 직무를 추가로 수행하거나 원사업장과의 근로계약을 유지하면서 일정기간동안 다른 사업주와 근로계약을 체결해 근무하는 것).¹⁶ Put simply, it lets you keep your contract with your original workplace and do other forestry work during periods when there is little work.

The Korea Forest Service gives more detail on the conditions. The additional workplace must be in one of the EPS forestry industries (seedling production, silviculture, logging, forestry-related services). Placement is arranged within the region where the original workplace is, and there are five regions: the Seoul metropolitan area, the Gyeongnam region, the Gyeongbuk and Gangwon region, the Jeolla and Jeju region, and the Chungcheong region. The employment contract at the additional workplace runs for 2 to 4 months.¹⁷ The worker applies at the Job Center, and at the end, permission from the immigration office is required.¹⁷ The Immigration Act also requires prior permission to add a workplace.¹⁸

This is different from changing your workplace (a workplace change). Workplace changes follow the same rules for all E-9 workers, and are limited to three times in the first three years and twice during the extended period.¹⁹ The Korea Forest Service does not say how an additional workplace relates to the workplace change limit, so check with the Job Center before you apply.

In forestry, the organization that helps with hiring paperwork (the employment agency for the sector) is the Korea Federation of SMEs (중소기업중앙회). The Ministry of Employment and Labor notice lists the industries of the "mining and related field" as "mining and forestry" (광업ㆍ임업) and designates this organization for them.²⁰ It is a different organization from the National Forestry Cooperative Federation, which runs the four-week specialized training. For the detailed procedure, check with your local Job Center or the Ministry of Employment and Labor call center (1350).

Housing rules are the same regardless of sector. The Korea Forest Service states that employers provide or arrange housing for the contract period and provide transport to the forest worksite.¹⁵ And since January 1, 2021, the Ministry of Employment and Labor has refused new employment permits where the housing provided is a container or a prefabricated panel structure. The only exception is where the local government has issued a construction report certificate for use as "temporary housing."²¹ To deduct housing and meal costs from your pay, the employer must write this in the standard employment contract and get your written consent in your native language. That consent must be renewed at least once a year.²² Be sure to check in your contract how much is deducted.

Part 5 · The words about safety

That is how much the work differs from workplace to workplace. But if you work in the forest, there are things you have to watch out for everywhere.

Look at the Ministry of Employment and Labor's figures. Over the last three years, the number of people who died while working in forestry was 11 in 2022, 16 in 2023, and 11 in 2024. The Ministry explained that workers are dying when they are pinned under the tree being felled, or struck by a tree that falls toward another worker.²³

That is why the Ministry made five safety rules for preventing accidents in felling work.²³

• Make the notch correctly: the notch (수구, sugu) is the wedge-shaped cut made at the base of the tree on the side it will fall. Make the angle 30 degrees or more and the depth one quarter to one third of the diameter at the root end
• Stay out of the danger zone: do not go where the tree may fall
• Do not cut a supporting tree: do not cut a tree that another tree is leaning on and caught against
• Check your escape route: before work, check the path you will escape by and the place you will escape to
• Wear protective gear: wear a hard hat and other protective gear

The law contains the same points. When people fell trees, the employer must set an escape route and a safe place in advance, and for trees 20 centimeters or more in diameter measured at chest height, the notch must be made at the angle and depth above. While a tree is being felled, no other work may be done within a straight-line distance of twice that tree's height. For a tree 20 meters tall, that means no other work within 40 meters. The employer must set a signal method for felling, tell the workers, and have the tree cut only after confirming that others have moved away. Places where felled timber may roll down are listed as places where entry must be blocked.²⁴

The first sentences to learn on the mountain are the ones that warn people of danger.

