When KoreaRoots walks a client through the purchase process, two acronyms come up over and over: FDI and MOLIT. They're not interchangeable. Each one plays a specific role in making your investment legal, your visa possible, and your property yours. Here's what they actually do.
FDI — Foreign Direct Investment
FDI isn't an agency — it's a legal category. Foreign Direct Investment is the formal classification given to investments made by non-Korean nationals into Korean businesses. Korea actively courts FDI under the Foreign Investment Promotion Act (외국인투자촉진법), offering tax incentives, streamlined registration, and — critically — visa eligibility to qualifying investors.
For your 빈집 purchase to qualify as FDI, it must meet three conditions: minimum ₩100M investment, structured through a registered Korean 법인, and declared through government-approved channels before the purchase closes.
Investment Registration — How Your FDI Gets Certified
Once your 법인 is registered and your investment is structured, it must be formally declared through government-approved channels. This process issues you a Foreign Investment Registration Certificate — the single most important document in your D-8 visa application. Without it, the immigration application cannot proceed.
KoreaRoots coordinates all investment registration filings on your behalf through our partner law firms. You receive the certificate directly — no government offices to visit.
MOLIT — Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport
MOLIT (국토교통부) is the ministry that owns property law in Korea. Title transfers, construction permits, renovation approvals, and the national 빈집 register all fall under their mandate. When you buy a property, the title transfer is registered at a MOLIT-supervised district court registry. When you renovate, your contractor pulls permits through MOLIT. When you apply for a rural renovation grant, that flows through MOLIT's programme as well.
How they connect in practice
The sequence in a typical KoreaRoots transaction:
- We register your 법인 with the Korean court registry
- We declare the investment through government-approved channels and receive your registration certificate
- We sign the purchase agreement with the seller
- We register the title transfer at the MOLIT-supervised district registry
- We submit your D-8 application to Korean Immigration using the registration certificate
- We pull renovation permits through MOLIT for the construction phase
You'll see these names on documents and in process updates from our team. Now you know exactly what each one represents.