Korea Entry Documents, e-Arrival Card and Customs Guide
Separate passports, visas, K-ETA and arrival declarations, then prepare family, customs, food and medicine checks.
Entering Korea: passports, e-Arrival Card and customs
Treat travel authorisation, the arrival declaration, and customs/quarantine declarations as separate checks. Do not rely on a fixed nationality list: use your travel date, passport, purpose and valid visa/K-ETA/residence-card combination in the official tools. Checked 17 September 2026; recheck immediately before departure.[1][2][3][4]
1. What each document does
• Passport: your travel identity document; check airline/destination validity and damage rules.
• Visa or visa-free/K-ETA basis: authority to seek boarding and admission. K-ETA is not a visa and approval does not guarantee entry.[3][4]
• e-Arrival Card: the free online version of the arrival declaration; it does not replace a visa or K-ETA.[1]
• Customs/quarantine declaration: a separate report about goods, food, medicines and currency.[5][6]
Caption: Passengers queue in Incheon Airport's arrivals area. Follow current signs through immigration, baggage reclaim, quarantine and customs.
2. Find your requirements
1. Match the passport name, number and expiry date to the booking.
2. Check the Visa Portal and K-ETA site for the travel date. Temporary exemptions and end dates can change; do not use an old blog table.[3][4]
3. In the official e-Arrival Card Navigator, select every valid document you will hold on entry.[2]
4. Confirm boarding documents with the airline and check transit-country rules separately.
3. Completing the e-Arrival Card
If required, submit on the official site from three days before arrival (Korea Standard Time) until immigration inspection. It is free. Prepare a valid passport, email, arrival date/flight, Korean accommodation and departure date. Save the issue number emailed to you; a printout is not mandatory. The declaration expires 72 hours after submission or once entry inspection is completed; submit again for a later re-entry.[1]
Caption: A former paper Korean immigration entry slip. The e-Arrival Card performs this declaration online; it is not a visa, K-ETA or customs form.
As a working rule, valid K-ETA and Korean residence-card holders are normally excluded, while unregistered foreign nationals entering on a visa and K-ETA-exempt travellers may need to declare. A K-ETA holder entering on a visa may still need the card. Use the Navigator because exceptions are role- and document-specific.[2]
Families and children
Check each passport and entry basis individually. A parent or agent can submit several e-Arrival Cards, but remains responsible for accurate information. The official guide allows up to nine people per mobile submission and up to 1,000 through the PC group route.[1] A child may be exempt from applying for K-ETA because of age, but that does not automatically exempt the child from an arrival declaration. Run the Navigator separately.[2]
4. Customs: duty-free does not mean declaration-free
The general allowance is USD 800 per traveller. Separate limits are alcohol totalling no more than 2 litres and USD 400, 200 cigarettes, and 100 ml of perfume. Alcohol and tobacco allowances do not apply to travellers under 19.[5]
Caption: Customs inspection counters at Incheon Airport. If you have declarable goods or are unsure, use the Goods to Declare lane and ask an officer.
One customs form can represent members of the same household entering together. Travellers without declarable goods may omit a form but can still be inspected. Declare over-allowance goods, payment instruments exceeding USD 10,000 in total, commercial samples, goods carried for someone else, unaccompanied baggage, and restricted or prohibited articles. The official mobile traveller declaration is also available.[5]
5. Food and medicine
Meat, ham, sausage, jerky, canned meat, dairy and egg products can require declaration and quarantine. Fresh fruit, fruiting vegetables, plants, seeds, flowers, soil, herbs and agricultural/forestry products must also be declared for inspection. Show leftover airline fruit or sandwiches to quarantine rather than guessing.[6]
Keep ordinary prescriptions in original packaging with an English prescription or doctor’s letter and a reasonable travel quantity. Medicines containing narcotic or psychotropic ingredients may require advance MFDS permission for self-treatment. Search by active ingredient in the official system; legality at home is not automatic permission to import it into Korea.[7]
Caption: The Incheon Airport Regional Customs building. Resolve complicated goods or medicines with Customs, quarantine authorities or MFDS before flying.
6. Avoid fee and phishing scams
Use e-arrivalcard.go.kr (free), k-eta.go.kr or the official app, visa.go.kr, and Korea Customs' official mobile route at m.customs.go.kr/tms.[1][3][4][5] K-ETA explicitly warns about lookalike agencies and overpriced “expedited” services.[3] Check the domain before paying; distrust guaranteed approval, unusual rush fees and requests to send a full passport through chat. Save receipts and issue numbers.
Final timeline
• Before booking: passport validity and visa/K-ETA route.
• 1–2 weeks out: ask about medicine ingredients, foods and unusual goods.
• Within three days of arrival: e-Arrival Card only if the Navigator says it is required.
• Day before departure: recheck official notices, exemption end dates and airline documents.
• On arrival: immigration → bags → quarantine → customs; declare when uncertain.
Requirements vary by purpose, age, documents, goods and effective date—not nationality alone. Prefer the live official result over a saved screenshot.