Seoul says US must fix its visa system if it wants Korea's investments
133 comments
·September 11, 2025deepsquirrelnet
ciconia
This is just American imperialism brought home, and it's already being targeted at American citizens themselves. Now you're starting to get a taste of how people in many countries feel about the US.
MBCook
> It’s just not smart, not good politics and not good business.
So in other words SOP
cwmoore
Separate Our Priorities
malcolmgreaves
*SOP for Republicans whenever they get ahold of government.
vuthery
Yeah we just need to vote the other guys in! I'm gonna vooooote so hard.
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sleepyguy
ICE has bravely rescued us from the menace of people building battery factories. Forget fentanyl, trafficking, or violent crime—our real existential threat was clearly a few Korean engineers with power tools. Obviously, they were biding their time before graduating to cartel kingpins. And thank heavens the plant won’t be finished—who actually wants it and the jobs, infrastructure, etc it would bring.
Sleep well, folks—America is saved, one deported factory worker at a time.
Scoundreller
The bit that gets me is another country is kinda handing over its technology to USA, so why get in the way?
When US engineers went to China to offshore US factories there, I doubt China got in the way. Probably watched with heavy interest but definitely not hindered in any way.
ProAm
If I were Hyundai and had the cash to spare I would close and tear down the facility.
standardUser
Police in the US are way too quick to handcuff people. It should be reserved for violent or aggressive suspects, or at least require formal justification as is required in much of Europe. Police here will take a calm and cooperative person and rob them of their most fundamental human right, merely as a convenience.
toasted-subs
Police in the US are plain lunatics, they parked police outside my house and camped on my street for years. Basically murdered me and tortured me psychologically. I wish the worst for everyone involved my slavery.
scotty79
It's hard to tell if handling cooperative person in handcuffs is more convenient than without handcuffs.
goku12
The Koreans are so generous! I don't think that any other country would be so polite if they were humiliated like this [1] after they made such big investments in your country. I don't get the feeling that many in the US understand that you are the one at disadvantage when you disrespect your investors. Is it because the US has never faced a diplomatic backlash before? At the minimum, the aggrieved party would hold the rest of the investments hostage and force you into making major concessions.
Anyway, the way ICE treats immigrants is going to cost the US dearly, both in monetary and in reputational terms. The US may not care much about the dignity of the foreigners, but their parent countries do. The charade about 'illegal immigrants' won't work anymore, because clearly that's not what's happening. It's like the foreigners are targeted to prove a political point to the domestic audience. ICE is acting like a rogue force and is really asking to be outlawed and sanctioned internationally. I want to see how long the rest of the world will remain restrained before they've had enough of the ICE abuse.
[1] The news I got from a US source (don't remember which one) was that all of them except one were on valid temporary work visas to set up the plant and train the new US staff who would take over later. That one exception was also on a valid visa, but 'productive job' was not allowed. But he was there for training, so no violations there either.
second_brekkie
I happen to know someone well who works for a Korean Conglomerate building industrial/car batteries in the US.
When you do construction work, or operate the production line it has to be done by American Labour.
The visas they have only cover setup, repair and education of the production line.
At that LG/Hyundai factory they were using Korean contractors for construction. So there was some breaking of the terms of the visa for at least some of the people.
However, ICE didn't need to arrest everyone. All they needed to do was send a warning. These companies don't want the trouble, they would comply.
Now you have many Koreans very upset. And people in my friends company are now scared to go to America even though they are management.
It's not good for anyone, it's just so short sighted!
jjani
> I happen to know someone well who works for a Korean Conglomerate building industrial/car batteries in the US.
You could just say you know someone at LG ;)
> However, ICE didn't need to arrest everyone. All they needed to do was send a warning. These companies don't want the trouble, they would comply.
The point is to reach quotas. Warnings and voluntary exits don't help with those.
> Now you have many Koreans very upset.
