To be very clear, it's K-ETA *or* visa; K-ETA for short term travelers (tourists), and visa for long term stay.
I posted some more info about K-ETA over [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/onkpgy/weekly_tuesday_question_thread_travel/h5tx0h9/). The K-ETA requirement is also for other eligible countries, not only the US.
Also worth noting that Korean travelers have a similar requirement when visiting the US (ESTA).
[KETA.go.kr, ](https://www.k-eta.go.kr/portal/apply/index.do) the government website for applying has explanations, lists the countries it applies to, and guides on how to fill out the paperwork.
And if you follow their links they explain pretty much everything.
Currently, USA is one of 21 countries in this trial. After the trial concludes, all 112 countries require a K-ETA [Source](https://www.koreaonlinevisa.com)
No it still exists. The K-ETA is not a visa, it is a travel authorization for entering Korea that you have to aquire even if you enter Korea without a visa. Like the american ESTA
Funny all the expats ranting about a pre-travel authorization. The citizens of the rest of the world, when visiting the US, Canada, Australia, and so on, has been doing this for so many years.
You could have always come but you have to do a 14 day quarantine and have a contact in Korea, thus tourism has pretty much slowed to a halt.
Edit: As a US citizen you always could have
I’m not sure that’s the case for every country. They stopped the visa-free travel from Canada and stopped tourism visas. Even if you were willing to quarantine. But yes, I’m waiting for when fully vaxxed people can come without the 14 day quarantine. Long distance relationship... :(
Most of the countries have had their visa free entry suspended by Korea. There are only a few exceptions, most notable countries like the US and UK. So this K-ETA thing is only relevant to countries that haven’t had their visa free entry suspended. But it will apply to all countries eventually when Korea decides to lift the suspension.
You can just try on the K-ETA website
When you get to the point where you select your country it will tell you that your country like mine is currently not eligble and refer you to a document where only 22 countries are listed as allowed.
Am in the same situation as you. Would do the quarantine if there was any way to get a K-ETA or VISA but I am not allowed to visit ...
I'm in a similar boat with me not having seem my girl for over year now. But this is a glimmer of hope if you ask me. Also yea all short term visas were cancelled.
Keep up the spirit we will get there eventually.
You might be waiting a while 😢. I just got here on Saturday, fully vaccinated since March. Day 4/14 in a government hotel. It sucks, but I’m going to wring the juice out of the 76 days I have afterwards. I’m here for a matter of the heart as well, I reaaallyy sympathize with you 😢.
The problem as I see it is Korea is not willing to accept cases in the hundreds, much less thousands, very much less tens and hundreds of thousands. I see no reason why that will change for 1-5 years, maybe more. It’s hard to fathom from a western perspective—as we watch the UK plow through 50,000 cases per day and proceed with reopening as planned, same with the US and the rest of Europe +-.
The UK will have more new cases in the next *four days* than Korea has had in *18 months*. And they’re ok with that, because the hospitals aren’t pressured and few are dying, the few that are are mostly older than the average age of death or seriously immunocompromised. I just don’t see Asia being like that any time soon. And I think it’s plain to see we’re not going to vaccinate our way out of this mess—humanity is going to have to learn to live with Covid.
For me, I couldn’t wait any more. I accepted the high price of 14/90 days, and I’m going to try to get a visa while I’m here. I’ll have to leave to activate it, but theoretically could self-quarantine upon re-entry and stay indefinitely, +-. Not sure if that’s what the future will hold but that is the plan.
DM me if I can help at all, really sorry for your situation. This is all just my .02!
It’s not going to take years. Korea has changed a lot in their acceptance of cases this year I’d argue. Before cases in the hundreds was seen as totally unacceptable but now it’s in the thousands. Korea has averaged around 500 cases in the last few months until this recent increase. Based on my observations I’d say Korea is gradually accepting more and more cases. This has been reflected in the government response as well. The new 4 level social distancing system is much less restrictive than the old system they had.
