Do you file the e-Arrival Card?

Built by Jayden Hwang from the figures in Korea's e-Arrival Card: why the K-ETA waiver leaves you filing it

Verified 14 AUG 2026

The obligation runs backwards from what travellers expect. The arrival card is the default, and holding a K-ETA is one of the exceptions carved out of it — so the person told they need no K-ETA is exactly the person who files. No amount of reading the two lists side by side makes that obvious. A form that asks, then answers, does.

Check your case

Do you file the e-Arrival Card?

Six questions, answered against the ministry's own two lists. The order matters: a visa overrides a K-ETA, and your age counts on the day you land.

Passport you will enter on

Korean residence card, permanent resident card or overseas Korean resident card

Entering on a visa (student, work, marriage, anything)

Nationality

A valid K-ETA in hand right now

Your age on the day you land

Statuses this form does not ask about

These sit on the same ministry list and turn on who you are rather than which passport you hold.

Files the card

Diplomatic and service passport holders from K-ETA countries
SOFA active-duty personnel with a US military ID and orders
UN Laissez-Passer holders
Valid ABTC holders, app version included
Seafarers joining a ship, and crew leaving one, with spouse and children under 17

Does not file

Group electronic visa holders
Chinese group tourists travelling visa-free
Foreign cabin crew on aircraft arriving in Korea

The nationality list here is the 25-entry version this article's sources carry. The K-ETA pages count 22 and disagree about Switzerland and Liechtenstein, which is its own article.
The card opens 3 days before arrival, lapses 72 hours after you submit it, and lapses again on use. Re-entering needs a fresh one.

Rules checked 2026-08-14 · from the sources listed below

What it is holding

The waiver list as this article’s sources give it: 25 entries.
Five categories that file on status rather than passport, including SOFA personnel and UN Laissez-Passer holders.
Three that are exempt on status, including foreign cabin crew arriving in Korea.
The order of evaluation, which is the whole correctness of the thing: visa, then K-ETA, then nationality, then age.

What it will not do

It does not settle the count. The K-ETA article on this site counts 22 waived nationalities from a different set of government pages; that disagreement is its subject, and the caveat here says so rather than quietly picking a winner.
It does not hand you a verdict you cannot check: every branch names the row of the ministry’s list it came from.

The reasoning behind these numbers, and what to do when they change, is in Korea's e-Arrival Card: why the K-ETA waiver leaves you filing it.

Where these numbers came from

Read on 14 August 2026. 3of9are the operator's own Korean pages.