FWIW, the reaction among Koreans (i.e. in korea), especially the younger generation, has been quite mixed. Among age 20-39, only a minority expressed being "disappointed with the US' excessive measures". Among the older groups, the majority did react negatively.
darth_avocado
It used to be a wink wink agreement between the US and Korea. Yes, Korean companies break rules, but a lot of it tends to be directly related to the terms put in by the government. There’s milestones and deadlines that need to be met to ensure money gets released. But we all know what happens to construction projects here. There were some people definitely working on wrong visas.
https://www.ft.com/content/c677b9aa-2e89-4feb-a56f-f3c8452b3...
Workaccount2
Authoritarians love strong message optics, for better or worse or much worse.
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onetokeoverthe
[dead]
slyall
Personally I'd be very careful about traveling to the US office for a two week visit these days on an ESTA or similar Visa Waiver.
Historically people have done it and a blind eye has been turned, but with the climate these days you want to be 100% in compliance of your Visa conditions.
a_bonobo
Here in Australia, we've received org-wide approval to just not go to the US if we cannot help it. It's not worth the risk.
AnotherGoodName
Traditionally the to do work trips into the USA for Australia and other USA allies was the ESTA visa waiver that these Koreans were on.
From reading about what happened here it seems the South Koreans were on that visa waiver for their work trips. A lot of people claiming "it doesn't allow you to work" yet the visa waiver has a long long list of various types of work it does allow and it's pretty broad.
So it seems the ESTA isn't worth anything anymore. You can't go to the USA without a very very heavyweight working VISA. Ok. No more trade shows, conferences or general business trips.
blackguardx
My US-based company has the same policy for all international travel now to avoid any incidents coming back into the US.
scotty79
US is on my no-fly list for many years now and most likely will stay there till my death.
azinman2
Seems extreme.
nitinreddy88
Isn't it how it supposed to be? Valid Visa -> free to enter No valid Visa -> should be behind the bars
orwin
It was an ESTA, and yes, technically working from the US with an ESTA isn't allowed. I'm not invited to the CES since I've left the first company I worked for in 2020, but I definitely would have cancelled all my plans to do so until this is clarified. If I needed a full visa to get there, I probably wouldn't have.
Also that's not what happened. The ones responsible for the breach, IE Hyundai execs and management who took care of the visa waivers and asked their employees to setup production lines were not arrested, only the people who had little to say about capital allocation were. In a way, Hyundai investors would have been a better target than their workers since they choose the execs who chose to build in the USA.
graeme
If you've ever traveled abroad and replied to a work email or worked on anything at your hotel there's a chance you violated visa rules in some form. Very easy to find a violation if you want to find one, following the letter and not the spirit of the law.
wasabi991011
Why behind bars? Isn't the obvious step to deport them?
dpkirchner
The first step is to get them in front of a judge.
wasabi991011
The comment specifically mentions visa waivers and ESTA
standardUser
That a gross misunderstanding of immigration laws, considering nearly all immigration violations are civil matters, not criminal.
behringer
No, probably not.
protocolture
Thats disgusting.
JumpCrisscross
America can’t build ships. Including warships.
In a war of attrition with China, guess which ally we’ll have to depend on to make our shit?
(Hint [1].)
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_shipbuil...
seanmcdirmid
South Korea is way too close to China to be relied on n a war against China. Only if we have an overwhelming advantage and the war is mostly a defensive one for China, but I seriously doubt that would be the case.
JumpCrisscross
> Korea is way too close to China to be relied on n a war against China
Enemy of thy enemy.
We protect Korea from the Kims. We also buy from them and treat them with dignity. Break those pillars and yes, China controls Asia and the Pacific in a way Yamamoto could have only dreamed of.
> and the war is mostly a defensive one for China
China holding Taiwan is a direct threat to the security of Seoul.
seanmcdirmid
I get that, I just don’t think the front line will be so close to China. Even in the Korean War non-regular Chinese troops were able to take Seoul…twice. The country just isn’t very defensible in a war with China, not defensible enough to have it continue making ships uninterrupted.
rawgabbit
They are also supplying Poland with the tanks it needs to defend itself.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/emerging/poland-signs-contra...
SilverElfin
We could build them. We can invest. It doesn’t have to come from outside. But no matter what, catching up to China’s volume is not possible for many years.