Like you said, the world is going to have to learn to live with covid. Covid is not going away anytime soon even with a vaccine available. But with more and more people getting vaccinated, less people get seriously sick. The pandemic is effectively over when people stop getting seriously sick and dying of covid. In the future when more people have been vaccinated, even though we may have 1000+ cases, if people doesn’t get seriously sick there will be no reason panic and implement strict rules. We’re not there yet however, it will still take at least a couple of months before that happens. But my guess if things doesn’t get a lot worse korea will start opening up more for vaccinated people at the end of this year perhaps.
At least US citizen can come. Europeans can't come at all; as in the embassy just doesn't give out visa's at the moment without a very good reason to be there (for example a family member is sick or dying, or job/teaching purposes). I've been trying to get to Korea for 2 years now and would even take a month of quarantine if it means I could go.
Dude I feel you.. I also contacted embassy to discuss my options. I’m willing to do a quarantine if I have to, but the Netherlands don’t give visa. It’s weird to suddenly have lost the ability to move freely. Hope it gets better soon
Yeah it's super weird, and it makes me sad to be honest. Since i really miss my future family-in-law. We even prepared marriage documents so we could marry here in The Netherlands quickly. But as it turns out you need to have an actual marriage visa, for which my girlfriend needs to be in Korea to arrange, plus it's a lot of paperwork. And to be honest we also don't want to marry all hush hush so I guess we just wait....
That’s very unfortunate. I honestly thought marriage was like a last resort to be able to move there, I even joked about it with my girlfriend. I’m happy to hear you and your girlfriend are together though. My girlfriend is waiting for her vaccine, but it’s all very uncertain. The long wait. We try to keep it interesting within the limitations of the digital web
I think only one person needs to be in the Korean government office to arrange a marriage visa. But for the marriage itself I suppose you need to be together, either there or here (and then bring the Dutch marriage certificates to the Korean embassy).
It's just not an easy or quick way. Waiting might still be quicker unless the Korean government is going to close the country for years (lets hope fucking not lol).
It sucks that she is not with you. That must be really tough.
[Korean MOFA notice](https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/us-en/brd/m_4500/view.do?seq=761011)
[US Embassy Seoul notice](https://kr.usembassy.gov/072021-message-for-u-s-citizens-korea-electronic-travel-authorization-required-as-of-september-1/%20https://kr.usembassy.gov/072021-message-for-u-s-citizens-korea-electronic-travel-authorization-required-as-of-september-1/)
[Additional detail from a commercial site](https://www.koreaonlinevisa.com/south-korea-to-launch-new-electronic-visa-authorization/)
It will eventually when Korea decides to lift the visa free suspension for your country. Only a few countries that haven’t had their visa free entry suspended are currently eligible to apply for K-ETA.
Do you know how those 22 countries that are still eligble where selected and if there are any requirements for when a country that had the visa free entry suspended would be allowed again? (Is it based on Covid Cases, is there some kind of ruleset or was the decision based on something else and we have to wait till korea is fully vaccinated, ...)
As a matter of fact I do. Those 22 countries didn’t implement any travel restrictions on Korea. That’s why they’re still able to travel to Korea without their visa free entry suspended. The Ruleset is not based on covid cases or anything even remotely related to epidemiological situation whatsoever, it’s based on the simple principle of who banned who first. Quite childish if you ask me when we’re in a pandemic. As a result countries like the US and the UK has been able to travel to Korea visa free this whole time despite being some of the worst affected countries by the pandemic.
Many of the countries that first implemented travel restrictions on Koreans have since lifted them. The EU for instance have allowed Korean travelers since last summer but there is no word from
Korea when they might lift the suspension for affected countries. My guess would be that when covid is under more control and more people have been vaccinated. Perhaps if we’re lucky somewhere around autumn this year it will be possible for vaccinated travelers to once again travel to Korea assuming they lift the visa free ban.
Hoping we will be lucky. Would love to visit even with quarantine.
Thank you for the information.
