More than 300 South Koreans working on an electric battery factory in Georgia remain detained by the U.S. government today. South Korea's foreign minister is involved in talks to resolve this situation, but there may be a lingering issue with visas.
Hundreds of billions of dollars in corporate spending is headed from South Korean companies to the United States.
On Monday, South Korea's Finance Minister spelled out a complication, saying “securing formal work visas has proven extremely difficult.”
The Electronic System for Travel Authorization is a visa waiver program available for up to 90 days. But it's not clear that engineers working through factory installation of machines used in the production of electric car batteries would qualify.
The Korea International Trade Association has an idea: short-term business visas for personnel working on investment projects, as long as the companies present a plan to eventually replace the workers with Americans.
Meanwhile, companies working on this plant in Georgia appear to not be taking any chances. A spokesperson for Hyundai Motor told Reuters some staff has been asked to suspend non-essential travel to the United States.
LG Energy says it has suspended all business travel to the United States — and is advising staff currently in the U.S. to return home.
All of which is likely to delay the date that multi-billion-dollar factory project goes online in Georgia.