• "나무 넘어가요!" (namu neomeogayo / "Tree falling!")
• "피하세요!" (pihaseyo / "Get out of the way!")
• "아래 조심해!" (arae josimhae / "Watch out below!")
• "기계 꺼!" (gigye kkeo / "Turn the machine off!")
• "안전모 쓰세요." (anjeonmo sseuseyo / "Put on your hard hat.")

When you hear the felling signal, do not stand there looking up at the tree. Move first along the escape route you set before work. On a slope, trees and stones can roll down, so do not escape downhill; move off to the side. When you approach someone using a brush cutter or chainsaw, call out first, and only go closer after you see the machine has stopped.

This shows up on the exam as well. The EPS-TOPIK exam standards describe the content as Korean language ability, understanding of Korean culture, and industrial safety and health.²⁵

Part 6 · The words you use while working

After safety, the words you hear most are about the trees and the work in front of you. The eight words below come up often on the mountain.²

Learn two more tool names as well. A 기계톱 (gigyetop / chainsaw) is a saw whose blade is moved by engine power, and a 예초기 (yechogi / brush cutter) is a machine used to cut grass.² The word 숲가꾸기 (forest tending) appears more often in Korea Forest Service materials than in dictionaries. It is the umbrella word for the grass cutting, vine removal, young tree tending, thinning, and pruning described earlier.³

Part 7 · When the words arrive inside a sentence

At work, these words never come alone. They arrive inside short instruction sentences.

Instructions on the mountain often come with which way, and how far away. Which way a tree is falling, and which way is up or down the slope, matter most. Because of machine noise, instructions may also come cut short.

The way 봐 (bwa), 놔 (nwa), and 둬 (dwo) attached to a verb change its meaning is the same at any workplace. "해 봐" (hae bwa) means try it once now, and "해 놔" (hae nwa) means finish it completely and leave it ready.

The words from above, inside real sentences

When you do not understand

Do not just nod. Memorize these three sentences.

• "다시 한번 말해 주세요." (dasi hanbeon malhae juseyo / "Please say that one more time.")
• "천천히 말해 주세요." (cheoncheonhi malhae juseyo / "Please speak slowly.")
• "어느 쪽으로 넘어가요?" (eoneu jjogeuro neomeogayo? / "Which way is it falling?")

The last one is especially useful on the mountain. If you know which way the tree is falling, you also know which way to escape. If you understood what to do but missed the direction, always ask again.

Wrapping Up

You cannot choose your mountain or your site now. What you can prepare now is what you will hear in your first week. Three things.

First, start with the sentences that warn of danger. "나무 넘어가요!" (tree falling), "피하세요!" (get out of the way), "아래 조심해!" (watch out below). From 2022 to 2024, between 11 and 16 people died each year while working in forestry. These sentences come before any tool name.

Second, learn the words of the forest. 묘목, 조림, 풀베기, 덩굴, 솎아베기, 벌채, 원목, 임도. Add the names of the four skills test tasks, and even the four-week training in Cheongsong gets noticeably easier.

Third, learn instructions together with their direction. "나무 넘어간다" (a tree is falling), "더 떨어져" (move farther away), "밑으로 내려가지 마" (do not go down the slope). On the mountain, where you are standing matters as much as what you do. Learn the three "please repeat" sentences alongside them.

If you are not sure where to begin, look again at the questions you answered in Part 2. If machines worry you, start with 예초기 (brush cutter), 기계톱 (chainsaw), and 기계 꺼 (turn the machine off). If working hours worry you, remember Article 63 and the additional workplace system from Part 4 first.

Your application says only "forestry." What you will actually meet is seedlings, slopes, and chainsaws. Think in those specific words now, and you will understand far more in your first week in Korea.

Practice with SEDA

Safety words and work words are easy to forget after you see them once. Later, when you hear them on the mountain, they may not come back to you.

Try SEDA's reading questions on safety and health. Save the ones you get wrong to Review Notes. You will get reminders at D+3, D+7, and D+30. You meet the same expression three times on three different days.

Download SEDA — free on iOS and Android

References