US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said Washington is significantly overhauling its visa system in coordination with the South Korean government to address concerns raised by Korean companies. However, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick specifically mentioned only the L-1 intra-company transferee visa — which subcontractors find difficult to obtain — leading to observations that the E-4 special employment visa long sought by the Korean business community is unlikely to materialize.
Speaking at a SelectUSA press conference held at National Harbor, Maryland on Wednesday, Landau addressed the September 2024 detention of workers from Hyundai Motor (005380.KS) and LG Energy Solution (373220.KS) in Georgia. "I was the first senior US official to visit Seoul after that incident," he said. "I regret what happened."
Landau, the second-in-command at the State Department, said Korean capital and know-how flowing into the United States represents an important opportunity. "This naturally means that a certain number of personnel from Korea must come to the United States for purposes such as workforce training," he said.
He acknowledged the limitations of the current system. "But we are well aware that the US visa system was not designed to welcome visitors with such special purposes," he said. "We immediately established a working group at the US Embassy in Seoul, discussed this issue with the Korean government during my visit to Korea, and are significantly overhauling the visa system to address these concerns."
Landau also made clear that there are limits to sweeping visa reform. "We must strike a balance between encouraging foreign investment in the United States and the need to enforce immigration laws," he said. "Making these two work in harmony is the challenge before us."
In a keynote address the previous day, Commerce Secretary Lutnick said, "If you build a factory in the United States, we will make sure you can bring in the employees needed to start the project." He added that the administration would "actively support L-1 visa issuance" — limiting visa support to the L-1 category. The L-1 visa is relatively costly to obtain and is difficult to apply to subcontractor technicians or large-scale on-site workforces.
The Korean business community has called for the creation of an E-4 special employment visa exclusively for Korean workers. However, the relevant legislation has been stalled in the US Congress for 13 years since 2013, blocked by bipartisan anti-immigration sentiment.
Since December 2024, immediately after the detention incident, the US Embassy in Seoul has opened a Korea Investment and Travel Desk (KIT Desk) and has been clearly indicating workers' stay qualifications in the form of annotations when issuing B-1 short-term business visas. This is a minimal measure to prevent workers from being unfairly cracked down on by immigration authorities.
