Border control at South Korea airports: what happens to travellers and their data

Arriving: the steps at the border

Immigration at Incheon Airport runs separate lines for Korean citizens and foreign nationals. Foreign nationals show a passport and an arrival card. Registered foreign residents do not need a card ⁷.

Foreign nationals aged 17 or older must give fingerprints and facial recognition data at the inspection. The airport asks travellers to cooperate with face checks and questions from officers. It says these checks aim to stop entry with forged or altered passports ⁷.

The Korea Immigration Service runs an e-Arrival Card that replaces the paper form. Travellers can submit it from 72 hours before arrival. It asks for passport details, entry and departure dates, purpose of visit, place of stay, contact details and occupation. There is no fee. Registered foreign residents, holders of a valid K-ETA and airline crew do not need to submit it ⁷.

Priority lanes serve diplomats, crew, people with reduced mobility, children under 7, people aged 70 and over, pregnant women, Korea Priority Card holders and business people recommended by Korean business associations ⁷.

Entry permission: K-ETA, fees and who needs it

Article 7-3 of the Immigration Act lets the Minister of Justice require prior travel permission from foreign nationals who can enter without a visa. The article was added on 4 February 2020 ¹⁰. The Korean embassy in Norway says K-ETA started on 1 September 2021 ⁶.

K-ETA is for nationals of visa-free countries who come for tourism, family visits, events, meetings or business without paid work ². The embassy page counts 67 visa waiver countries and 45 designated visa-free countries ⁶. The K-ETA portal lists each country with the stay it allows, from 30 days to six months ².

The fee is KRW 10,000 per person. The portal adds an online payment charge of about 3 per cent. Fees are not refunded if an application is refused ⁴. The portal puts the fee at about US$7 to US$8, and the embassy in Norway at about US$9 to US$10 ^1,6. Results usually come within 72 hours ¹. Approval lasts three years, or until the passport expires if that comes first ⁶.

People who do not need a K-ETA include diplomatic and official passport holders, active-duty troops covered by the Status of Forces Agreement, crew, APEC Business Travel Card holders, transit passengers, registered foreigners, visa holders, UN passport holders, and people aged 17 or under or 65 or over on the date of entry ².

The Ministry of Justice brought in a temporary K-ETA exemption for some countries as part of a plan to support tourism. On 23 December 2025 it extended the exemption to 31 December 2026 for the countries already covered ³. The notice did not list them. A law firm summary put the number at 22 ¹³. Nationals of those countries can still apply and pay the fee, for example to skip the arrival card ³.

Biometrics and Smart Entry gates

Article 12-2 of the Immigration Act says every foreign national entering Korea must provide biometric information and follow identity checks. People under 17 are exempt. So are people on foreign government or international organisation business and their families, and people exempted by Presidential Decree. An officer may refuse entry to a person who refuses ¹⁰.

The Minister of Justice may ask other government agencies for biometric data they hold, for use in entry checks. Those agencies may not refuse without good cause. The ministry keeps and manages the data under the Personal Information Protection Act ¹⁰.

A K-ETA application includes a face photo and a copy of the passport photo page ⁵.

Korea's automated gates are called the Smart Entry Service (SES). At Incheon, short-term foreign visitors aged 17 and over can use the departure gates without registering. Registered foreign residents aged 17 and over can use the gates without registering. Younger residents must register first, and children aged 7 to 14 need a legal guardian with them. Registration centres in Terminals 1 and 2 serve departing passengers only ⁸.

At the gate, the traveller holds the passport photo page on a reader, scans a fingerprint and looks into a camera ⁸.

Passenger data: API and PNR

Article 73-2 of the Immigration Act covers airline booking data. When designated officers investigate people suspected of entering without proper documents, or people who may be barred from entry, carriers must let them view the reservation system or send the data in a standard electronic format ¹⁰.

The law limits that booking data to name, nationality, address and phone number, passport details, booking and boarding times, route and travel agency, companions and seat number, baggage, payment method, departure and destination, and booking number ¹⁰.

Carriers must send a second set of data on passengers who want a boarding pass, when officers ask. It covers name, sex, date of birth, nationality, passport and booking numbers, departure and arrival details, transit status and biometric information. An officer who finds a passenger ineligible can tell the carrier to stop that person boarding ¹⁰.

Only officers named by the head of the regional immigration office may see the data. The law bars them from leaking it, disposing of it without authority or using it for unlawful purposes ¹⁰.

Korea and the European Union initialled an agreement on 4 June 2026 on sending PNR data from EU flights to Korea. The European Commission proposed its signing on 24 July 2026 ¹¹. The text sets a maximum retention period of five years and requires depersonalisation after six months at the latest. Disclosure inside Korea needs prior approval by a judicial authority or another independent body ¹¹. Korea JoongAng Daily called it the first deal of its kind by an Asian nation and cited the Korea Customs Service on what PNR contains ¹².

Watch lists and checks

Article 11 of the Immigration Act lets the Minister of Justice bar a foreign national on grounds that include a threat to public health, carrying weapons or explosives, likely harm to public security, and deportation within the last five years ¹⁰.

The K-ETA form asks about past visits to Korea, other countries visited, occupation, monthly income and acquaintances in Korea. Social media accounts and flight numbers are optional fields ⁵. Pre-boarding data lets officers stop passengers they find ineligible before the flight ¹⁰.

Your data: the law and how to ask for records

The K-ETA privacy policy says K-ETA records are kept on a semi-permanent basis. It cites Article 7-3 of the Immigration Act and Article 101 of its Enforcement Decree as the legal basis ⁵.

Travellers can ask to see, correct or delete their data, or to stop its processing, under Articles 35 to 37 of the Personal Information Protection Act. Requests can be made in person, in writing, by phone, email or fax. The office says it replies within 10 days. Deletion can be refused where another law names the data as something that must be collected ⁵.

The policy says access logs for the K-ETA system are kept for at least one year ⁵. On 17 December 2021 the European Commission adopted an adequacy decision for data sent from the EU to Korea between commercial operators ¹¹.

Who runs the systems

The Ministry of Justice and its Korea Immigration Service run K-ETA, the arrival card, entry checks and the Smart Entry gates ^1,78. The Korea Customs Service handles PNR, according to press reports of the EU deal ¹².

The K-ETA privacy policy names Sysone Co. Ltd as the contractor for integrated maintenance and operation of the immigration information system for 2025 and 2026. The data department of the Incheon Airport Immigration Office oversees the contract ⁵.

Incheon International Airport Corporation runs passenger security screening at Incheon through its Security Screening Team ⁹.

Security screening on departure

At Incheon, passengers show a passport and boarding pass at the entrance to the departure area. Staff may ask them to remove masks, hats and sunglasses for the identity check ⁹.

Bags, jackets, phones and keys go in trays. Laptops and tablets do not need a separate tray in any departure hall of Terminals 1 and 2. Passengers walk through a metal detector or body scanner, and an alarm can lead to extra screening ⁹.

The airport runs a Smart Security Screening Zone in both terminals. Transfer passengers are not allowed into the departure screening area ⁹.