South Korea e-Arrival Card: Who Files, When and How It Works

South Korea’s e-Arrival Card is the free online replacement for the paper arrival form, filed at e-arrivalcard.go.kr, the official Ministry of Justice site. The system launched on 24 February 2025, travelers file from 3 days before arrival in Korea Standard Time, and paper cards were accepted alongside the digital card during a transition that official announcements planned to end after December 2025. For a 2026 trip, treat the online card as the standard route: if you enter Korea without a valid K-ETA, expect to file the e-Arrival Card, and confirm the current position on the official site before you fly, because the paper fallback was scheduled to disappear.

Quick Facts: What Are the e-Arrival Card Essentials?

What: The online version of Korea’s paper arrival card, run by the Ministry of Justice and the Korea Immigration Service
Where: Only at e-arrivalcard.go.kr, on phone or desktop
Cost: Free. Sites charging a fee are not official
Launched: 24 February 2025
When to file: From 3 days before arrival, meaning the arrival day and the 2 days before it, in Korea Standard Time. A filing expires if you do not enter within 72 hours
Paper cards: Accepted during the transition through December 2025, with the paper system planned to be unavailable after that
Not a visa: The card is an arrival declaration. It does not grant entry and does not replace a visa or a K-ETA where one is required
Prices checked / Last updated: November 2026

Who Must File the e-Arrival Card, and Who Is Exempt?

The deciding factor is the document you enter on, not nationality alone. Travelers holding a Korean visa file an arrival declaration. Travelers entering visa-free under the temporary K-ETA exemption also file, because the exemption waives the K-ETA, not the arrival card: nationals of the 22 exempt countries and regions, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan and much of western Europe, are in this group through 31 December 2026. Visa-free travelers in age groups exempt from the K-ETA, 17 and younger or 65 and older, file as well, as do visa-free entrants through routes such as Jeju and transit programs.

The main exemption is a valid K-ETA. If you hold an approved K-ETA and enter visa-free on it, you do not file an arrival card for that entry; enter on a visa instead, and the declaration applies again. Registered residents of Korea, Korean citizens and aircrew are also outside the system, along with certain group tour arrangements. For children under 14, a family member or another person files on their behalf, and the system allows one person to submit for family members and multiple travelers at once, which keeps group arrivals manageable.

How Is the e-Arrival Card Different from the K-ETA?

Confusion between the two systems is the biggest source of Korea entry mistakes, so separate them cleanly. The K-ETA is a pre-travel authorization for visa-free nationals: it is applied for in advance, it carries a fee of 10,000 won, and it screens you before boarding. The e-Arrival Card is the digital landing card: free, filed inside a 3-day window, and purely a declaration of who is arriving, on which flight, and where they are staying. One does not replace the other. Holding a K-ETA exempts you from the card; lacking a K-ETA, whether by exemption, age or visa status, puts the card on your checklist. Travelers comparing Asia’s fast-digitizing entry systems will recognize the pattern from Thailand in our Bangkok itinerary’s arrival context and from the visa changes tracked in our China visa-free entry explainer: each country is digitizing a different form, on a different clock.

How Do You File, Step by Step?

Open e-arrivalcard.go.kr inside your window, work through the declaration with your passport, flight details and first address in Korea at hand, and submit. You can download a PDF of the submitted form, although the Korea Tourism Organization’s official guidance notes the PDF is not required for the entry inspection itself; save it anyway, because a copy on your phone solves any dispute at the desk in seconds. Timing deserves care: the window runs on Korea Standard Time, so a traveler leaving North America can find the window opens later than local intuition suggests. File as soon as the window opens for your arrival date, and if your flight changes to a different day, file again, because a submission that passes its 72-hour validity before you land is no longer valid.

What Should 2026 Travelers Watch For?

Two dates frame a 2026 Korea trip. The paper arrival card transition was planned to end after December 2025, and no traveler should build a 2026 arrival plan around a paper form being handed out on the plane; file online as the default. Separately, the temporary K-ETA exemption for the 22 listed countries and regions runs to 31 December 2026, so travelers booking for early 2027 should recheck both systems close to departure. The safe routine is unchanging: check e-arrivalcard.go.kr and the official K-ETA site in the week you travel, file inside the window, and keep the confirmation with your passport.

What Information Does the Form Ask For?

Expect the standard arrival declaration set: passport and personal details, arrival date and flight or ship information, the address where you are staying in Korea, and contact details for the trip. Accuracy matters more than speed: the declaration is matched against your arrival record, and the name and passport number should follow the passport exactly. The official site works on mobile browsers as well as desktop, and the submission can be completed for accompanying travelers in the same session, which suits families arriving together. If your hotel changes after filing but before arrival, the practical course is to file again inside the window with the updated address rather than arrive with stale details, and to keep the newest confirmation.

What Are the Most Common e-Arrival Card Mistakes?

Three recur. Filing too early, before the 3-day window opens in Korea time, and assuming the submission will hold. Confusing the free card with the fee-bearing K-ETA and paying a third-party site for the wrong product. And arriving on a changed flight or a different date with an expired filing, which is why any itinerary change inside the window should trigger a fresh submission and a fresh confirmation saved to the phone.

Frequently Asked Questions About Korea’s e-Arrival Card

Is the e-Arrival Card free?

Yes. The official card at e-arrivalcard.go.kr carries no fee. Any site charging to submit it is unofficial.

When can you file the e-Arrival Card?

From 3 days before arrival in Korea Standard Time: the arrival day and the 2 days before it. Enter within 72 hours of submitting or the filing expires.

If you have a K-ETA, do you still file?

No. Travelers entering visa-free on a valid K-ETA are exempt from the arrival card. If you enter on a Korean visa, you file.

Can you still use a paper arrival card in 2026?

Do not count on it. Paper cards ran in parallel through December 2025 and the paper system was planned to be unavailable after that. File online and verify the latest position on the official site.