The number of Mongolians working in South Korea reached a record high in 2017. Currently, over 46,000 Mongolians have immigrated to South Korea for work; nearly 13.500 are illegal. According to official sources, the South Korean Embassy in Ulaanbaatar granted 11,752 visas to Mongolians in the period to November, 2017. On average 35.000 Mongolians have applied for South Korean visa.

However, the South Korean government announced plans to reduce the rate of illegally residing migrants to below 10 percent in 2018 by tightening prescreening. Seoul faces significant problems with illegal migrants: currently, there are 1.9 million foreign nationals living in Korea, accounting for 3.7 percent of the entire population.