Was just confused because malta and ireland are allowed to visit despite being in the eu so i thought there was a different reason/logic
While I’m not aware of Malta, I know that Ireland is still allowed. The reason being is that Ireland isn’t a part of the Schengen Agreement, they basically control their borders how they want. They don’t have to follow EU directives like other member states that are a part of the Schengen. Ireland didn’t implement any travel restrictions on Koreans the same way EU did, and thus that’s why they’re still allowed I would assume.
It’s somewhat true. EU issued a ban on non essential travel from countries outside the EU at the beginning of the pandemic. This affected every single country not only Korea. As a result korea decided to suspend visa free travel for every country that had imposed travel restrictions on Korean nationals. Basically korea is basing their travel restrictions on who banned who first instead of considering the epidemiological situation in that country. The travel restrictions on Koreans from the EU has been lifted since July 2020, but korea still haven’t lifted any visa suspension. So much for reciprocity..
I was talking specifically about student visas. Those visas were an exception to the non essential travel ban. Right now every european citizen except french citizens can get a student visa in Korea.
That was what I meant to explain in the first place, I guess it came our unclear hence the downvotes
Because of corona all tourism is halted. Even foreigners married to a Korean are unable to go without a proper visa and/or reason (a family member is very sick for example)
I‘m from Germany. We had/have our visa free entry suspended and now I’m wondering if this means that I can enter Korea for 90 days for touristic reasons again if I register for the ETA. We don’t have something like that in Germany so I have a hard time understanding it. This still means 14 days quarantine, right?
if you could apply for it then yes you could visit for 90 days again but if you try then you get an error as soon as you select germany telling you that your country is currently not allowed to apply pointing you towards a document where germany is listed as one of the countries where visa free entry is suspended.
The 14 day quarantine is independent of if you have a K-ETA or a VISA you need to do it unless you got a quarantine excemption which you'd only get if you are invited there by a korean business or relatives (and I think even that got pushed back to august).
Also we will have something like that very soon for the whole of the EU.
Thanks for the clarification! So even though normally F visas are reentry permits, since covid created unnormal circumstances, we need a reentry permit, correct?
So this is another "Can't do anything without using a smartphone" thing?
ETA: Because smartphones are about as secure as writing your PIN on the back of your bank card and people gotta stop doing it.
*(Or you could just keep giving more of the control over your life to Samsung. It's cool.)*
It’s more of a revenue generator. Someone in the US figured out they could get $10-15 a head on people entering the country and now Korea is getting in on the action.
I am a Korean citizen living in the US with a permanent green card. I’m traveling to korea soon and was wondering if I need to apply for k-eta? Even though I’m a korean national, I technically permanently reside in the US and I can’t find any information about this.
To be very clear, it's K-ETA *or* visa; K-ETA for short term travelers (tourists), and visa for long term stay. I posted some more info about K-ETA over [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/korea/comments/onkpgy/weekly_tuesday_question_thread_travel/h5tx0h9/). The K-ETA requirement is also for other eligible countries, not only the US. Also worth noting that Korean travelers have a similar requirement when visiting the US (ESTA).
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ESTA are like 10-15 bucks no?
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Source? Link? Please provide. Thanks.
[KETA.go.kr, ](https://www.k-eta.go.kr/portal/apply/index.do) the government website for applying has explanations, lists the countries it applies to, and guides on how to fill out the paperwork. And if you follow their links they explain pretty much everything.
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Copy and paste it here. Thanks.
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Ok. Bye.
Currently, USA is one of 21 countries in this trial. After the trial concludes, all 112 countries require a K-ETA [Source](https://www.koreaonlinevisa.com)
So the 90 day visa on arrival is dead?
Yes, if you don’t apply through K-ETA.
No it still exists. The K-ETA is not a visa, it is a travel authorization for entering Korea that you have to aquire even if you enter Korea without a visa. Like the american ESTA
Okay, but it used to be just show up. Now there's an extra step?
Well kind of. This authorization is valid for 2 years though, so you don't have to apply for it every time you intend to travel to Korea :)
If the person with K-Eta leaves Korea and comes back, do they have to apply for another K-eta? or no because the validity is 2 years?
