Visiting Guatemala as a Tourist
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of South Korea on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
81 exceptions recorded across 33 countries · none match South Korea to Guatemala · Visiting as a tourist
Ninety days on arrival, one extension of the same length, and a hard ceiling of a hundred and eighty days counted from the day you entered. Whether you need a visa at all depends on which of three buckets your nationality sits in - exempt, consular visa, or a visa the consulate has to clear with the migration institute first - and the buckets are regional rather than Guatemalan: the four CA-4 countries agreed in 2005 to run one classification between them. Two shortcuts move people between buckets: a valid United States, Mexican, Canadian or Schengen visa, and three continuous years of residence in a visa-exempt country. The ninety days are regional too. They are granted once, at the first border post into the four-country area, and they run down whether you spend them in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras or Nicaragua.
At a glance
- Stay granted on entry
- 90 days
- Extension
- Once, for the same period as the first grant
- Ceiling from the day of entry
- 180 days
- Visa categories
- A exempt, B consular, C consulted
- Single-entry tourist visa validity
- 6 to 12 months
- Multiple-entry tourist visa validity
- 1 to 5 years
- Fee to lodge a visa or extension application in Guatemala
- USD 25.00
- Stay is regional, not national
- 90 days across Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua
- Leaving the four-country region
- The regional permission lapses, even if days remain
- Reapplying after a refusal
- 12 months
Requirements
- A passport or travel document valid and in force, and a visa where the nationality requires one
- A visa applied for abroad unless the nationality is exempt; nationals of consulted-visa countries apply to the migration institute in Guatemala City through a Guatemalan guarantor
- No intention of obtaining temporary or permanent residence - that is what makes the status a tourist one
- To extend, an application to the migration institute before the first ninety days expire, with a ticket out of the country, an international credit card or a registered Guatemalan guarantor
- For a holder of a United States, Mexican, Canadian or Schengen visa in a consular-visa nationality, nothing further: the category changes to exempt
In detail
The ninety days belong to four countries at once
A traveller stamped in at an airport in Guatemala City is admitted to a region, not to a country. The permission granted at that first border post is what governs movement and stay across Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua; crossing between them happens at interior posts, where the manual tells officers to stamp the entry but not to write days, precisely so nobody believes the clock has restarted. The practical consequences run both ways. A month in Honduras is a month off the Guatemalan ninety. And leaving the region through a peripheral post ends the permission outright, so the unused days do not wait for a return.
What a visa is worth, and what it is not
Guatemalan visas come in two shapes - single and multiple - and in validities that have nothing to do with how long anyone may stay. A multiple visa can run five years and still only ever admit its holder for ninety days at a time, capped at a hundred and eighty from each entry. Article 3 of the visa regulation adds the point that matters at the border: an approved visa is not unconditional admission, and the officer still decides.
Three ways out of a visa requirement
Guatemala's regulation moves people between categories on three grounds that a reader can act on. A consular-visa nationality holding a current United States, Mexican, Canadian or Schengen visa becomes exempt outright. Three continuous years of documented residence in a visa-exempt country does the same. And being the spouse of a Guatemalan, with six months of registered marriage, or the child of a Guatemalan, moves a consular nationality to exempt as well. Each of these is written into article 29 of the visa regulation and is applied by the consular officer, who notes the provision on the visa itself.
Country-level policy
Guatemala charges in quetzales but writes its migration fees in United States dollars. The fee schedule sets each amount in dollars and then authorises the migration institute to fix, once a quarter, the reference exchange rate at which those dollars are converted - an average of the Banco de Guatemala selling rate over the first twenty days of the last month of the previous quarter. So a residence permit has a fixed price in dollars and a price in quetzales that moves four times a year, and any quetzal figure quoted anywhere has a shelf life of three months.
A recurring condition in Guatemalan immigration practice has no equivalent in the other eleven countries covered here: for several of the routes a foreigner actually uses, a Guatemalan individual or a Guatemalan company has to register as a guarantor and take responsibility. It is needed for a consulted tourist visa, for employment-based temporary residence, for athletes, artists, researchers and academics, for permanent residence after five years as a temporary resident, and even for a foreigner's driving permit. The guarantor registers with the migration institute's Subdirección de Extranjería before the application is made, and has to prove income. Guatemala's own regulation says the detail lives in a separate rulebook on the ordinary-status register, which we have not read.
On 21 May 2025 the director of the migration institute issued three new regulations at once - on visas, on residence permits and on the register of ordinary migration status - and the National Migration Authority approved them two days later. In October the fee schedule was rewritten to match. The old visa and residency regulations, from 2022 and 2023, were repealed outright. Nothing written about Guatemalan immigration before the autumn of 2025 is describing the rules that now apply, and the practical consequences are real: the income thresholds for a foreign-employer worker and for a rentista, the hundred-thousand-dollar investor test and the separate Central American price for permanent residence all live in the new texts.
