From February 24th, 2025 Korea started the implementation of e-arrival card as a requirement for immigration clearance for travelers coming to South Korea. Previously, if you visit South Korea, you need to fill out paper arrival card and submit it along with other travel document to the officer at the immigration checkpoint in order to get the immigration clearance for entering Korea. With the implementation of e-arrival card, travelers can choose between electronic or paper-based arrival card submission. However, paper arrival card will soon be obsolete and unavailable to travelers, and thus letting the electronic arrival card as the only option. The Korea government has announced the plan to phase out paper arrival card at the end of year 2025.
The Korea government has developed a web portal that you can access to complete and submit Korea e-arrival card. If you want to submit Korea e-arrival card for your upcoming travel to Korea, the earliest you can do is within three days from your arrival date in Korea. As an example, if you arrive in Korea on March 9th, you can submit the e-arrival card from March 7th. When you visit the portal, you can also check the arrival dates that are available for e-arrival card submission.
So, what are the steps to submit Korea e-arrival card? Is it difficult to fill out? Let’s simply go through the steps for filling out and submitting South Korea e-arrival card.
Step 1: Open Korea e-arrival card portal on your browser.
After the page is loaded, you will see the portal’s landing page. There are several sections available as shown in the picture below.
① Language selection. Available languages: Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Russian.
② Available dates for entry declaration. Available arrival dates are shown based on the time you access the portal.
③ e-Arrival card for individual. Form for individual traveler. You will likely choose this.
④ e-Arrival card for group or travel agency. Form for group traveler up to 1000 people.
⑤ e-Arrival requirement checker. A questionnaire to check if you are required to submit e-Arrival card.
⑥ e-Arrival status checker, to be used to view or update a submitted form.
Step 2: Choose e-Arrival card form to complete. Individual traveler should choose “e-Arrival card for individual”. Click “Submit” button to proceed.
Step 3: Agree to terms and provide email. Click “Confirm” to proceed.
① Select “Agree to all” to check all the consent and agreement boxes at once.
② Provide email address that you can access.
Step 4: Upload passport data page (bio page) as instructed in the popup window.
When uploading passport data page, make sure that you upload the correct page. Passport data page contains various information about the passport holders such as passport number, name, gender, date and place of birth, nationality, passport issuance date, passport issuing authority, and passport expiration date. The passport data page also contains Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) code, a special section of the data page that will be used by passport reader machine or software to decode the information about the passport holder. You can refer to image below as an example of passport data page that you should upload to the portal. In the image, the MRZ code is enclosed by the orange box.
Step 5: Fill out passport details and other information related to your visit in Korea. Click “Submit” to submit the completed electronic form.
① Basic information. This section is auto-filled based on the information contained in the passport data page that you previously uploaded. Ensure that the information filled in the form is consistent with the information written on the passport data page.
② Arrival information. The flight or vessel name for your arrival in Korea. When flying into Korea, this information can be obtained from the boarding pass of your Korea-bound flight.
③ Departure information. The date you will leave Korea. If you’ll be flying out of Korea to go back to your country or to go to another country after visiting Korea, you can provide the date of your departure and the flight number. For the case when you come to Korea without having bought the return ticket in advance, you can put expected departure date and flight number, and update this information later.
④ Purpose of entry. A list of options are provided to be selected.
Available options you can choose from for “Purpose of entry” field:
- Tourism (individual)
- Tourism (group)
- Business
- Diplomacy/official duties
- Treatment/medical care
- Visit (Family, relatives, friends, etc.)
- Meeting/event
- Employment
- Studies
- Sports game
- Others
⑤ Address in Korea. The address of the accommodation, hotel, or place during your stay in Korea as well as your Korean contact number. If you don’t plan to personally use a local number while staying in Korea, you can use the phone number of your accommodation.
⑥ Occupation. A list of options are provided to be selected.
Available options for types of job:
- Office-worker
- Self-employed
- Student
- Unemployed
- Household activities
- Public official
- Agriculture and livestock industry
- Others
After you hit the “Submit” button and confirm the form submission, you will see the status of the submission.
Step 6: Review the completed e-arrival card submission. You can choose “Edit” to update the previously submitted form. Alternatively, you can view or download your e-Arrival card slip by clicking “View e-Arrival card” button. An example of e-Arrival card slip is shown below.
Keeping a copy of the e-Arrival card slip is actually not necessary. However, it is advised that you download a PDF version of your e-Arrival card or screen capture the slip and store it in your phone. In the event when you’re being questioned by the officer in charge of your immigration clearance, you can immediately check the information you submitted in the e-arrival card.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Is it required to submit e-Arrival card for entry to Korea?
A: A traveler who is not a registered foreigner in Korea must submit arrival card when entering Korea. There are two types of arrival card: paper arrival card and electronic arrival card (e-Arrival card). The traveler can choose the kind of arrival card to submit. However, paper arrival card is planned be totally replaced by e-Arrival card by the end of 2025 so it’s a good idea to transition to e-Arrival card submission.
Q: I am a registered foreigner in Korea, should I fill out and submit e-Arrival card when entering Korea?
A: No. If you have alien registration card (ARC), you don’t need to submit arrival card when entering Korea. You don’t even need to queue in the foreigner line for staffed immigration counter and instead can use the autogate for automated immigration clearance.
Q: Should I complete e-Arrival card after arriving in Korea?
A: You can fill out and submit the e-Arrival card within three days from your arrival date in Korea. When you visit the e-Arrival card portal, you will see the available arrival dates for e-Arrival card submission.
Q: I will be traveling to Korea with my family. Which type of e-Arrival card should I submit: individual or group?
A: You can choose either individual or group. Individual e-Arrival card can contain entries for up to 9 people while group e-Arrival card can contain entries for up to 1,000 people.
Q: If I have a kid, how should my kid submit the e-Arrival card? Can my kid complete the e-Arrival card alone?
A: If your kid is less than 14 years old, the guardian (parent) should fill out and submit the e-Arrival card for the kid.
Q: There is “Departure Information” field in the e-Arrival card form. I only bought one-way ticket and haven’t decided when to return back to my country. What information should I put there?
A: If you haven’t decided when to leave Korea, you can put your expected departure date as a temporary placeholder when submitting the e-Arrival card. To update the information, you will need to provide the email address or e-Arrival card issuance number to retrieve the previously submitted e-Arrival card form.
That’s pretty much it. We have covered the detailed steps for completing Korea e-Arrival card? Is it easy? Is it too complicated? You decide.