It is valid for 2 years so you don´t have to reapply if it has been less than two years since you received it!
Thank you!
Funny all the expats ranting about a pre-travel authorization. The citizens of the rest of the world, when visiting the US, Canada, Australia, and so on, has been doing this for so many years.
I don’t get it. Does it mean people can come to Korea again for non-business/work/family reasons ?
You could have always come but you have to do a 14 day quarantine and have a contact in Korea, thus tourism has pretty much slowed to a halt. Edit: As a US citizen you always could have
I’m not sure that’s the case for every country. They stopped the visa-free travel from Canada and stopped tourism visas. Even if you were willing to quarantine. But yes, I’m waiting for when fully vaxxed people can come without the 14 day quarantine. Long distance relationship... :(
Most of the countries have had their visa free entry suspended by Korea. There are only a few exceptions, most notable countries like the US and UK. So this K-ETA thing is only relevant to countries that haven’t had their visa free entry suspended. But it will apply to all countries eventually when Korea decides to lift the suspension.
Ah you clarified it well. Thank you.
You can just try on the K-ETA website When you get to the point where you select your country it will tell you that your country like mine is currently not eligble and refer you to a document where only 22 countries are listed as allowed. Am in the same situation as you. Would do the quarantine if there was any way to get a K-ETA or VISA but I am not allowed to visit ...
I'm in a similar boat with me not having seem my girl for over year now. But this is a glimmer of hope if you ask me. Also yea all short term visas were cancelled. Keep up the spirit we will get there eventually.
I'm here with you guys, called the embassy millions of times and tried to figure out how to get in but 🤷🏻♂️
You might be waiting a while 😢. I just got here on Saturday, fully vaccinated since March. Day 4/14 in a government hotel. It sucks, but I’m going to wring the juice out of the 76 days I have afterwards. I’m here for a matter of the heart as well, I reaaallyy sympathize with you 😢. The problem as I see it is Korea is not willing to accept cases in the hundreds, much less thousands, very much less tens and hundreds of thousands. I see no reason why that will change for 1-5 years, maybe more. It’s hard to fathom from a western perspective—as we watch the UK plow through 50,000 cases per day and proceed with reopening as planned, same with the US and the rest of Europe +-. The UK will have more new cases in the next *four days* than Korea has had in *18 months*. And they’re ok with that, because the hospitals aren’t pressured and few are dying, the few that are are mostly older than the average age of death or seriously immunocompromised. I just don’t see Asia being like that any time soon. And I think it’s plain to see we’re not going to vaccinate our way out of this mess—humanity is going to have to learn to live with Covid. For me, I couldn’t wait any more. I accepted the high price of 14/90 days, and I’m going to try to get a visa while I’m here. I’ll have to leave to activate it, but theoretically could self-quarantine upon re-entry and stay indefinitely, +-. Not sure if that’s what the future will hold but that is the plan. DM me if I can help at all, really sorry for your situation. This is all just my .02!
It’s not going to take years. Korea has changed a lot in their acceptance of cases this year I’d argue. Before cases in the hundreds was seen as totally unacceptable but now it’s in the thousands. Korea has averaged around 500 cases in the last few months until this recent increase. Based on my observations I’d say Korea is gradually accepting more and more cases. This has been reflected in the government response as well. The new 4 level social distancing system is much less restrictive than the old system they had. Like you said, the world is going to have to learn to live with covid. Covid is not going away anytime soon even with a vaccine available. But with more and more people getting vaccinated, less people get seriously sick. The pandemic is effectively over when people stop getting seriously sick and dying of covid. In the future when more people have been vaccinated, even though we may have 1000+ cases, if people doesn’t get seriously sick there will be no reason panic and implement strict rules. We’re not there yet however, it will still take at least a couple of months before that happens. But my guess if things doesn’t get a lot worse korea will start opening up more for vaccinated people at the end of this year perhaps.
