K-ETA (South Korean Electronic Travel Authorization)

[Kamfish642]

My wife and I are on an HAL cruise in April 2025, which has a port call in South Korea.  My understanding is that starting January 1, 2025, passengers with a port call in South Korea will be required to have applied and approved for an e-VISA via the K-ETA (South Korean Electronic Travel Authorization).  

 

While not required yet, I thought that I would get a jump on applying for an e-VISA, so I logged into the K-ETA website.  One of the required entries is to list the address of the location where you will be staying.  I tried to simply enter the name of cruise ship, but it was not accepted by the website.  Upon reading further, it appeared to infer that I could simply type "NONE" if you didn't have specific address details; however, again website would not accept this entry.

 

Has anyone tried to apply and had a similar problem?  If successful, what did you do differently?

 

Thank you in advance for your input.

[Mrs. Claypool]

Are you staying at a South Korean hotel any time before or after the cruise?  If so, you could input the name and address of the hotel. 
 

This has always worked for me in the past when applying to various countries and was never questioned. 
 

In fact, I did the exact same thing about two hours ago on my Vietnam evisa application, since we’ll be staying for two nights at a hotel in Hanoi before we set off on our Mekong River cruise. 
 

I’ll let you know if it was a successful strategy this time!

 

Edited September 2 by Mrs. Claypool

[Kamfish642]

18 hours ago, Mrs. Claypool said:

Are you staying at a South Korean hotel any time before or after the cruise?  If so, you could input the name and address of the hotel. 
 

This has always worked for me in the past when applying to various countries and was never questioned. 
 

In fact, I did the exact same thing about two hours ago on my Vietnam evisa application, since we’ll be staying for two nights at a hotel in Hanoi before we set off on our Mekong River cruise. 
 

I’ll let you know if it was a successful strategy this time!

 

Just a 1-day port call, so I'm not sure what to enter for location address.

[Mrs. Claypool]

Oh, I understand. Then you’d probably better contact HAL and ask for their advice. 
 

[monkey@cruise]

4 hours ago, Kamfish642 said:

Just a 1-day port call, so I'm not sure what to enter for location address.

Use cruise port address, I used for Vietnam eVisa and Visit Japan Web if fly in on embarkment day.

[Kamfish642]

I just received the following response from K-ETA:

 

Dear Inquirer,

Thank you for your interest in K-ETA.

Regarding your inquiry about K-ETA requirement for cruise passengers, please find the answer as below:

If you are visiting Korea via a cruise, please check with the forwarding agent or cruise company again whether you are required to apply for K-ETA or not first. It is because regardless of K-ETA temporary exemption applies to the eligible visa-free travelers which will be effective until Dec 31, 2024 (KST), if the captain of the cruise or the forwarding agent applies for landing permission for tourism and obtains the approval, the cruise passengers do not need to apply for K-ETA.

In case you need to apply for K-ETA, if you are not going to get an accommodation to stay overnight, you can enter the address of the port in Sokcho where the cruise is going to stop at. If you do not have the address and phone number of the port, you need to check with the cruise company or travel agency.

To search for the address to stay in Korea, you need to click the [ENG] button, enter the road name address with building number in the [Address search] pop-up window. In the second line (detailed address field), please enter the name of the cruise. If you have any difficulty with searching for the address of the port, please send us the name and address of the port so that we can assist you further.

For detailed guidance on how to apply, please refer to [How to Apply for K-ETA and Make a Payment] added to the Notice board of the official K-ETA website (www.k-eta.go.kr).

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.

[Kamfish642]

37 minutes ago, Kamfish642 said:

I just received the following response from K-ETA:

 

Dear Inquirer,

Thank you for your interest in K-ETA.

Regarding your inquiry about K-ETA requirement for cruise passengers, please find the answer as below:

If you are visiting Korea via a cruise, please check with the forwarding agent or cruise company again whether you are required to apply for K-ETA or not first. It is because regardless of K-ETA temporary exemption applies to the eligible visa-free travelers which will be effective until Dec 31, 2024 (KST), if the captain of the cruise or the forwarding agent applies for landing permission for tourism and obtains the approval, the cruise passengers do not need to apply for K-ETA.

In case you need to apply for K-ETA, if you are not going to get an accommodation to stay overnight, you can enter the address of the port in Sokcho where the cruise is going to stop at. If you do not have the address and phone number of the port, you need to check with the cruise company or travel agency.

To search for the address to stay in Korea, you need to click the [ENG] button, enter the road name address with building number in the [Address search] pop-up window. In the second line (detailed address field), please enter the name of the cruise. If you have any difficulty with searching for the address of the port, please send us the name and address of the port so that we can assist you further.

For detailed guidance on how to apply, please refer to [How to Apply for K-ETA and Make a Payment] added to the Notice board of the official K-ETA website (www.k-eta.go.kr).

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.

Sokcho Port International Cruise Terminal

550-5, Cheongho-dong, Sokcho-si, Gangwon-do, Republic of Korea