In the last article about Q-Code requirements update, we listed Q-Code requirements applied to the countries of embarkation for travelers coming to Korea as of July 2025.

At the end of September 2025, Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) published another update to the list of countries under quarantine inspection. The list is set to be effective from October 1^st, 2025 and expected to be valid until the end of this year or earlier in case of sudden disease outbreak that triggers an early announcement.

Temporary Use of Health Questionnaire Form Due to Fire at Daejeon Data Center

On September 26^th, 2025, a fire occurred at the data center managed by National Information Resources Service (NIRS) located in Daejeon, around 150 km south of Seoul. The data center hosted more than six hundreds government services, including the servers that powered the Q-Code service. Due to the fire, all services were temporarily suspended and would be gradually restored from backups.

To notify visitors about temporary unavailability of Q-Code service, a service outage announcement was displayed on the Q-Code web portal. The announcement, which was written in Korean, also provided links to alternative resources where visitors can find more detailed information and updates on the current situation.

Until the Q-Code service is fully back online, only health questionnaire form is available as a means of quarantine inspection and control for inbound travelers. So, if you arrive in Korea from a country listed under strict quarantine inspection area, you will temporarily only have the option to fill the health questionnaire form and submit the completed form to the officer at the health screening gate. The health questionnaire will be distributed by the flight attendants during your flight and are also available on the desks near to the health screening gate.

Notes on Latest Q-Code Requirements (October 2025)

The important notes from KDCA September update to be applied starting from October 1^st, 2025 related with Q-Code are as follows:

• Similar with the previous announcement, Q-Code registration requirements are still categorized into two quarantine inspection levels of area under monitoring: strict quarantine inspection area and general quarantine inspection area. Travelers coming from countries under strict quarantine inspection area are required to register Q-Code or fill out health questionnaire upon entering South Korea. On the other hand, travelers coming from general quarantine inspection area are required to register Q-Code only when showing symptom of disease under monitoring.
• Four kinds of diseases are considered highly infectious and thus leading to strict quarantine inspection: plague, animal influenza, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and ebola virus. Ebola virus has been recategorized into a disease under strict quarantine inspection in the latest announcement.
• Diseases that are monitored via Q-Code based on the symptoms exhibited by travelers include cholera, yellow fever, polio, dengue fever, chikungunya fever, zika virus, measles, marburg hemorrhagic fever, lassa fever, crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever, mpox, and nipah virus (12 diseases). The number is the same with previous announcement. However, nipah virus has been added into a disease under quarantine inspection list in the latest announcement
• There are 21 countries with strict quarantine inspection or compulsory Q-Code registration. Most of the countries are still located in Middle East (13 countries). This is a small increase compared to the previous announcement (20 countries).
• India has been added into strict quarantine inspection area list in the latest update due to animal influenza outbreak. All passengers departing to or transiting in India bound to South Korea is now required to complete Q-Code registration upon entering Korea.
• Inner Mongolia has been removed from China’s region under strict quarantine inspection, while Henan province is added into the strict quarantine inspection area.
• Colorado and Pennsylvania have been removed from the regions of USA under strict quarantine inspection.
• Symptom-based Q-Code registration is applied to 167 countries (including China and United States), which is a slight increase compared to the previous announcement (164 countries). More countries in Oceania are added to general quarantine inspection area in the the September 2025 update, mainly due to dengue fever outbreak.

List of Countries with Mandatory Q-Code Registration Requirement (as of October 2025)

If you enter Korea from the following countries, you are required to complete Q-Code registration or fill out health declaration form prior to entering Korea. Your Q-Code will be scanned at the health screening gate. Alternatively, you can submit the health declaration form that has been filled out to the health officer.

Mandatory Q-Code registration or health questionnaire submission is applied to passengers who embark or transfer through any of the countries listed in the table below.

