Korea Visa: Do You Need One, and When to Apply

Check your passport: visa-free entry, K-ETA, or a visa. That decides whether you file anything at all.
Find your route, decided by your home address and why you are coming.
Work out the apply window and count back from the day you land. Do not buy non-refundable flights before approval or issue.

Paid help: when it is worth it

The official routes above charge only the government's own fee, the 10,000 won for a K-ETA or the mission's visa fee, and most people manage them alone. A paid service is worth considering when:

your mission's document list is long and you are not sure what counts as proof of funds or an itinerary
your application must go through a visa application centre and you want that step handled for you
an application has been refused and you do not know why
the mission's forms are not in a language you read well
the deadline is close and a mistake would cost you the trip

It is not worth it when you are exempt (Step 1), when all you need is a K-ETA, which the official site handles for the standard 10,000 won fee, or when you expect it to speed things up: there is no expedited K-ETA service and missions run no priority queue for anyone, so no company can sell you a faster result.

We link to eVisas. It is a commercial company, not the Korean government. It checks your application and submits it through the official channels, and it cannot guarantee a visa is granted.

Get help with your Korea visa applicationvia eVisas · affiliate link

Step 1: does your passport need a visa?

Check the official sources. The K-ETA site lists who may enter visa-free and for how long, and the Korea Visa Portal and its Visa Navigator cover the visa side, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They decide this, not this page.

Your passport is visa-free, and currently exempt from the K-ETA. Nothing to file before you travel except the free e-Arrival Card (Step 3). The 22 countries and regions: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Macao, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States, including Guam. The critical date: this temporary exemption runs to 31 December 2026, Korea time, unless extended, and as of 3 November 2026 no extension beyond that date has been announced. If you arrive on or after 1 January 2027, plan on needing an approved K-ETA unless an extension is announced, and check the notices on k-eta.go.kr again before you travel. You may still apply voluntarily now: the fee is 10,000 won, an approval lasts three years, and it excuses you from the arrival card. Two groups never need a K-ETA whatever their passport: travellers aged 17 or younger, and travellers aged 65 or older, on the day they enter. Stay allowed: your nationality's visa-free stay, published on the K-ETA site; across the visa-free list it runs from 30 days to three months depending on nationality.

Your passport is visa-free, but a K-ETA is required. Apply on k-eta.go.kr or in the official K-ETA app before you travel. The passports readers of this site ask about most in this group: Malaysia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Israel, Türkiye, Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Portugal and South Africa. The fee is 10,000 won, about seven or eight US dollars, and it is not refunded if the application is refused. Assessment normally completes within 72 hours, and the official guidance is to apply at least 72 hours before boarding. An approval lasts three years, or until your passport expires, and covers multiple trips; the stay on each entry is still your nationality's visa-free stay, from 30 days to three months depending on nationality. An approved K-ETA also excuses you from the arrival card. It does not guarantee entry: the immigration officer at the airport makes the final decision, as anywhere.

Your passport needs a visa before you board. If your nationality is not on the visa-free list at all, you need a visa issued before travel. Go to Step 2. One separate case: Jeju runs its own visa-free scheme for travellers who arrive on the island directly. It opens Jeju only, not the mainland.

Step 2: which route? Your home address and your purpose decide it

Your route depends on where you live, not where your passport is from. Find your row.

Why you are coming	Where you live	How you apply
Tourism, short stay, on a K-ETA-required visa-free passport	Anywhere	Yourself, on k-eta.go.kr or in the official K-ETA app
Tourism, short stay, on a passport that needs a visa	Anywhere	Paper application at the Korean embassy, consulate or visa application centre with jurisdiction over your home address
One of the few statuses the Korea Visa Portal lists for an e-Visa	Anywhere	e-Visa on the Korea Visa Portal, only where your status is on its list
Business, conference, study, work	Anywhere	The Korean embassy, consulate or visa application centre covering your home address, with documents from the organiser, employer or institution in Korea

What the portal e-Visa covers: only the statuses the portal itself lists, among them certain professional statuses held by experts with an official employment recommendation (the Gold Card), a potential investor in public business, medical tourism arranged by a recognised facilitator, a repeat business visitor invited by a Korean company who meets the portal's conditions, and short-term employee scientists invited by a government-funded research institution or an accredited university. Ordinary tourism is not on the list. The portal's Visa Navigator, and its e-form that you fill in online and then take, printed with its bar code, to your mission, are tools for the mission route, not a general online tourist visa.

The only genuine K-ETA address is k-eta.go.kr. Type it yourself. The Ministry of Justice warns about lookalike agency and phishing sites that charge high fees for the same form. The government fee is 10,000 won, there is no official agent, and no expedited service exists at any price.

Need someone to check and file it for you? A paid service can help on the visa route. See Paid help above.

Step 3: when to apply. Count back from the day you land

Your arrival day is the day your flight lands, usually the day before the event. Every deadline below is counted back from it. The lines mix two kinds of date: the government's own timings, and our working rules built on top of them.

