Bring medicine to Korea for your own use: 6 bottles or 3 months' supply, inside the US$800 allowance. Sleeping pills need a permit that takes 10 working days.
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Topic
Paperwork
Entry rules, registrations and the forms nobody warns you about.
- Bring medicine to Korea: 3 months' supply, not 6 months
- Korea customs declaration: a discount, not a confession
Korea customs declaration is only for goods over the US$800 allowance. Declaring cuts the tax 30%, up to 200,000 won; not declaring costs a 40% penalty.
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- Can I bring vape in Korea: one tobacco type, not two
Can I bring vape in Korea? Yes: 20ml under 1% nicotine is duty-free, in the cabin bag. But Korea exempts one tobacco type only, so cigarettes on top get taxed.
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- Smoking rules in Korea: your vape is tobacco, not a loophole
Smoking rules in Korea: a synthetic-nicotine vape counts as tobacco since 24 April 2026, Seoul subway exits are banned for 10m, and the fine is 100,000 won.
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- Hangul Day 2026: Hangeul Museum shut, shows run elsewhere
Hangul Day 2026 is Friday 9 October, a public holiday. The Hangeul Museum is closed for expansion, and the 100th anniversary show is in Jongno, free, to 18:00.
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- For Filipinos, Korea dropped the bank statement, not the certificate
Korea's Manila visa centre waived the three-month bank statement. The bank certificate stayed, and the embassy and the centre publish different lists.
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- Open pharmacy in Korea at night: 120 finds one, not 1339
Korea's open-pharmacy finder has no English search, 1339 stopped finding pharmacies in 2012, and convenience stores stock 11 medicines, not the 13 listed.
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- Incheon Airport prayer rooms are past security, not in arrivals
Incheon Airport's 2026 list names five prayer rooms, all past security. The Terminal 2 basement room an English guide still lists is gone from it.
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- Korean emergency numbers: which interpreter desk is open at 3am
Only 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.
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- Taiwan to Korea: there are two immigration lines, not one
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.
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- Japan's 90 days in Korea is reciprocity, not a treaty
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.
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- Korea's visa-free entry for Chinese groups runs to December
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.
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- Korea layovers: leaving Incheon Airport and transit tours
Can you leave Incheon Airport on a layover? Official rules for 24-hour free transit tours, airside transit, and 30-day B-2 tourist transit visa exemptions.
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- Korea visa for Vietnamese: filing yourself is the slow way
Korea visa for Vietnamese: the Hanoi embassy screens a tourist file in 6 working days via a designated agency, 9 via a registered one, 16 if you file alone.
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- K-ETA in 2026: Korea's own pages disagree on who is exempt
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.
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- Jeju island visa-free entry: a permit for Jeju, not Korea
Jeju island visa-free entry gives most nationalities 30 days, Jeju only. 23 are barred and 64 more need a permit to leave the island. A court shows the cost.
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- The visaforkorea domains follow no single naming rule
The Ministry of Justice links seventeen Korea visa centre sites under two different names, and leaves out eight more that are open. Checked 17 September 2026.
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- Korea's e-Arrival Card: why the K-ETA waiver leaves you filing it
Korea e-Arrival Card vs K-ETA: who must file the arrival card, who is excused, and why being K-ETA exempt is the one thing that does not get you out of it.
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- Korea visa for Indonesians: apply at KVAC Jakarta, not K-ETA
Korea visa for Indonesians: apply through KVAC Jakarta before you fly, not K-ETA. The embassy says it is collected on day nine, day seven for a C-3 multiple.
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