Iraq or South Korea
Two countries side by side across the same rows as the full comparison. A dash means the value is missing: fields are not filled with guesses. about the data
| Iraq | South Korea | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | $ 61 452 |
| Citizenship | — | 5 years |
| Partner can work | — | no |
| Parents | — | difficult |
| Pets | no trouble | difficult |
| Pet limit | no limit | 5 |
| Quarantine | no | 10 days |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 608 · estimate | $ 999 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 18,0 | $ 40,9 |
| Life expectancy | 72.42 | 83.63 |
| Homicides/100k | 9.46 | 0.49 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 5.7 | 6 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Iraq — 29, South Korea — 91. Types present in both: work, study, family, investment and talent. South Korea adds: startup, repatriation, job seeking and working holiday.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Iraq: the fee is 100,000 IQD wherever it is published. Routes with a published decision deadline: 3; the shortest is 1 days. South Korea: fees range from 60 to 90 USD. Routes stating an income threshold: 1; the lowest is 1,500,000,000 KRW a month.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: South Korea after 5 years; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: South Korea after 5 years; the other country publishes no term.
Iraq in brief
Iraq scores very low on governance and very high on water-related hazards. On the World Bank scale, which runs roughly from −2.5 to +2.5, political stability is −2.06 — eighth from the bottom among the 173 countries with data — rule of law is −1.36, control of corruption −1.21, and government effectiveness −1.10. Life expectancy is 72.42 years, health spending 333.29 dollars per person per year, basic water access reaches 98.41 percent of the population, and the mean PM2.5 concentration is 49.47 micrograms per cubic metre. Road deaths run at 21.5 per 100,000. Unemployment is 15.48 percent, and 32.01 percent among young people. Overall natural hazard is 5.7 out of 10 on INFORM: flooding 9.6, drought 7.5, earthquakes 5.1, coastal hazards 4.6, with no cyclone or tsunami exposure at all. The immigration framework is published as Law No. 76 of 2017 and was translated into English by the Ministry of Justice itself. One feature defines it: **there is no permanent status in the country**. An ordinary residence card is issued for no more than one year and renewed year by year as many times as the grounds persist; the maximum is a three-year renewable card, granted only on six enumerated grounds, among them 15 years of continuous residence, six years under a contract with the government, scientific and cultural service, study at a religious seminary, and business or investment. Marriage to a citizen leads to that same three-year card, not to a separate family status. There are eleven visa categories, each with precise periods, and two of them — visiting and tourist — expressly forbid working anywhere in the country, whether paid or unpaid. Duties fall on the receiving side too, on short clocks: an employer notifies the authority within 48 hours of hiring a worker and of that worker's departure, a hotel within two days of arrival and departure, and whoever brings a foreigner in to work must post financial guarantees or a return ticket. What is not in this data: the law sets no standard for deciding an application — it fixes only the appeal periods (15 days to object, 30 to answer) and counts the waiting time as legitimate residence. City populations are not given: no official source separating the city from the governorate could be found.
South Korea in brief
South Korea combines a developed technology economy and low violent crime with a formal points system for long-term residence (E-7 → F-2-7 → F-5) and substantial restrictions on dual citizenship and on a spouse working. Parents, your own or a partner's, can only get the temporary renewable F-1-15 visa with no right to work. Natural hazards are moderate — seasonal typhoons and monsoon floods, earthquakes rare; the notable problem is air quality, the worst among OECD countries.
Other comparisons
Iraq or… Taiwan · Japan · Thailand · Kazakhstan · Lebanon · Uzbekistan · Malaysia · Azerbaijan
South Korea or… Philippines · Bangladesh · Kuwait · Mongolia · Oman · People's Republic of China · Sri Lanka · Singapore
More on each: Iraq · South Korea. Build your own comparison — up to four countries
This material is for reference and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules, tax thresholds and prices change. Before deciding anything, check the official sources and consult a licensed professional in the relevant country.