In 28 days I will be relaxing in an airport lounge in Heathrow airport, waiting to get out our long-awaited 14.5 hour flight to Seoul.

South Korea is a country that’s been on our bucket list for a long time, and the excitement is reaching fever pitch over here!

But before we can go to the airport there’s paperwork to do: and the rules have very recently changed. This came as a big surprise to me, so I thought it would be worthwhile sharing the paperwork needed to enter South Korea with you guys.

The K-ETA Electronic Travel Authorisation

If you’re travelling to South Korea from many countries around the world then you’ll need a K-ETA Electronic Travel Authorisation. This is similar to the ESTA you need to visit the US as a Brit, or the new ESTIA that non-EU citizens need to visit Europe.

BUT travelers from certain countries (Including the UK and the USA and 20 other nations) are exempt from needing a K-ETA to enter South Korea until the end of December 2025. This is to encourage an increase in tourism to the country and make arriving in South Korea as easy as possible.

You can apply if you want one ‘to gain the benefits of the card’ according to the .gov website, but these benefits seem very minimal to me so there’s no need to go through the hassle!

So far so good, no paperwork required. Or that was true until 24th February 2025 when South Korea introduced a new online form for ALL arrivals, no matter where you departed from.

Introducing the Electronic e-Arrival card….

South Korea Introduces Electronic e-Arrival Card

You have always needed an arrival card to enter South Korea if you’re not travelling with a valid K-ETA. But up until this point this has just been a simple form that your airline provided to you as you got on the plane and that you filled in as you were flying.

Now, the system has been modernised and you will have to visit a dedicated online portal to complete an e-Arrival card (the portal link is here). BUT you can’t complete this card until at least 3 days before you arrive in Korea: so you can’t do this well in advance of your trip.

Instead you should put it on your ‘to do’ list and make sure the card is completed before you head to the airport! I think remembering to do this 3 days out when I’m in the depths of pre-travel laundry and packing might well be the hardest part!

It’s worth noting that whether you do it online or on the paper card, the Korean arrival card is ALWAYS FREE.

Because this is a big change, until the end of the year there will be a transition period where either the paper form distributed by your airline OR the e-arrival card will be accepted on arrival. But you’ll find that the security process will be much faster if you use the new online version.

NOTE: The links and images here are of the official Korean Government websites. These are the only sites you should be using for the K-ETA and the e-Arrival card. Don’t pay a third party (or give them sensitive information) when this is the easiest and most straightforward system.

I hope this helps you as much as it helps me! If I hadn’t started researching the K-ETA earlier this week to make sure that all our paperwork is in order then I would never have known.

Have you been to South Korea? Any hints and tips we need to know to help make our first trip as amazing as possible?

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