It is necessary to submit an official document (i.e., applicant’s birth certificate or family register) that proves you and your parents' relationship. If the document does not include you and your parents' citizenship information, then you should submit additional documents (i.e., passport copy or other government issued document that indicates citizenship information) for proof of citizenship.

If you are not able to issue your parent(s)’ proof of citizenship due to your parent(s)’ absence (e.g., divorced, deceased, etc.), then please provide supplementary documents that explains the reason for not submitting their proof of citizenship. (e.g., divorce certificate or death certificate).

Yes you may. As long as you and your parent(s) do not hold Korean citizenship, and if you have a citizenship of the country that is invited to the GKS degree program, you are eligible to apply. However, GKS-UIC (University Industry Cooperation) program under the university track is open to all countries around the world.

The quota allocation is decided based on mutual agreements on cultural and educational cooperation between Korea and the participating countries. Even though your country is not listed in the GKS undergraduate degrees program, your country may be listed in the GKS graduate degrees program. All applicants must hold a citizenship of the GKS partner country except for the GKS-UIC program. GKS-UIC program is open to all countries around the world except Korea. Applicants of GKS-UIC program must directly apply to their designated universities since it is only available under a university track.

Yes. You are eligible to apply. However, those with a high school diploma issued by a Korean high school (including international school) or those with an associate degree issued by a Korean university are NOT eligible to apply.

No, you are not eligible to apply for the GKS Undergraduate degrees program if you have a bachelor’s degree. If you are interested in pursuing a higher degree, (e.g., master’s degree or doctoral degree), please apply to GKS Graduate degrees program next year.

No, you are NOT eligible to apply. Only those who have already graduated or are expected to graduate by February 28, 2023, are eligible to apply for the program. All 2023 GKS-U scholars must submit their apostilled or consular confirmed graduation certificate to NIIED by February 28, 2023 along with an official document issued by the embassy (embassy track) or the university (university track).

Provisional certificates vary by countries and universities, so it is difficult to judge by a single criterion. The document you submit as a graduation certificate, including provisional certificate, must indicate the exact date of your graduation. If your provisional certificate does not clearly indicate your date of graduation (when you have graduated) it will not be accepted as a graduation certificate in the GKS degree program even if it is acknowledged as an official graduation certificate in your own country. Provisional certificate without graduation date will be considered as a certificate of expected graduation. With provisional certificate alone, you may not receive a certificate of admission at a Korean university and may not be able to issue a study visa. Successful candidates who applied with such documents must submit additional graduation certificate by February 28, 2023.

Yes. Every GKS scholar must achieve at least Level 3 on TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) within a yearlong Korean language program to proceed to his or her degree program. In addition, certain university or department requires students to submit a valid TOPIK certificate of level 4 or higher. Scholars who applied to such department may not enter their degree program if they fail to achieve the required TOPIK certificate during a yearlong Korean language program.

No, you may not. Applications must apply and submit their application documents to a Korean Embassy where they hold citizenship or directly to one of the partner universities. Since each embassy/university that conducts the first round of selection may have different application submission guidelines, please check with the embassy/university regarding any submission related inquiries such as application deadline, etc. Even if you are currently residing in Korea or in a different country and you are to apply via embassy track, you must submit your application documents to the Korean embassy in the country where you hold citizenship.

The required certificates must be apostilled or confirmed by Consulate/Embassy. Notarized or original documents are not acceptable for the required certificates. (Exception: required certificate issued by Korean government or institutions should be submitted in their original version without additional authentication.)

Please have your documents notarized and get a consular confirmation. Or, you may send us a certified true copy of your apostilled documents if you need to keep your original document. Please have the documents certified from the institution where you issued the apostille or from the Korean Consulate/Embassy.

Embassy track applicants should submit ONE set of original application document (that includes apostilled/consular-confirmed documents) and THREE sets of photocopied application documents. This means embassy track applicants do not need to have their certificates authenticated four times.

All application documents that are not written in Korean or English must be accompanied with a certified translation. If you can only get an apostille/consular-confirmation on your original document, then please submit it with a certified translation. The certified translation does not need to be apostilled/consular-confirmed.

The certificate of English proficiency (TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS) or Korean proficiency (TOPIK) is optional, which means you may apply for GKS without it. However, if you are an applicant of a highly competitive country or if you are applying to a certain department, you may be required for a certain level of language proficiency.

The recommendation letter should be dated within a year from the very last date of the application deadline. Therefore, if your recommendation letter was issued more than a year from the 2022 GKS-G application submission deadline (set by each Korean embassy or university), you cannot submit that recommendation letter.

Yes. You must at least describe the general direction and outlines of your study plans, if not in full detail. Please elaborate on your study objectives in Korea, tangible plans during and after you complete the degree program.

No, if you are a Chinese citizen, you should not submit your application to the Korean Embassy in China. According to the mutual agreement between Korea and China, Chinese applicants must submit their applications to China Scholarship Council (CSC) under the Ministry of Education in China. ※ Likewise, a Czech citizen must also submit his or her application to the Ministry of Education in Czech Republic, in accordance with the mutual agreement between the governments of Korea and Czech Republic.

You can submit your application to Korean Consulate nearby. In your case, you can submit your application to the Korean Consulate in LA. Korean embassy in Washington and several Korean consulates in the United States will cooperate to select the prospective candidates. ※ Embassy track applicants in Vietnam can also submit their application documents to Consulate/Embassy in Hanoi, Danang, or Ho Chi Minh.

Applicants whose application have not passed the first round of the embassy track may apply to the university tack as long as they can meet the application deadline of the re-applying university. However, applicants cannot apply for both tracks at once. Successful candidate of the first-round selection (including backup candidates) cannot apply for a university track again.

University track applicants can only apply to one university and one department. If an applicant is found to have applied to more than two universities, his/her application document will be excluded from the evaluation in the next round.