South Korea and the United States agreed to set up a working group to overhaul visa rules after last week’s mass detentions of Korean workers in Georgia.

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun on Thursday said the group will move quickly to design a new category for short-term specialists dispatched to U.S. factories, which until now have relied on business visas or ESTA waivers.

The White House also acknowledged shortcomings, with deputy national security adviser Andy Baker admitting that U.S. visa policy has not kept pace with Korean investment and pledging to “actively push follow-up measures.”

In the meantime, Seoul is pressing Washington for clearer guidelines on flexible use of B-1 business visas while continuing to seek a Korean-specific professional visa quota or expanded H-1B allocation.

Officials stressed that aligning visa rules with multibillion-dollar plant projects is critical, warning that delays would damage both U.S. and Korean interests.

The talks mark the first formal step toward addressing long-standing visa gaps that companies say threaten to derail supply-chain cooperation.