Fares go up. Last trains move. An app quietly stops taking foreign cards. The article that told you otherwise stays online for years, and you have no way to tell. So everything here carries the day someone actually looked, and a link to the Korean page they looked at.
Korea, Verified is an independent reference for people arriving in or living in South Korea. It covers visas and arrival paperwork, airport transfers, transport cards and mobile data, and each figure is dated and linked to the Korean-language page it was read from. It is written and run from Incheon by Jayden Hwang.
First trip? Arriving in Korea, in order puts every step from visa to transport card in the sequence you hit them.
Paperwork Latest
Korean emergency numbers: which interpreter desk is open at 3amOnly two numbers can send a vehicle, and the staffed interpreters behind them cover two languages. 1330 lists eight, four of them 08:00 to 19:00 only.
VerifiedThe four Muslim-friendly tiers English guides quote sit on a tourism board page with no date on it, and the classification behind them ran on a two-year clock.
A Taiwan passport gets 90 days visa-free and no K-ETA until 31 December 2026. Korea also runs an auto-gate scheme for Taiwan that a residence card cancels.
Korea's Manila visa centre waived the three-month bank statement. The bank certificate stayed, and the embassy and the centre publish different lists.
Seoul's new subway kiosks take Visa and Mastercard for tickets and Climate Card passes, at a 3.7% fee. The plastic T-money card is the one they will not fill.
Korea's foreign ministry prints a basis beside every visa-free nationality. Singapore's reads treaty. Japan's reads reciprocity, and the two do not move alike.
Seoul's 30-day Climate Card ends 1 October. The replacement refuses under-19s, its Seoul bonus needs a Seoul address, and the last recharge is 31 August.
The published plan still says the scheme ended on 30 June 2026. It was extended to 31 December, in a Prime Minister readout rather than in the plan.
Seoul's Climate Card payback is counted per charge, not per month, and a foreign resident claims it on a paper form that closes on 31 August.
Which one you get is decided by your ticket, not by you. The free bus runs one way per route, stops before midnight, and the train fare is disputed.
Staying airside needs nothing. Leaving the airport is several separate schemes, one of which gives visa nationals 30 days, and they split at 24 hours.
Korea's embassy in Hanoi screens an individual tourist application in 16 working days and a designated agency's in 6, and publishes the table that says so.
The temporary K-ETA exemption runs to 31 December 2026. Which passports it covers depends on which Korean government page you open, and they do not match.
Modu Card, the K-Pass scheme replacing Seoul's Climate Card on 1 September 2026, checks a resident registration number. What that leaves for visitors.
Jeju admits most nationalities without a visa for 30 days. The permission covers Jeju only, and a court ruling shows what trying to leave costs.
Who must file Korea electronic arrival card, who is excused, and why the K-ETA exemption is the one thing that does not get you out of the form.
Indonesian passports need a visa, not K-ETA. The embassy says a standard application is collected on the ninth day after you apply, seven for C-3 multiple.
Card fares, the transfer rule that makes a day pass rarely worth it, and the Seoul unlimited pass that stops working on 1 October 2026.
AREX fares and departure times read off the operator's own Korean pages, including a free-travel rule that English guides leave out entirely.
Data-only eSIMs lock you out of Kakao T, delivery apps and most Korean signups. Plus the face-scan rule that started in July 2026.
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