No	Continent	Country	Disease(s) under Monitoring
1	Asia	Bahrain	MERS
2		Bangladesh	Animal influenza
3		Cambodia	Animal influenza
4		China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, Henan, Hunan, Hubei)	Animal influenza
5		India	Animal influenza
6		Iran	MERS
7		Iraq	MERS
8		Israel	MERS
9		Jordan	MERS
10		Kuwait	MERS
11		Lebanon	MERS
12		Oman	MERS
13		Qatar	MERS
14		Saudi Arabia	MERS
15		Syria	MERS
16		United Arab Emirates	MERS
17		Vietnam	Animal influenza
18		Yemen	MERS
19	Africa	Democratic Republic of Congo	Plague, ebola virus
20		Madagascar	Plague
21	America	United States (Minnesota, Washington, California)	Animal influenza

List of Countries with Symptom-based Q-Code Registration Requirement (as of October 2025)

If you enter Korea from the following countries, you will only be required to complete Q-Code registration only if you exhibit symptom(s) of infectious disease under quarantine inspection, for example: high fever, red rash, or watery eyes. If your body temperature is normal and there is no noticeable symptom of disease under quarantine inspection, you do not need to do Q-Code registration upon entering Korea.

Region	Countries
Asia (21 countries)	Afghanistan, China, East Timor, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Türkiye, Uzbekistan
Africa (50 countries)	Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, French Réunion, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
America & Oceania (68 countries)	Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bonaire (Netherlands), Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Colombia, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kiribati, Martinique, Mexico, Micronesia (French), Montserrat, Nauru, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Polynesia (French), Puerto Rico, Saba, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten, Sólomon Íslands, Suriname, Tokelau, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, United States, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Wallis-et-Futuna
Europe (28 countries)	Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, England, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Madeira (Portugal), Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine

Similar with the previous announcement for July 2025, only passengers arriving from certain regions in China and United States are required to register for Q-Code. A passenger arriving from other regions in China and United States that are not included in strict quarantine inspection should register Q-Code only when the person exhibits symptom(s) of a disease under quarantine inspection.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I am flying from United States to Korea. Do I need Q-Code?
A: Since January 2025, some states in the USA have been included in the strict quarantine area list. Starting from October 1^st, 2025 until the next announcement, if you fly to Korea from one of these states: Minnesota, Washington, and California, you will be required to complete Q-Code registration or fill out the health declaration form. If you fly to Korea from other states, you are not required to register Q-Code unless you exhibit symptom(s) of any disease under monitoring.

Q: I am flying from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Seoul, Incheon. Do I need Q-Code?
A: Since January 2025 and extended in the March 2025, April 2025, July 2025, and September 2025 Q-Code requirement update, California has been included into the list of US states with strict quarantine inspection. Subject to further announcement, you are required to register Q-Code when flying from LAX to Seoul.

Q: I am flying from Mexico to Seoul, Incheon. Am I required to submit Q-Code?
A: Effective from April 1^st, 2025, passengers traveling from Korea from Mexico are not required to register Q-Code unless they exhibit symptom(s). However, do note that if you fly a transit flight from Mexico with layover in San Fransisco airport (SFO), Los Angeles airport (LAX), Abu Dhabi airport (AUH), or Dubai airport (DXB), you will be required to register Q-Code or submit health questionnaire once arriving in Korea.

Q: I am flying to Korea from London, do I need Q-Code?
A: As of January 2025, UK has been removed from the list of countries with strict quarantine inspection. You will only need to complete Q-Code registration prior to entering Korea from UK if you exhibit symptom(s) of disease under monitoring.

Q: I am flying to Korea from London with layover at Dubai airport, do I need Q-Code?
A: Even though UK is not in the list of countries under strict quarantine inspection in July 2025, United Arab Emirates is still included the list. You will be required to register Q-Code once arriving in Korea from Dubai.

Q: I will be having a flight from Philippines to South Korea, am I required to register Q-Code?
A: No, as of October 2024, travelers from Philippines are not required to complete register Q-Code when entering South Korea. However, if you exhibit certain symptom, for e.g. high fever, red rash, or watery eyes, you are expected to complete Q-Code registration.

Q: I am flying to Korea from India. Do I need to submit Q-Code?
A: Effective from October 1^st, 2025 until further notice, passengers arriving in Korea from India are required to submit Q-Code or health questionnaire form when arriving in Korea.

Q: I have filled out the health declaration form. Do I have to complete Q-Code registration?
A: Q-Code and health declaration form serve the same purpose, which is for infectious disease quarantine inspection. If you have filled out the health declaration form, you do not need to complete Q-Code registration. You can submit the health declaration form to the health officer at the health screening gate.