Days before you land	What happens
90 days	Window opens for the visa route. Korean missions state that a single entry application should not be submitted more than 3 months before travel, so earlier is not better.
8 weeks	A visa application should already be in motion. Business or conference: request your invitation documents from the organiser in Korea now. Their clock is not yours.
30 days	Apply by now. This is our line for every route. Appointments, document fixes and public holidays all eat days, and it leaves room to answer a K-ETA refusal with a visa application instead.
Visa processing	Once a complete application is accepted, missions work in weeks, not days. The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Seattle, for example, publishes 3 to 4 weeks for a short-term conference visa; your own mission publishes its own time.
14 days	Latest comfortable application. Inside this line you are relying on everything going right first time, on a passport the system reads cleanly.
72 hours	The K-ETA cliff edge. The official guidance is to apply at least 72 hours before boarding, and assessment normally completes within 72 hours, in the order applications arrive. It is a normal time, not a promise, and it can stretch when applications surge. You cannot board without the approval, so do not plan to be inside it.
K-ETA approved	Valid for three years from approval, or until your passport expires, whichever comes first. It covers multiple trips; the stay on each entry is still your nationality's visa-free stay.
Before landing	If you are travelling on the exemption or on a visa, file the free e-Arrival Card at e-arrivalcard.go.kr within 3 days before arrival. It is an arrival declaration, not a visa and not a travel authorisation. Travellers holding an approved K-ETA skip it: the approval already covers the declaration.

Flights and hotels. Apply inside the window for your route, then book non-refundable travel only once the K-ETA is approved or the visa is issued. A booked flight does not speed up a mission or the K-ETA assessment, and no paid service can jump the queue. Until approval is in hand, use refundable fares or a hold.

Why the window. A visa application cannot usefully be lodged more than three months out, mission processing runs in weeks, and the K-ETA assessment normally takes up to 72 hours but can stretch. Thirty days leaves room for all three.

Worked examples from the calendar

Event	Land by	Window opens	Apply by (30 days)	Latest comfortable (14 days)
APEC 2027: 24th Scientific Congress of the Asia Pacific Endodontic Confederation, Busan, Thu 25 Mar 2027 (conference, mission route)	Wed 24 Mar 2027	Thu 24 Dec 2026	Mon 22 Feb 2027	Request organiser documents by Wed 27 Jan 2027
44th Busan International Short Film Festival, Busan, Thu 22 Apr 2027	Wed 21 Apr 2027	Thu 21 Jan 2027	Mon 22 Mar 2027	Wed 7 Apr 2027

If your conference is closer than that and you have not asked the organiser for documents, contact them today, before booking anything non-refundable.

How to apply

Work out which of the three groups in Step 1 your passport is in, using k-eta.go.kr and the Visa Navigator on visa.go.kr.
If a K-ETA applies, apply on k-eta.go.kr or in the official K-ETA app, and check the address before you type anything. Enter your passport details exactly as printed, pay the 10,000 won fee by card, and check the result before you travel. A new passport means a new K-ETA.
If you need a visa, find the Korean embassy, consulate or visa application centre with jurisdiction over your home address. Its website has the exact document list for your nationality and purpose.
Gather your documents. Tourism: itinerary, accommodation, proof of funds. Business or conference: add the documents from Korea (see below).
Submit by the apply-by line in Step 3. A mission-route application should already be in motion eight weeks out.
Keep your documents to hand until the approval or the visa is in hand. A mission can ask for more, and a K-ETA application is read in order, with no way to speed it up.
Enter Korea inside the validity of what you hold. Before you land, if you hold no approved K-ETA, file the free e-Arrival Card within three days before arrival. It is border paperwork, not a visa. Details on the practical page.
Warning for the 22 exempt passports: the temporary K-ETA exemption runs to 31 December 2026 unless extended, and no extension had been announced when this page was checked. If your trip falls in early 2027, check the notices on k-eta.go.kr again before you rely on travelling with nothing to file.

Conferences, business and performers

Attending a conference, as a delegate in the sessions and meetings, is a purpose the K-ETA's own guidance names, so delegates on the visa-free lists travel on the routes above. A conference or business trip on a visa-needing passport always runs through the mission covering your home address, with documents prepared in Korea:

a letter of invitation from the organiser
your schedule of stay
a letter of guarantee, where the Korean side covers your costs
a letter from your own employer

Ask the organiser for these the day you register, not the week you fly. Eight weeks before you land is the latest. Paid performing, teaching or any paid work needs the correct work status arranged in advance, never a tourist route. Neither a K-ETA nor a short-term visit visa covers being paid in Korea. If money is changing hands, take advice before you apply.

Five traps

Copycat K-ETA sites charging many times the fee for the official application. The only genuine K-ETA address is k-eta.go.kr, and the only other channel is the official app.
Treating a K-ETA as a visa, or a visa as a K-ETA. A K-ETA is a travel authorisation for people who enter without a visa; a visa is permission applied for and issued in advance. Neither substitutes for the other.
Assuming the 22-country K-ETA exemption continues past 31 December 2026 without checking. It is temporary, it has been renewed a year at a time, and no extension had been announced when this page was checked.
Applying in your passport's country instead of where you live. Jurisdiction follows your home address.
Leaving a mission-route visa inside its processing window. Missions work in weeks, and a file that needs another document starts the wait again.

Then plan the trip

Events calendar: the date you counted back from. Getting there: airports, trains and an eSIM that keeps your documents reachable. Practical: the e-Arrival Card, money, plugs and customs.

Visa and K-ETA facts on this page were checked against k-eta.go.kr, visa.go.kr, e-arrivalcard.go.kr and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea (mofa.go.kr) on 3 November 2026. Entry rules change; the Korean authorities and your consulate are the final word.

Disclaimer: This page is general information only, based on publicly available guidance checked on 3 November 2026. It is not legal or immigration advice. Visa rules, eligibility and processing times can change, and decisions are made solely by the Korean authorities. Korea What's On accepts no responsibility for any application, processing outcome, delay or loss arising from reliance on this page. Always confirm the requirements for your passport and circumstances with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and the Korean embassy or consulate covering your home address before you book or travel.

Korea visa: do you need one, and when to apply