JumpCrisscross
It would require phasing out the Jones Act. Nobody is doing that.
It would also require not making American steel and energy uniquely expensive, and American industry uninvestable.
like_any_other
"If we don't continue outsourcing all of our know-how and industry, we won't be able to solve the problems caused by outsourcing all of our know-how and industry!"
__turbobrew__
Has anyone disputed the validity of the visas of the workers which were deported? My understanding is that SK citizens cannot get E-4, so people came to the US and worked on a visa that didn’t allow working, and the US deported the people violating visa rules in a not nice way?
Im guessing this is the case or else the SK sources would be calling out that these workers were following visa rules?
roughly
In at least one case, a worker had a valid visa: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/10/hyundai-fact...
SilverElfin
A valid visa possibly but not one valid for the type of work they are doing, which would have required an H1B. The article doesn’t seem to address this head on.
AnotherGoodName
Did you read the leaked memo specifically ‘he has not violated his visa’ part?
Its right there in the link the parent gave. As in they had a visa and ice acknowledged no violation of the terms of that visa in very plain english.
themaninthedark
It looks to me like they may have been in breach of their visa depending on the work they were doing:
A B-1 / B-2 visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows foreign nationals to travel to the United States temporarily for business (B-1), tourism (B-2), or a mix of both (B1/B2). https://www.boundless.com/immigration-resources/b-1-b-2-visi...
B1 Visa Subcategories and Special Cases
While the B-1 visa generally restricts employment and formal education, there are some exceptions under specific circumstances. These exceptions aren’t separate visa categories but annotations considered by the U.S. consular officers during the visitor visa application process.
Here’s a closer look at these special B-1 subcategories:
B-1 after-sales service visa: Companies selling equipment to the U.S. can leverage this visa to send assemblers for on-site service orders. Think of it as temporary technical support. These assemblers can perform tasks like installation, maintenance, and training, but the assembly work must be done by U.S. personnel.
B-1 in place of H-1B visa (temporary project visa): Some professionals might be eligible for a B-1 visa for temporary projects in specific scenarios. This option can be viable when an H-1B visa, typically used for specialty occupations, might be challenging to obtain.
B-1 instead of H-3 visa (short-term training): Under certain conditions, the B-1 category can be used for brief in-house training sessions or further employee education. It allows for skills development without needing a dedicated H-3 visa designed for trainee positions.
IMPORTANT! These B1 business visa exceptions have strict requirements. Working with an immigration service provider or lawyer is highly recommended to determine if a particular B-1 visa category fits your situation.
https://www.immigrationdirect.com/guides/b1-b2-visitor-visa/
decimalenough
From the friendly link, ICE itself says he did not violate his visa conditions in any way:
From statements made and queries in law enforcement databases, [redacted] has not violated his visa; however, the Atlanta Field Office Director has mandated [redacted] be presented as a Voluntary Departure. [Redacted] has accepted voluntary departure despite not violating his B1/B2 visa requirements.”
jkaplowitz
> My understanding is that SK citizens cannot get E-4
Nobody can, because it doesn’t exist. The E-4 visa mentioned in the article is a proposed new classification that a bill pending in Congress would, if enacted, create just for Korean workers, similar to the existing E-3 classification for Australians.
garbawarb
Would that be done by congress? I thought all nonimmigrant-intent work visas like that were written into treaties.
qingcharles
I've not seen any good summary of whether any/some/all of those arrested had actually committed any sort of immigration violation. I would love to see some actual truth about it.
gpm
There's definitely a dispute over whether at least some of the people detained were operating within the bounds of their visa's: https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/lawyer-says...
It's also very noteworthy that these people are still being imprisoned in the US on Donald Trump's orders - Trump having personally prevented the repatriation of the Koreans to Korea today. There is absolutely no reason to believe that we have the full story, or that the Korean government, or the Korean's individual friends/families/represetnatives feel free to speak freely as America seemingly holds their citizens hostage. To say that lack of further public disputes is proof that there is not more to dispute seems false to me.
themaninthedark
That is a bit hyperbolic to say they are being held hostage, the government has accused them of a crime and is holding them while they are given due process.
