How to travel to South Korea in 2022 ?
Hello everyone ! Today in this post, we will talk about the path to South Korea as a short-stay traveller, currently, in April 2022.
To start, you need to have a valid passport. For French people, you also need your sanitary pass which will be checked at the airport in France before boarding.
Once you will have booked you flight(s) and your accommodation, you have to apply for the K-ETA, the Korean Electronic Travel Authorization.
Make sure to have all the information needed before applying for it. If everything is OK, the K-ETA application will be accepted within 30min to 24 hours. Be aware that once accepted, your K-ETA is valid for 2 years and will be active for a period of 90 days once you will pass Korean immigration.
For boarding, a Negative PCR test result of maximum 48h before first flight day is compulsory.
Since April 1st of this year, every fully vaccinated foreigner abroad or in Korea can pretend to quarantine exemption. You will have to fill the online document « Q-CODE ». If everything is well filled , it will generate a QR CODE that attests and recaps the filled information.
For the others, the quarantine currently lasts 7 days and has to be done in an accommodation designated by the Korean sanitary authorities. The quarantine costs are at the traveller’s charge (840 000₩ = 627€).
Once you have checked your luggage, you can finally enjoy your flight ! Just before landing, documents will be given to you, you have to fill them before presenting them when asked.
After landing, your temperature will be automatically checked in the first queue. The 1st step will be the Q-CODE checking, after, general documents, and then the passport verification. If everything goes well, you will have a little paper (replacing the stamp in your passport).
An advice : for boarding and Korean immigration at the arrival, make sure that all your documents are valid and printed.
At your arrival, you will have to do another PCR test on the 1st day. If you chose to do it directly at the airport, you have to book you appointment online. Once the test is done, you have to stay at you accommodation until you test proves negative.
Then, you can go get your luggage, go through customs, be tested if you chose the airport test centre and exchange some money to finally go to your accommodation.
On the 6th or 7th day of arrival, you have to do a Rapid Antigenic Test in medical institution or with a self test.
Then, you’re free !
Here is the end of this post, thank you for reading ! Don’t hesitate to check the official websites (Korean Embassy, K-ETA, Q-CODE, Safe2Go Pass…) for detailed information. See you soon in South Korea !
PS : if you want to buy a prepaid sim card for your stay, you can book it online before coming, do it at the airport or even later at a phone operator store. You just need your valid passport (or ARC for long-stay travellers)
Thanks for reading ! 🙂
Emilie from Etourism,