The Ministry of Justice announced on the 19th that "starting from June, we will resume the issuance of short-term visit (C-3) visas and electronic visas for foreigners, which were temporarily suspended from April 13, 2020." The issuance of short-term visit visas and electronic visas had been temporarily suspended to block the risk of COVID-19 potentially entering from overseas.

Short-term visit visas are issued to foreigners visiting for periods of 90 days or less for purposes such as market research, consultations, business activities, tourism, medical treatment, visiting relatives, and attending conferences. After April 13, 2020, it was limited to essential visitors, but with this resumption, it has been expanded to all areas stipulated by law, including group/individual tourism, local culture, and business activities.

Among the 112 countries that could enter Korea visa-free before the COVID-19 era, 102 countries, excluding the 10 countries (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Grenada, Micronesia, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tonga) whose visa-free entry was suspended based on the principle of reciprocity, can enter visa-free as before. For other countries, short-term visit visa issuance was suspended except for urgent situations, but starting from June, short-term visas will be issued, allowing travel to Korea.

The issuance of electronic visas, which was suspended on April 6, 2020, will also resume. Electronic visas are targeted at highly skilled individuals, foreign patients, and group tourists.

At the same time, the validity of temporarily suspended short-term multiple-entry visas will be revived. If there is remaining validity on short-term multiple-entry visas issued before April 5, 2020, they can be used without separate measures.

The target for visa issuance is foreigners from general countries (Level 1). Previously, the quarantine authorities classified countries into general countries (Level 1) and caution countries (Level 2) based on their COVID-19 risk level. According to an official from the Ministry of Justice, due to the global stabilization of COVID-19, all countries are currently classified as general countries without any caution countries.

Source: News Works

These are English translations of articles from our GTTOUR Japanese website.