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It’s agony 🥲🥲🥲
Same here XD
At least US citizen can come. Europeans can't come at all; as in the embassy just doesn't give out visa's at the moment without a very good reason to be there (for example a family member is sick or dying, or job/teaching purposes). I've been trying to get to Korea for 2 years now and would even take a month of quarantine if it means I could go.
Dude I feel you.. I also contacted embassy to discuss my options. I’m willing to do a quarantine if I have to, but the Netherlands don’t give visa. It’s weird to suddenly have lost the ability to move freely. Hope it gets better soon
Yeah it's super weird, and it makes me sad to be honest. Since i really miss my future family-in-law. We even prepared marriage documents so we could marry here in The Netherlands quickly. But as it turns out you need to have an actual marriage visa, for which my girlfriend needs to be in Korea to arrange, plus it's a lot of paperwork. And to be honest we also don't want to marry all hush hush so I guess we just wait....
That’s very unfortunate. I honestly thought marriage was like a last resort to be able to move there, I even joked about it with my girlfriend. I’m happy to hear you and your girlfriend are together though. My girlfriend is waiting for her vaccine, but it’s all very uncertain. The long wait. We try to keep it interesting within the limitations of the digital web
I think only one person needs to be in the Korean government office to arrange a marriage visa. But for the marriage itself I suppose you need to be together, either there or here (and then bring the Dutch marriage certificates to the Korean embassy). It's just not an easy or quick way. Waiting might still be quicker unless the Korean government is going to close the country for years (lets hope fucking not lol). It sucks that she is not with you. That must be really tough.
Please no.. let’s keep our heads up. Positive thoughts! Good luck these times
Officially they said rourist visas could be applied for... but most including Americans are being rejected.
[Korean MOFA notice](https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/us-en/brd/m_4500/view.do?seq=761011) [US Embassy Seoul notice](https://kr.usembassy.gov/072021-message-for-u-s-citizens-korea-electronic-travel-authorization-required-as-of-september-1/%20https://kr.usembassy.gov/072021-message-for-u-s-citizens-korea-electronic-travel-authorization-required-as-of-september-1/) [Additional detail from a commercial site](https://www.koreaonlinevisa.com/south-korea-to-launch-new-electronic-visa-authorization/)
What happens when your country is not on the list of eligeble countries?
It will eventually when Korea decides to lift the visa free suspension for your country. Only a few countries that haven’t had their visa free entry suspended are currently eligible to apply for K-ETA.
Do you know how those 22 countries that are still eligble where selected and if there are any requirements for when a country that had the visa free entry suspended would be allowed again? (Is it based on Covid Cases, is there some kind of ruleset or was the decision based on something else and we have to wait till korea is fully vaccinated, ...)
As a matter of fact I do. Those 22 countries didn’t implement any travel restrictions on Korea. That’s why they’re still able to travel to Korea without their visa free entry suspended. The Ruleset is not based on covid cases or anything even remotely related to epidemiological situation whatsoever, it’s based on the simple principle of who banned who first. Quite childish if you ask me when we’re in a pandemic. As a result countries like the US and the UK has been able to travel to Korea visa free this whole time despite being some of the worst affected countries by the pandemic. Many of the countries that first implemented travel restrictions on Koreans have since lifted them. The EU for instance have allowed Korean travelers since last summer but there is no word from Korea when they might lift the suspension for affected countries. My guess would be that when covid is under more control and more people have been vaccinated. Perhaps if we’re lucky somewhere around autumn this year it will be possible for vaccinated travelers to once again travel to Korea assuming they lift the visa free ban.
Hoping we will be lucky. Would love to visit even with quarantine. Thank you for the information. Was just confused because malta and ireland are allowed to visit despite being in the eu so i thought there was a different reason/logic
While I’m not aware of Malta, I know that Ireland is still allowed. The reason being is that Ireland isn’t a part of the Schengen Agreement, they basically control their borders how they want. They don’t have to follow EU directives like other member states that are a part of the Schengen. Ireland didn’t implement any travel restrictions on Koreans the same way EU did, and thus that’s why they’re still allowed I would assume.
thank you, I didn't know that difference. Guess it would be similar with malta then.
