Kathmandu, April 1

A total of 92,376 aspirants have filed their applications to attend the Korean language test this year. As of Sunday night (March 31) — final date to submit applications — 63,487 aspirants have applied for jobs in the production sector and 28,889 in the agriculture sector, according to the Employment Permit System (EPS) Korea Section under the Department of Foreign Employment.

In 2018, a total of 82,264 had registered themselves for the language test. Similarly, 68,383 people had applied for the test in 2017 and 60,626 in 2016.

As per Deputy Director of EPS Section Sovakar Bhandari, aspirants who have submitted documents that are not as per the specifications like improper size of photos and unclear copies of passports will be allowed to submit fresh documents till April 5. Likewise, applicants will also be allowed to make corrections if their names have been spelt incorrectly or their date of birth has been mentioned incorrectly. However, the section will not entertain any new applications.

The language test this year will be conducted in the first week of June.

Earlier, the South Korean government had agreed to hire 10,050 Nepali migrant workers in 2020 under the EPS.

As per Bhandari, 3,000 Nepali workers will be selected to go to Korea in the agriculture sector and 7,050 workers will be employed in the manufacturing and production sectors.

Bhandari added that Nepali youths selected to go to Korea for work under the EPS system can work there for four years and 10 months. They can also take their family members once during the period.

The applicants who pass the language test go through the second round of skills and capacity assessment, before being selected to go to Korea for work.