South Korea Entry Requirements

Entry requirements at a glance

If you are not a British citizen travelling on a British citizen passport, do not read the second column as your answer. The K-ETA exemption covers 22 countries and territories, and each nationality has its own position. Check the K-ETA portal or the Korean embassy in your own country. We will not infer an answer for a passport we have not checked.

Who qualifies, and when the answer changes

Every one of these must be true for the short answer to hold. Each points to what to do if it is not.

1. Your passport is a full British citizen passport. If not: Another passport.
2. You are going for tourism or short-term business, for 90 days or fewer. If not: Work, study or a longer stay.
3. You arrive by midnight Korean time on 31 December 2026. If not: Arriving in 2027.
4. The officer at the border admits you. Visa-free is not a right of entry. If you have been refused before: Past refusals or overstays.

Arriving in 2027

The exemption is due to end on 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027, as things stand, a British visitor needs a K-ETA before boarding. You apply at the K-ETA portal or its official app. It costs KRW 10,000 (about US$7–8), and a decision generally comes within 72 hours. It lasts three years and covers stays of up to 90 days. A K-ETA holder does not file the e-Arrival Card.

Treat the date as provisional. Korea announced each extension so far only days before the old one ran out: the current one on 23 December 2025. If you travel in early 2027, watch the K-ETA notice board from November. We will update this page when Korea decides.

Another passport

The exemption follows the passport, not where you live. Living in Britain does not put a passport from elsewhere on the list. A British National (Overseas) or other British passport that is not a British citizen passport is a separate case. Dual nationals should decide which passport they are travelling on and check that one. Children on their own British citizen passport travel on the same terms as adults.

Work, study or a longer stay

Visa-free entry does not allow work of any kind. Teaching English is the most common way visitors get this wrong. Paid work, study and stays over 90 days each need a visa before you travel. Start with the Korean Embassy in the UK.

Past refusals or overstays

A previous refusal of entry, an earlier overstay in Korea or a criminal record can change how you are treated at the border. Nobody outside the Korean authorities, us included, can predict how they will decide your case. If any of it applies to you, contact the Korean Embassy before you book. Please do not share the details with us.

What to do before you travel

1. Fix the facts. Which passport, why you are going, how long for, and every airport you change planes in.
2. Check them against the official sources: the K-ETA portal for the exemption and GOV.UK for the British case.
3. Check the passport. It must be in date beyond the day you leave Korea, undamaged, and never reported lost or stolen. Do this before you book anything you cannot cancel.
4. If you arrive in 2027 or are not on the exemption list, apply for a K-ETA at k-eta.go.kr or the official app, and allow 72 hours. Other sites charge several times the KRW 10,000 fee for retyping the same form; the K-ETA portal warns that some are phishing sites.
5. If you hold a K-ETA, check that it is approved, in date and linked to the passport you will travel on. A new passport needs a new K-ETA.
6. Book your first night and keep your return or onward ticket to hand. The arrival card asks for your address in Korea.
7. File the e-Arrival Card at e-arrivalcard.go.kr in the 72 hours before you land, one form per traveller. It is free. Skip it if you hold a valid K-ETA. Then screenshot the confirmation, because airport wifi is not a plan.
8. Recheck the official sources shortly before you fly. The exemption, the forms and the health lists can all change between booking and departure.

On arrival

At Incheon, take the foreign nationals' queue at immigration and present your passport. If you filed the e-Arrival Card, the officer already has it. If not, you fill in a paper form first, which costs time rather than the trip.

Most foreign visitors aged 17 and over are fingerprinted and photographed. You may be asked why you have come, for how long, where you are staying and whether you have an onward ticket. Answer briefly. The officer then grants your stay. Look at what you have been given: it can be shorter than 90 days.

Customs comes after baggage reclaim, with red and green channels. You must declare anything prohibited, restricted or liable to duty, and cash above the declaration threshold. Food, meat and plant products are where most visitors get caught out. We do not print allowance figures on this page: our money, customs and tax refunds guide covers them, and the Korea Customs Service sets them.

If something goes wrong

You landed without filing the e-Arrival Card. Take a paper form at immigration and fill it in. You cannot file the online card once you have landed, so do not stand in the hall trying.

You paid a third-party site for a K-ETA. Check on k-eta.go.kr whether an application exists in your name; if not, apply there. Treat the passport details you gave as exposed, and speak to your bank.

The airline says the exemption does not cover you. Airlines check before boarding and will refuse you without the authorisation they expect. Ask which rule they are applying and compare it with the K-ETA portal. If you are not covered, apply at once and allow 72 hours; found at check-in, that usually means not flying that day.

Your passport is replaced before you travel. A visa-free trip simply uses the new passport, and you file the e-Arrival Card with its details. A K-ETA does not move with it: apply again for the new passport.

You are refused entry. Refusals often turn on an unclear purpose, no onward ticket, too little money or past immigration history. You may ask for the reason. If you are detained or need help, contact the British Embassy in Seoul.

Something stops you leaving on time. Do not overstay. Contact the Korean immigration authorities before your permitted stay ends. An extension is not something to count on.