South Korea or Pakistan
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
| South Korea | Pakistan | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | $ 61 452 | — |
| Citizenship | 5 years | — |
| Partner can work | no | — |
| Parents | difficult | — |
| Pets | difficult | difficult |
| Pet limit | 5 | no limit |
| Quarantine | 10 days | — |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 999 · estimate | $ 145 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 40,9 | $ 14,8 |
| Life expectancy | 83.63 | 67.8 |
| Homicides/100k | 0.49 | 4.33 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 6 | 7.4 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: South Korea — 91, Pakistan — 22. Types present in both: work, study, family, investment and repatriation. South Korea adds: startup, talent, job seeking and working holiday.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
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. Pakistan: fees range from 200 to 400 PKR. Routes with no fee: 1. Routes with a published decision deadline: 9; the shortest is 1 days.
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. Pakistan allows a second citizenship, South Korea does not.
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.
Pakistan in brief
Pakistan is the world's fifth most populous country, with English-language official paperwork and a visible IT outsourcing industry in Karachi and Lahore. The work route has two steps: a mission abroad issues an entry work visa for three months — within 48 hours under the service's own rules and without security clearance — while an extension of up to two years with multiple entries is decided by the Ministry of Interior, where clearance is mandatory, as is a recommendation from the Board of Investment. The visa policy sets out a rule rare for the region: if the agencies do not answer within 30 days, the case counts as approved. The visa is issued to the worker and the family at once. The directorate describes no permanent residence for an ordinary foreigner: a long stay rests on renewing the visa. Citizenship is available on a closed list of grounds, and the list is asymmetric by sex — a foreign woman married to a Pakistani man is on it, a foreign man married to a Pakistani woman is not. Bringing in cats and dogs requires a prior permit from the agriculture ministry, while antibody titration is not needed. The background in figures: life expectancy 67.8 years (World Bank, 2024), homicides 4.33 per 100,000 (UNODC, 2024), average PM2.5 concentration 58.4 µg/m³ — almost twelve times the WHO guideline (World Bank, 2023). INFORM rates natural risks at 7.4 out of 10, with floods at 9.5 and earthquakes at 9.2 — among the highest values in the world.
Other comparisons
South Korea or… Taiwan · Japan · Thailand · Kazakhstan · Lebanon · Uzbekistan · Malaysia · Azerbaijan
Pakistan or… Philippines · Bangladesh · Kuwait · Iraq · Mongolia · Oman · People's Republic of China · Sri Lanka
More on each: South Korea · Pakistan. 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.