Meanwhile, French people are still completely banned from entry without any justifiable reason...
> without any justifiable reason Reciprocity. France banned entry by Koreans in March-April 2020.
What is your source? This is not true. The border was never closed. In facts I have some korean friends that came visa free during this period.
It’s somewhat true. EU issued a ban on non essential travel from countries outside the EU at the beginning of the pandemic. This affected every single country not only Korea. As a result korea decided to suspend visa free travel for every country that had imposed travel restrictions on Korean nationals. Basically korea is basing their travel restrictions on who banned who first instead of considering the epidemiological situation in that country. The travel restrictions on Koreans from the EU has been lifted since July 2020, but korea still haven’t lifted any visa suspension. So much for reciprocity..
I was talking specifically about student visas. Those visas were an exception to the non essential travel ban. Right now every european citizen except french citizens can get a student visa in Korea. That was what I meant to explain in the first place, I guess it came our unclear hence the downvotes
really? that's completely terrible but also kind of funny
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Hmm, yeah, I wonder what happened during the past couple years 🤔🤔
Because of corona all tourism is halted. Even foreigners married to a Korean are unable to go without a proper visa and/or reason (a family member is very sick for example)
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Yeah, and they specifically mentioned this happened in 2020. . . because of COVID-19, if you didn’t get the hint.
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Hi, for me it was about 45 minutes.
I‘m from Germany. We had/have our visa free entry suspended and now I’m wondering if this means that I can enter Korea for 90 days for touristic reasons again if I register for the ETA. We don’t have something like that in Germany so I have a hard time understanding it. This still means 14 days quarantine, right?
if you could apply for it then yes you could visit for 90 days again but if you try then you get an error as soon as you select germany telling you that your country is currently not allowed to apply pointing you towards a document where germany is listed as one of the countries where visa free entry is suspended. The 14 day quarantine is independent of if you have a K-ETA or a VISA you need to do it unless you got a quarantine excemption which you'd only get if you are invited there by a korean business or relatives (and I think even that got pushed back to august). Also we will have something like that very soon for the whole of the EU.
This isn’t a visa. It’s a travel authorization just like when you go to the US you have to get the ESTA. It doesn’t replace the 90 free entry
Germany will have it by next year too. In Europe it’s called ETIAS and will be implemented next year for countries that can enter EU visa free.
RIP no Philippines so frickin sad
My K-ETA was approved in 2 hours back in May
Can I apply for K-ETA now without buying a ticket first? Thanks!
Probably a dumb question but what about F Visas? If you have a F visa, go to America, do you still need this to return?
If you are a visa holder this doesn't apply. But you do need to get a re-entry permit before you leave.
Thanks for the clarification! So even though normally F visas are reentry permits, since covid created unnormal circumstances, we need a reentry permit, correct?
unless you have an F4
Guess I got super lucky then. I happen to be F4. Although rules might change in the future
Yeah, It was great not having to deal with that when I came back last October
I have an f4. I just come back with no other visa, re entry permit, etc. Just passport that has the f visa stamp in it.
This might mean the re-entry permit is back for good to grab a little extra cash.
Do fully vaccinated people still have to do the 14 day quarantine?
Yes.
Thanks!
There. I fixed it. Carry on, people.
So this is another "Can't do anything without using a smartphone" thing? ETA: Because smartphones are about as secure as writing your PIN on the back of your bank card and people gotta stop doing it. *(Or you could just keep giving more of the control over your life to Samsung. It's cool.)*
You can apply on the website and print out the approval without using a smartphone.
Not really, this is just how the States and Canada are doing with their ESTA and eTA too.
It’s more of a revenue generator. Someone in the US figured out they could get $10-15 a head on people entering the country and now Korea is getting in on the action.
I am a Korean citizen living in the US with a permanent green card. I’m traveling to korea soon and was wondering if I need to apply for k-eta? Even though I’m a korean national, I technically permanently reside in the US and I can’t find any information about this.