South Korea Importer of Record at Glance:
Importer of Record
- To act as an Importer of Record you will need a business entity registered with South Korea and an import license
- You will need a “KC certificate” for all electronic and IT imports to confirm that the product meets all of the safety requirements set by the South Korean government
IT Shipping & Logistics
- South Korea has great infrastructure and is a major hub in East Asia for deploying IT and communications technology
Importer of Record and Pre-Shipment Documentation
South Korea Importer of Record
To act as an Importer of Record in South Korea, like in most countries, you will need a registered business entity and an importer license. FGX typically encourages companies that can be their own importer of record to do so. This makes IT imports cheaper and allows companies to reclaim VAT taxes when applicable. But more often than not, our clients do not have import licenses in place, as they’re typically not in the logistics business (e.g. SaaS, CDN, Financial firms). In this instance, FGX provides our import license via our IOR service on behalf of our clients when importing into South Korea.
KC Certificates and Other Requirements
In addition, to standard shipping documents like a commercial invoice and certificate of origin, you will likely need a KC (Korea Certification) Certificate if you are importing any kind of electronics or IT equipment. The KC certificate must be obtained before the items are shipped.
A KC Certificate is a product safety document that you can procure from the equipment manufacturer. The certificate is specific to the brand, item, and model. A certificate from a similar product but an earlier model will not suffice to clear customs. The certificate proves to customs that the product has gone through all the necessary testing for voltage, radio transmission, etc.
KC certificates are provided by the manufacturer and they either exist or they do not. If the equipment that you need to ship has not undergone the proper testing and the manufacturer does not already have a KC certificate, an alternative is to obtain equipment that does have one. FGX has a database of KC Certificates for most IT products of major OEMs, like Cisco, Dell, etc. With it, we can manage everything on our client’s behalf. In some rare cases, we help our clients procure KC Certificates for products that don’t have one, by going through the certification and testing processes.
IT Shipping & Logistics
South Korea is not only a country that encourages IT and communication infrastructure growth, but it also has some of the best import/export infrastructure in the world.
South Korea has a well-earned reputation as a global information technology and communication leader. Their citizens are some of the most hyper connected in the world and therefore their general tech infrastructure is strong. Once FGX has helped you transfer your IT hardware into South Korea it’s extremely easy to maintain.
In order to support this major IT and communications hub, South Korea has invested in the infrastructure to support the necessary technology imports.
FGX manages all of our client’s shipments door-to-door (or door-to-datacenter). This case study showcases how we navigated IT logistics and importation into South Korea at the time that it was written. Regulations and challenges are constantly changing and exact shipping requirements may have changed. To learn more about FGX and how our global shipping platform can help your company, reach out here.
