If you are flying to Korea this year, you have probably run into two names that sound like they do the same job: K-ETA and the e-Arrival Card. They do not. And the confusing part is that the rule connecting them is backwards from what most people assume.
Here is the short version. If you hold an approved K-ETA, you do not submit an e-Arrival Card. If your nationality is on the temporary exemption list and you skip the K-ETA, the e-Arrival Card becomes mandatory. One of the two is going to apply to you. Almost nobody escapes both.
This post walks through which one you need, what each costs, how long each takes, and the two age brackets that quietly change the answer. Every figure below comes from the Korean government's own sites, checked on the day this was written.
The short version
| Your situation | What you need |
|---|---|
| You applied for and hold a K-ETA | Nothing else. K-ETA holders are excluded from the arrival declaration |
| Your country is on the exemption list, no K-ETA | e-Arrival Card. Free, online, opens 3 days before arrival |
| You hold a Korean visa | e-Arrival Card. Visa holders are on the declaration list |
| You hold a Korean residence card | Nothing. Residence card holders are excluded |
| Your country is not visa-exempt at all | A visa, then the e-Arrival Card |
If that table already answered your question, you can stop reading. The rest is the detail behind it.
The exemption is temporary, and it has a date on it
Korea suspended the K-ETA requirement for a set of countries to encourage tourism, and it has now extended that suspension more than once. The current notice on the official K-ETA site is unambiguous about the window:
"The Ministry of Justice decided to extend the temporary exemption period for 1 more year to stimulate the tourism industry, the exemption will be effective until December 31, 2026 (KST)."
So the extended window runs from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2026. If you are reading this while planning a trip for 2027, assume nothing — check the notice board again, because this has been renewed year by year rather than made permanent.
Roughly twenty-two countries and regions are covered. The list has been reported to include Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and Singapore in Asia; the United States and Canada; the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Denmark and Austria in Europe; and Australia and New Zealand.
I want to be careful here, because this is exactly the kind of list that goes stale. The official site does not publish the exemption list as a plain table. Instead, the K-ETA notice explains how you find out:
"Those who are subject to the exemption will get a pop-up message when they scan a photo of their passport information page during the application."
In other words, start a K-ETA application, scan your passport, and the system tells you whether you are exempt before you pay anything. That is the authoritative answer for your specific passport, and it takes about two minutes.
What K-ETA actually costs and how long it takes
| Item | Official figure |
|---|---|
| Fee | 10,000 KRW per person, approximately USD 7 to 8 |
| Payment surcharge | Online processing fee, generally about 3% |
| Refunds | None, regardless of the outcome |
| Assessment time | Typically 72 hours or less, sometimes longer |
| Express service | Does not exist. Reviewed in order received |
| Validity | 3 years, or until your passport expires if sooner |
| Entries | Multiple, within the validity period |
| Cards accepted | Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Amex, Diners, Discover, UnionPay, Alipay+ |
Two of those lines cause most of the trouble people run into.
The first is "non-refundable regardless of the examination outcome." You pay whether you are approved or refused. That is unusual enough that it is worth reading the eligibility page properly before you hand over a card number.
The second is the timing. The guide states plainly that eligible nationals "must obtain K-ETA approval before boarding the flight or ship", and that applying after boarding or once you are already in Korea "may result in disadvantages, such as refusal of K-ETA approval or entry restrictions." Seventy-two hours is the normal case, not a guarantee, and there is no way to buy your way to the front of the queue.
A K-ETA is not a visa, and it is not a boarding pass for immigration
This one is worth stating flatly, because the official wording is stronger than most travel articles let on:
"K-ETA is NOT a visa and only fulfills some of the requirements for entering the Republic of Korea without a visa. Please note that an approved K-ETA does not guarantee entry."
The final decision belongs to the immigration officer at the port of entry. A K-ETA clears one hurdle in advance; it does not replace the interview at the desk.
There is also a trap in the validity period. Three years of K-ETA validity does not mean three years of permitted stay. The allowed stay per entry is set by your nationality, and it varies more than you would expect. A few examples from the official eligible-countries page:
| Passport | Allowed period of stay |
|---|---|
| Canada | 6 months |
| Belgium, Netherlands, New Zealand | 3 months |
| United States, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore | 90 days |
| Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Austria | 90 days |
| Albania, Andorra, Bahrain, Brunei, Bosnia-Herzegovina | 30 days |
Ninety days and three months are not the same thing on a calendar, and thirty days catches people out badly. Check your own line on the eligible-countries page rather than assuming your neighbours got the same deal.
The e-Arrival Card: free, online, and mandatory for more people than you think
The paper arrival card handed out on the plane has been replaced by a digital declaration. It costs nothing, it is filled in on the official site, and the submission window is short: you can complete and submit it within three days before your arrival in Korea.