We can debate the validity of the government's claim, I have seen an article which says that the workers were on B1/B2 Visa which has strict requirements for what is allowed from what I have read but also says the government in it's internal report also stated no crime was committed.
Which countries just repatriate those they accuse of crimes rather than prosecute?
gpm
No - there is no due process or criminal charges at play here. The government detained them per immigration law in order to deport them, for the sake of argument lawfully. The government arranged to repatriate them. Then in order to attempt to negotiate a business deal Donald Trump ordered them not repatriated, and instead to be continued to be held in US custody without trial, without criminal charges, and without even the suggestion that the purpose was to charge them criminally. Rather the explicit purpose was to attempt to negotiate a business deal where they would remain working in the US.
Holding people in custody in order to negotiate a business deal is the definition of hostage taking.
bix6
> Trump having personally prevented the repatriation of the Koreans to Korea today
Can’t see past the paywall but what did he do? Prevent the charter flight from landing?
gpm
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/south-korea-nationals-r...
> South Korean officials originally hoped the Korean Air plane would leave Atlanta as early as Wednesday afternoon local time, shortly after it arrived from Seoul. But the foreign ministry said its departure was likely to be delayed “due to circumstances on the U.S. side,” and a spokesperson for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport later said that the charter flight had been canceled.
> At a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Wednesday, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun learned that Trump had ordered the suspension of the repatriation process in order to discuss with South Korea whether its detained nationals — all of them skilled workers who were helping to set up an electric vehicle battery plant — should remain in the U.S. to continue their work rather than being sent home.
malloryerik
I think there feeling is, you say you want us to build our products in the U.S. but then our essential workers aren't allowed in so it's an impossible demand.
Cornbilly
It’s my understanding that a lot of them were on B-1 visas.
ytch
But South Korean are eligible for ESTA program.
IIRC, US embassies in eligible countries are usually very picky about issuing B-1 visas. They assume ESTA works in most cases, so you need a strong reason to apply for B-1.
jordanb
Yeah bringing in people on a tourists visa would have been unthinkable at any place I've ever worked.
jbm
When I worked at Salesforce Japan, I went to conferences in the US. I always honestly said it was for business when entering the country. I spent nearly the whole time at the office, and answered emails from customers and clients.
No one asked about visas. I didn't think that was an issue since I really was there for a week for a business conference, but maybe it was? After all, technically it was a "Tourist" visa.
In the end though, SFDC keeps almost all of its technical talent in the US. If the government really got annoying, they probably would have stuck to the local talent and forgotten about the rest of us.
AnotherGoodName
The ESTA visa waiver which is the easiest way into the USA for allied nations specifically allows meetings, consultation, training and states that installation of advanced equipment is allowed under that visa.
The question being asked by the parent is if they stepped outside the boundaries of that visa waiver.
viraptor
There are more options than "tourist" and "working" visa. Your message is significantly oversimplifying it. Until we know what they were actually doing at work (really, not claimed by ice), we won't know how valid their stay was.
seanmcdirmid
None of them were actually on tourist visas from what I heard, so you can be confident in your unthinkable situations.
Simulacra
It was a clear violation, the rest of this is just posturing for politics. Most of the people had come on the wrong visa, knowingly. So either the company lied, or the employees are lying, or both.
a_bonobo
>Leaked Ice document shows worker detained in Hyundai raid had valid visa
>At least one of the Korean workers swept up in a huge immigration raid on a Hyundai Motor factory site in Georgia last week was living and working legally in the US, according to an internal federal government document obtained by the Guardian.
>Officials then “mandated” that he agree to be removed from the US despite not having violated his visa.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/10/hyundai-fact...
like_any_other
"worker", singular. And the rest?
themaninthedark
>According to the file written by an agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), an agency within Ice, the man entered the US “with a valid B1/B2 visa”, which allows for some business-related activities and tourism. He was at the Hyundai factory as a contractor with a South Korean company.
I did some research on B1/B2 Visa's it looks like the work allowed is rather restricted. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45207369
viraptor
> It was a clear violation
Can you show us the proof?
