South Korea promotes US visa quotas for skilled workers — Korea Herald
The South Korean Embassy in the United States is approaching US lawmakers from districts where South Korean companies are actively investing to support a bill on separate visa quotas for skilled Korean workers. The Partner With Korea Act provides for up to 15,000 new E-4 visas annually for highly skilled South Korean nationals.
As Korea Herald reports, since last year the diplomatic mission has contacted, among others, Senators Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, as well as House of Representatives members Mike Rogers of Alabama and Jim Jordan of Ohio. All of them represent the Republican Party.
Contacts with Republicans
The embassy explained its choice of McCormick, Rogers and Blackburn by the active expansion of South Korean business in their constituencies. Jordan chairs the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, which handles immigration legislation.
South Korean National Assembly member Kim Gunn, who obtained the embassy's data, said that focusing on supporters of President Donald Trump is unlikely to produce quick results. According to him, such lawmakers may support facilitating South Korean investment, but are unlikely to depart from the US administration's policy of restricting immigration.
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The list of contacts also included Democrat Ted Lieu of California. At the same time, none of the lawmakers contacted by the embassy has become a sponsor or co-sponsor of the Partner With Korea Act since 2025. The latest version of the bill was introduced in 2025 by California House member Young Kim; the document remains under consideration in Congress.
Spending on lobbying services
In 2026, the embassy also hired two US firms — Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld and Squire Patton Boggs — for consultations and engagement with Congress on the skilled worker visa program and the economic situation in the United States. The total number of registered foreign agents working on behalf of the embassy under the Foreign Agents Registration Act rose to six.
According to Kim's office, the combined value of the embassy's contracts with six firms amounted to $1.54 million. Spending from January through September 2026 had already exceeded the annual budget allocated to the embassy for 2025 — 1.89 billion won, or $1.39 million. Currently, 3,987 people from South Korea are H-1B visa recipients, accounting for 1% of all specialty occupation workers issued such visas to enter the United States.