Guatemala treats nationals of its Central American neighbours differently at every stage, and the preferences are scattered across four instruments rather than gathered in one. At the border a Central American enters on a national identity card. After one year of temporary residence - not five - someone born in another Central American country can apply for permanent residence, and pays two hundred dollars less for it than anyone else. The labour code's rule that nine in ten employees must be Guatemalan can be relaxed where Central Americans by origin are concerned. And the Constitution goes further than any immigration rule could: a national by birth of a republic of the old Central American Federation who takes up domicile in Guatemala and says before the authorities that they wish to be Guatemalan is a Guatemalan of origin, keeping their first nationality.
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of South Korea
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«Son turistas o viajeros las personas extranjeras que han ingresado de forma regular con fines lícitos, sin propósito de obtener una residencia temporal o permanente, cuyo plazo no podrá ser mayor de noventa días, prorrogable por una sola vez.»Our translation - not official
Tourists or travellers are foreign persons who have entered regularly for lawful purposes, without the purpose of obtaining temporary or permanent residence, whose term may not be greater than ninety days, extendable once only.
The second paragraph of the same article covers technical, professional, scientific, cultural, sporting and religious visitors doing paid consultancy or advisory work for up to a hundred and eighty days, which is a different rule and is not what a holidaymaker gets.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«La Visa de Turista o Viajero simple podrá tener una vigencia mínima de seis meses y un máximo de doce meses y la visa de turista o viajero múltiple podrá tener una vigencia mínima de un año y un máximo de cinco años y el plazo de permanencia para un turista o viajero en territorio guatemalteco, según lo establecido en el primer párrafo del artículo 74 del Código de Migración, no podrá exceder de 90 días, el cual podrá ser prorrogable por una sola vez por un plazo igual al otorgado, que no podrá exceder de 180 días a su ingreso al territorio.»Our translation - not official
The single Tourist or Traveller Visa may have a validity of a minimum of six months and a maximum of twelve months, and the multiple tourist or traveller visa a minimum of one year and a maximum of five years; and the period of stay for a tourist or traveller in Guatemalan territory, as established in the first paragraph of article 74 of the Migration Code, may not exceed 90 days, extendable once only for a period equal to the one granted, which may not exceed 180 days from entry into the territory.
The validity of the visa and the length of the stay are different things. A five-year multiple-entry visa does not buy more than ninety days at a time, nor more than a hundred and eighty days from a given entry.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Atendiendo a razones de interés nacional y de conformidad con los convenios multilaterales o bilaterales celebrados por el Estado de Guatemala o de acuerdo a la Política Migratoria de la República de Guatemala, actualmente los países se encuentran clasificados en las categorías A, B y C, para fines de exención y obligatoriedad de visa para el ingreso al territorio de la República de Guatemala.»Our translation - not official
For reasons of national interest and in accordance with the multilateral or bilateral agreements entered into by the State of Guatemala, or in accordance with the Migration Policy of the Republic of Guatemala, countries are currently classified in categories A, B and C for the purposes of exemption from, and obligation to hold, a visa for entry into the territory of the Republic of Guatemala.
The article defines the three categories and says who decides them. It does not list which country is in which, and the institute publishes that list only as an image.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Quedan exentos de solicitar visa consular los nacionales de países categoría "B" que cuenten con visa vigente de los Estados Unidos de América, Estados Unidos Mexicanos, Canadá o Schengen, quienes cambian a categoría "A" o exentos de visa.»Our translation - not official
Nationals of category "B" countries who hold a valid visa of the United States of America, the United Mexican States, Canada or Schengen are exempt from applying for a consular visa, and change to category "A" or visa-exempt.
Mexico is in Guatemala's own list and is not in the regional CA-4 manual, which names only the United States, Canada and Schengen.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«A las personas extranjeras clasificadas en Categoría "B" o Visa Consular y Categoría "C" o Visa Consultada con residencia vigente acreditando tres años continuos de permanencia, debidamente comprobada y documentada en algún país clasificado en Categoría "A" o Exento de visa se le dará trato de Categoría "A".»Our translation - not official
Foreign persons classified in Category "B" or Consular Visa and Category "C" or Consulted Visa holding valid residence evidencing three continuous years of stay, duly proven and documented in a country classified in Category "A" or visa-exempt, shall be treated as Category "A".
Guatemala requires three continuous years of residence here. The regional manual's equivalent provision asks only for valid residence, with no period attached.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Cuando la solicitud de Visa de Turista o Viajero fue rechazada por alguna misión Diplomática o Consular y denegada o cancelada por el Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración podrán realizar una nueva solicitud hasta dentro de los 12 meses posteriores a la fecha de notificación del motivo de rechazo, denegatoria o cancelación, según corresponda.»Our translation - not official
Where a Tourist or Traveller Visa application has been rejected by a Diplomatic or Consular mission and refused or cancelled by the Guatemalan Migration Institute, a new application may be made only within the 12 months following the date of notification of the ground of rejection, refusal or cancellation, as applicable.