> Most of the people had come on the wrong visa
Can you show us the proof?
> knowingly
Can you show us the proof?
You're very sure about it without all the details being known and people possibly still wanting to get out safely, without causing further conflicts by speaking out. I've done enough travel / border chats that if I ended up in their situation, I'd be keen to shut up and get out as soon as possible, regardless of my legal status.
keepamovin
Exactly! But now they’re going to claim special treatment, avoid responsibility, and show their true attitudes beneath the surface: they don’t respect you or your laws.
This is not caused by Trump; its latent attitude being surfaced.
aussieguy1234
I'll bet the North Korean government picks up the raid and uses it as propaganda on their state TV, as an example of "How americans treat koreans".
andris9
I once flew to the US for a week on ESTA to attend a few meetings (pre-COVID), but I mostly just did my regular developer work in the US office. By today’s standards, would I have been shackled for that?
hydroreadsstuff
That's what it seems like. Some people here disagree with you, but I can add anecdata that my employer insisted I do no coding on such a VISA.
themaninthedark
No: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/business... >A foreigner traveling to the United States to conduct temporary business must have a visitor visa (B) unless qualifying for entry under the Visa Waiver Program.
Examples of temporary business include:
Attending business meetings or consultations Attending a business convention or conference Negotiating contracts
ViewTrick1002
The meeting is fine. The developer work is not.
themaninthedark
Right but the purpose of the trip was to attend the business meeting and the person on the trip was also conducting their regular duties as a developer as well.
Attending meetings and conferences are rarely the main duties of an employee but they are the main purpose of trips.
Similarly to how, if you go to Mexico on a Tourist Visa but answer a critical work phone call you would not be breaching the terms of your visa as the purpose of your trip is still vacation. However if you rent a house for 5 months and spend most of that time doing developer work, I think that the authorities there might be a little upset.
dbancajas
If there's a photo op opportunity I'm sure you would be.
ViewTrick1002
Yes.
pcurve
This will likely hit tourism from SK as well, which is already down 15%.
phendrenad2
The US immigration system is an overcomplicated mess, and seemingly no one in government wants to change it. Maybe change will happen now.
SilverElfin
Maybe. But that doesn’t excuse Korean companies violating immigration laws. Union workers who reported this and invited the raid have reported that this was a tactic taken to avoid paying local workers.
silisili
That's what I've been trying to determine because of all the fake news on both sides...did they actually do anything wrong?
Because if so, this outrage feels a bit "No stop, those aren't the color immigrants we wanted you to round up."
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scotty79
Why would Hyundai trust the competence of local workers? If US workforce was competent enough to build battery factory they would have built it without Hyundai. It's not like US lacks money. It just lacks everything else, including competence and common sense.
It was probably a tactic to get stuff done.
jjani
Koreans and the Korean government would have zero time for that excuse if e.g. a Chinese company gives the exact same reasoning to violate visa laws in Korea.
nimish
Are there details on what visas Hyundai needed they couldn't get? L-1A/B for sending experts or management would make sense but I'm not sure there's any real issue getting those, especially not in 2023 when the plant was started.
themaninthedark
They keep referring to the workers as contractors, which is a bit ambiguous as it is used for both people doing construction work or people hired for outside technical expertise.
There were here on B1/B2 Visas according to the reporting, which has a 6 month duration and rather strict requirements: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45207369
If they were here in the first case of the word, I would say they were definitely in violation. If here for the second case, perhaps not but if they did not get the "B-1 in place of H-1B visa (temporary project visa): Some professionals might be eligible for a B-1 visa for temporary projects in specific scenarios. This option can be viable when an H-1B visa, typically used for specialty occupations, might be challenging to obtain." they may have still been in violation.
I don’t think parading out engineers in shackles for a photo op was a good idea.
From another article:
> Images of South Koreans being shackled at the wrists and ankles have caused outrage in South Korea, a key U.S. ally in Asia that has pledged hundreds of billions in U.S. investment as part of tariff negotiations.
It’s just not smart, not good politics and not good business.