Admitted Students
Prepare for COA
In order to apply for the student visa, admitted students must obtain a Certificate of Admission (COA) from KAIST. The COA serves as legal proof of admission to a Korean university and will only be issued after a thorough review of academic qualifications, financial capability, and other admission requirements in accordance with immigration guidelines. Therefore, those who accept the offer from KAIST must provide all the following materials to our office within the applicable time period.
If you possess an F-category visa, please contact your district immigration office to inquire whether any additional actions are required for your study. If obtaining a COA is deemed unnecessary, you are exempt from the instructions below. However, you are still required to follow the instructions above for school registration.
*Additional documents may be required for the COA process.
< The address to submit required materials for COA>
Graduate Admissions Team # 110, E 16-1 Building, KAIST 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea Office +82-42-350-2354 |
A. Submission of Verified Academic Records
This part will be automatically completed if you have already submitted your academic records as instructed in the School Registration section. However, if you are expected to graduate or your degree hasn't been issued yet, please pay close attention to this section.
A provisional (temporary/hope/etc.) certificate can be accepted for the COA application under specific conditions:
a. You must have completed all graduation requirements, with only the issuance of the degree pending.
b. The completion date stated on the provisional certificate should Spring within one year from the COA application date.
If you meet these
conditions, the provisional certificate is acceptable, but it must contain the
following information: ① your personal
details, ② school
information, ③ the specific expected
graduation/degree conferral date, and ④ graduation requirement satisfaction.
The certificate must also bear recognized
verification, either through Apostille or by verification by the Korean embassy.
For school registration, you must still
submit an official degree certificate as described in the School Registration
section. This means that even if you obtain your COA with a provisional
certificate, your official degree certificate must be conferred before your matriculation to KAIST.
The sum of the bank balance and grants in the provided documents must cover the whole cost of studying for one academic year.
Documents demonstrating funding in USD are preferred, but other currencies are also accepted. The bank statement must indicate a balance sufficient to cover the budget for one academic year. This balance may be combined with other grants and scholarships to meet the financial requirement. It must be issued within 30 days from the COA application date unless it includes its own date. Additionally, all financial documents must be in English or Korean, and the original copy must be submitted.
< Notes for Chinese and Uzbek students >
Chinese students must submit bank statements issued within 30 days from the COA application date and freeze the balance until 30 days after the application date. Uzbek students must submit bank statements issued by a Korean bank located in Uzbekistan, with a balance of at least USD 10,000 held for three months at a minimum. |
* Requirements of financial capability may vary by the Korean embassy. Visit the official website of your Korean embassy to apply for a student visa and check their requirements for the student visa application.
You can request a COA only after your first-semester tuition is paid.
However, those with FULL tuition grants from KAIST or other institutions/ organizations are able to request a COA before the payment period.
Self-funding students who pay the partial or full tuition by themselves and/or their sponsors can only request a COA after paying the tuition between the tuition payment period.
If you require an invoice for tuition payment, please directly address your request to the Academic Registrar's Team at registrar@kaist.ac.kr.
The Graduate Admissions Team will email documents for visa application (COA, the Business Registration Certificate, and other paperwork) to admitted students after reviewing all required materials in order of receipt.
For further inquiries, contact advanced.adm@kaist.ac.kr. We’ll prioritize responding to emails with inquiries not covered in this guide. Please note that inquiries already addressed in the guide may experience delayed responses.