The site publishes two lists, and reading them side by side is the fastest way to place yourself.
| Must submit a declaration | Excluded from the declaration |
|---|---|
| Korean visa holders | Citizens of the Republic of Korea |
| K-ETA exempt individuals | K-ETA holders |
| SOFA active service members | Korean residence card holders, including permanent residents |
| UN passport holders | Group or electronic visa holders |
| APEC Business Travel Card holders | Visa-free group tourists at Yangyang or Muan airports |
| Seafarers entering or returning | Foreign flight attendants on aircraft entering Korea |
Look at the second row of each column. K-ETA exempt individuals must submit. K-ETA holders must not. That is the whole rule, and it is the one that trips up travellers from the twenty-two exempt countries, who reasonably assume that being let off one thing means being let off everything.
If you are unsure, the e-Arrival Card site has a tool called the Navigator. You tick what you hold — visa, K-ETA, residence card, or none — and it tells you whether a declaration is required. It is the official answer, and it is free to use.
The two age brackets nobody mentions
Buried in the declaration guide is a line that changes the answer for a lot of families and a lot of older travellers:
"Citizens of K-ETA eligible countries under the age of 17 or over the age of 65"
That line appears in the list of people who are subject to the e-Arrival Card declaration — because they are exempt from K-ETA on age grounds. So a family travelling with a fifteen-year-old, or a couple in their seventies, can end up in a mixed situation: the adults hold K-ETAs and submit nothing, while the child and the grandparents each need an arrival declaration.
One more detail for families. On the e-Arrival Card, the declarant enters an email address and can cover up to nine people in a single submission — but a person aged 14 or younger cannot be the representative declarant. An adult has to file for them.
Holders of diplomatic or service passports from K-ETA eligible countries fall into the same bucket: no K-ETA needed, arrival declaration required.
How to actually do each one
K-ETA. You need four things before you start: a valid passport, a working email address, an ID photo, and a card that can be charged in Korean won. You can apply as a guest or create an account; the fee, the assessment time and the validity are identical either way. The account only saves you from re-verifying by email when you check results later.
e-Arrival Card. Five steps: agree to the terms and enter an email, enter passport details for up to nine people, enter your itinerary, review, submit. You get a PDF and an email. Nothing to pay.
A practical ordering, working backwards from the flight:
| When | Do this |
|---|---|
| A week or more before | Scan your passport on the K-ETA site to see whether you are exempt. Apply if you want one |
| 3 days before arrival | The e-Arrival Card window opens. Submit if you need one |
| If anything changes | Update your travel information on the K-ETA site. Not doing so "may result in entry denial" |
| Before boarding | Approval must already be in hand. Not in the air, not on landing |
One thing that catches repeat visitors: an unexpired K-ETA stops being usable if your passport is reissued. The guide is explicit that you must apply again in that case, and also if there are changes to your criminal record or infectious disease information.
Only two places take a K-ETA application
The front page of the official site carries a warning, and it is there for a reason. K-ETA applications are accepted only at www.k-eta.go.kr or through the official K-ETA mobile app. Everything else is a middleman at best.
The site specifically warns about sites that offer "application agency" or "express" services and charge high fees for them. Since there is no expedited processing to sell — the official guide says applications are reviewed in the order received and no service speeds up a specific case — anyone advertising a fast track is selling something that does not exist.
The real number is 10,000 won. If a site is quoting you forty or fifty dollars, the difference is the middleman's, not the government's.
The same applies on the arrival side. The e-Arrival Card is free on the official government site. There is nothing to buy.
So should an exempt traveller apply anyway?
If your passport is on the exemption list, you have a genuine choice, and it comes down to about eight dollars against a form.
| Apply for K-ETA anyway | Skip it, file the card | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 10,000 KRW plus about 3% | Free |
| Lead time | Up to 72 hours, sometimes more | Minutes, from 3 days out |
| Arrival paperwork | None | The declaration itself |
| Covers later trips | Yes, up to 3 years | No, once per arrival |
| Best for | Frequent visitors, business travellers | One-off trips, last-minute bookings |
If Korea is a once-in-a-while trip, file the free card three days out and keep your eight dollars. If you come through Incheon two or three times a year, a single 10,000 won payment covering three years of arrivals — with no declaration to file each time — is the easier life. That is the trade, and it is genuinely close.
What you should not do is arrive having done neither, on the assumption that an exemption from one is an exemption from both. It isn't.
Sources
All figures and quoted wording above are taken from the following official pages, checked on 8 August 2026. Immigration rules change; verify before you fly.
- K-ETA Application Guide, Korea Immigration Service — fee, assessment time, validity, boarding requirement
- K-ETA Application Fee Guide — 10,000 KRW, processing surcharge, accepted cards
- K-ETA Eligible Countries / Applicants — allowed period of stay by passport
- K-ETA Notice: Extension of K-ETA Temporary Exemption, 23 December 2025
- Official Korea e-Arrival Card site — fee, three-day window, declaration procedure
- e-Arrival Card, Individuals Subject to Declaration Guide — who must and must not submit
This is part of a running series on visiting Korea — the palaces, the practical paperwork, and the parts of Seoul that reward a second look.