About this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«2.2 Ingreso de solicitud de prórroga de visa de turista o viajero, requerida en el territorio guatemalteco, veinticinco dólares de los Estados Unidos de América (25.00 USD);»Our translation - not official
2.2 Lodging an application to extend a tourist or traveller visa, applied for in Guatemalan territory, twenty-five United States dollars (25.00 USD);
The fee is set in dollars; what is paid at the counter is a quetzal price the institute fixes each quarter.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«El plazo de permanencia de los extranjero en la región será hasta de noventa (90) días, otorgado en las delegaciones migratorias periféricas y podrá ser prorrogado por una sola vez en la Dirección General de Migración donde se encuentre.»Our translation - not official
The period of stay of foreigners in the region shall be up to ninety (90) days, granted at the peripheral migration posts, and may be extended once only at the Directorate General of Migration where the person is.
The publisher's grammar - "de los extranjero" - is left as it stands.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«Una vez que el extranjero abandone el territorio por una delegación migratoria periférica de cualquier Estado Parte, la permanencia otorgada en la región, queda sin validez y efecto.»Our translation - not official
Once the foreigner leaves the territory through a peripheral migration post of any Party State, the stay granted in the region ceases to be valid and of effect.
A peripheral post is one facing a third country. Crossing between the four countries is an interior post and does not reset anything.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«La Visa Única Centroamericana no conlleva implícita la residencia temporal o permanente en el territorio de las Partes.»Our translation - not official
The Single Central American Visa does not carry with it temporary or permanent residence in the territory of the Parties.
About this source
Depositary of the Central American single visa instruments and publisher of the CA-4 institutional pages and the ministerial resolutions behind regional free movement.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current visa classification. The treaty's own annex is the 2005 list, the regional manual's annex is later but undated, and each state's reservations appear in a column that tells you what **that** state does rather than what any other does. Nor for national procedure: the treaty delegates every requirement to each party's own legislation. Its archive is served through a query-string endpoint rather than stable paths, so a citation needs the document identified by name as well as by link.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The classification of countries into A, B and C is the one thing the migration institute does not publish as text. Article 9 of the visa regulation says the categories exist and who sets them; it does not list the members, and we did not reproduce a list we have not read at a primary source.
The regional manual we read is the unified CA-4 procedures manual as hosted by the migration observatory of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. It is the instrument's text, but the host is a university repository rather than the issuing authority, and the convention it implements was read separately at the SICA secretariat.
A consulted-visa nationality cannot move within the region at all without a separate authorisation for each country, and must enter through the state that issued the visa. That is in section IV of the manual and it is the sharpest difference between the categories.
- issuesCódigo de Migración, Decreto número 44-2016 del Congreso de la República
Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración
About this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- issuesReglamento de Visas Guatemaltecas, Acuerdo IGM-015-2025 aprobado por Acuerdo de Autoridad Migratoria Nacional AMN 04-2025
Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración
About this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- issuesTarifario de Servicios Migratorios del Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración y sus reformas
Instituto Guatemalteco de Migración
About this source
Guatemala's migration institute. It issues the residence, visa and tariff rulebooks, decides applications including consulted visas, and runs a field-verification unit. It also hosts the Código de Migración, which Congress issues and it does not.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the classification of countries into visa categories: the institute publishes that list only as an image, and nothing text-bearing on its sites carries it. Nor for the fee actually payable, since the instrument sets dollars and a separate quarterly resolution sets the exchange rate. Nor, specifically, is its own tariff page a statement of the tariff in force - read on the same day as the instrument it reproduces, it omits the Central American rate for permanent residence entirely. And not for tax, labour or traffic rules, which belong to other bodies.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- reportsManual Regional de Procedimientos Migratorios de la Visa Única Centroamericana CA-4
Observatorio de las Migraciones Internacionales en Honduras, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras
About this source
An academic observatory at the national public university, which hosts facsimiles of La Gaceta and of regional migration instruments - including the CA-4 unified manual, which is held at no other address we have reached.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: It hosts, it does not publish. What is held here are facsimiles of La Gaceta and of a regional instrument that carries Guatemalan migration-institute letterhead, so the documents are primary and the body offering them is not their publisher: it must never be cited as the publisher of what it holds, nor as evidence that any text is current, complete or still in force. It is typed government-primary because the taxonomy classifies the document rather than the host, and these documents are official text; the fact that a public university's observatory is the only address we reached for the CA-4 manual is a reason to look for a government one, not a reason to doubt the text.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- consolidatesConvenio de Creación de la Visa Única Centroamericana para la Libre Movilidad de Extranjeros
Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana
About this source
Depositary of the Central American single visa instruments and publisher of the CA-4 institutional pages and the ministerial resolutions behind regional free movement.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the current visa classification. The treaty's own annex is the 2005 list, the regional manual's annex is later but undated, and each state's reservations appear in a column that tells you what **that** state does rather than what any other does. Nor for national procedure: the treaty delegates every requirement to each party's own legislation. Its archive is served through a query-string endpoint rather than stable paths, so a citation needs the document identified by name as well as by link.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source