Korea Counts Ninety Days From Arrival, Not Ninety in Any Hundred and Eighty, and Lets a Treaty Make the Number Bigger
Article 7(1) of the Immigration Act states the default in one sentence: an entering foreigner must hold a valid passport and a visa issued by the Minister of Justice. Article 7(2) then lists four classes who may enter without one, and only the second of them is about nationality - a national of a country that has concluded a visa exemption agreement with Korea, to the extent the agreement exempts them. The third covers a person admitted separately for international friendship, tourism or the interests of Korea, which is the hook for the reciprocal visa-free admission Korea grants outside any treaty. How long a visa-free visitor may stay is not in article 7 at all. It is in article 10-2(1)1, which defines the short-term status of residence as a stay of not more than 90 days for the purpose of tourism or visiting - and then adds, inside the same bracket, that where a visa exemption agreement or reciprocity gives more than 90 days, that longer period is the limit. There is no 90-in-180 rolling window in the Korean statute: the figure is a cap on one stay under a short-term status, and the Act leaves the agreement free to raise it. Two short-term statuses carry visa-free arrivals, and the Enforcement Decree keeps them apart: B-1 for a national of a treaty country doing what the treaty allows, B-2 for someone arriving without a visa for tourism or transit. Since 2020 the Act has also carried article 7-3, under which the Minister of Justice may require anyone in either of those classes to obtain a prior travel permit - K-ETA - before boarding, with the criteria and procedure left to a ministerial decree rather than written into the Act.
At a glance
- Longest stay under a short-term status
- 90 days, or the longer period a visa exemption agreement or reciprocity gives
Article 10-2(1)1 of the Immigration Act. The exception is inside the definition itself, so a treaty that grants more than 90 days is not an exception to the rule - it is the rule.
- How the 90 days are counted
- As a limit on the stay permitted under the status, with no rolling reference period stated
Article 10-2(1)1 states a period of stay and no window. Nothing in article 7, article 10 or article 10-2 of the Immigration Act sets a 90-in-180 test of the Schengen kind.
- Visa-free statuses in the Enforcement Decree
- Two: B-1 under a visa exemption agreement, B-2 for tourism or transit
Attached Table 1 of the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act, items 1 and 2. Items 3 to 5 of the same table are C-1, C-3 and C-4, which require a visa.
- Prior travel permit
- The Minister of Justice may require one of anyone entering under a visa exemption agreement, under a separate admission for tourism, or visa-free under another statute
Article 7-3(1) of the Immigration Act, added on 4 February 2020. Which nationalities are actually required to hold one is set by ministerial decree under article 7-3(3) and is not in the Act; that decree was not read for this record.
- Suspension of a visa exemption agreement
- The Minister of Justice may suspend it temporarily for public order or the national interest
Article 7(3) of the Immigration Act. The power is over the application of the agreement to persons, not over the agreement.
- Maximum period of stay for a short-term status, in the Enforcement Rules table
- Not stated there - the table covers long-term statuses only
Article 18-3 of the Enforcement Rules of the Immigration Act says the maximum period for each long-term status is as set out in Attached Table 1, and that table begins at A-1 and contains no B or C status. The short-term limit lives in article 10-2(1)1 of the Act instead.
Requirements
- A valid passport
- A visa issued by the Minister of Justice, unless one of the four classes in article 7(2) applies to you
- A prior travel permit under article 7-3 where the Minister of Justice has required one for your class of entrant
- A short-term status of residence - B-1 under a visa exemption agreement, B-2 for tourism or transit without a visa
In detail
The treaty can raise the ceiling, and the statute says so
Most countries write a flat figure and handle longer stays by exception. Korea writes the exception into the definition: a short-term status lets you stay not more than 90 days, and where a visa exemption agreement or reciprocity gives more than 90 days, that longer period is the limit instead. The consequence is that the number a visitor actually gets is not in the Immigration Act and cannot be. It is in whatever bilateral instrument covers their nationality, and the Act defers to it in advance. Neither the Act nor the Enforcement Decree reproduces a list of those agreements, and no such list was read for this record.
Visa-free is two statuses, not one
Attached Table 1 of the Enforcement Decree gives B-1 to a national of a country with a visa exemption agreement who intends to do what the agreement allows, and B-2 to a person entering without a visa for tourism or transit. The distinction matters because they come from different parts of article 7(2): B-1 rests on paragraph 2, a treaty, and B-2 on paragraph 3, a separate admission granted under the Presidential Decree for international friendship, tourism or the national interest. A visitor arriving under a reciprocal arrangement rather than a treaty is in the second group, and both groups are exactly the ones article 7-3 lets the Minister of Justice put behind a prior travel permit.
The ministerial table of stay limits starts after the visitors
Article 18-3 of the Enforcement Rules sets the maximum period of stay for each status, and its Attached Table 1 runs from A-1 to H-2 - diplomat, student, professor, resident, overseas Korean, marriage migrant, working holiday. No B or C status appears in it, because article 18-3 delegates only for long-term statuses. A reader looking up how long a Korean visa lets them stay will find the answer for every long-term category in one table and will not find the visitor's 90 days there at all.
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«제7조(외국인의 입국) ① 외국인이 입국할 때에는 유효한 여권과 법무부장관이 발급한 사증(査證)을 가지고 있어야 한다. ② 다음 각 호의 어느 하나에 해당하는 외국인은 제1항에도 불구하고 사증 없이 입국할 수 있다. 1. 재입국허가를 받은 사람 또는 재입국허가가 면제된 사람으로서 그 허가 또는 면제받은 기간이 끝나기 전에 입국하는 사람 2. 대한민국과 사증면제협정을 체결한 국가의 국민으로서 그 협정에 따라 면제대상이 되는 사람 3. 국제친선, 관광 또는 대한민국의 이익 등을 위하여 입국하는 사람으로서 대통령령 으로 정하는 바에 따라 따로 입국허가를 받은 사람 4. 난민여행증명서를 발급받고 출국한 후 그 유효기간이 끝나기 전에 입국하는 사람»The page is the state's consolidated text pinned to the version in force from 2 October 2026, printed as 법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«(1) When an alien enters the Republic of Korea, he or she shall hold a valid passport and a visa issued by the Minister of Justice. (2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), any of the following aliens may enter the Republic of Korea without a visa: 1. A person who has obtained permission to reenter or is exempted from permission of reentry enters the Republic of Korea before the period of such permission or exemption expires; 2. A person who is a national of a country which has entered into the Visa Exemption Agreement with the Republic of Korea and eligible for a visa exemption under such Visa Exemption Agreement; 3. A person who enters the Republic of Korea for international friendship, sightseeing or in the interests of the Republic of Korea, etc., with entry permission he or she has obtained otherwise, as prescribed by Presidential Decree; 4. A person who departed from the Republic of Korea with a refuge travel document issued, and enters the Republic of Korea before the effective period of such certificate expires.»The publisher states on the page carrying this text that its translations are for reference only and are neither official nor legally effective. This translation is of Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025; the Korean text in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857. The typo 'refuge travel document' is the publisher's.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«1. 단기체류자격: 관광, 방문 등의 목적으로 대한민국에 90일 이하의 기간(사증면제협정이나 상호주의에 따라 90일을 초과하는 경우에는 그 기간) 동안 머물 수 있는 체류자격 2. 장기체류자격: 유학, 연수, 투자, 주재, 결혼 등의 목적으로 대한민국에 90일을 초과하여 법무부령 으로 정하는 체류기간의 상한 범위에서 거주할 수 있는 체류자격»About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«1. Status of short-term stay: a status of stay by which it is permitted to stay in the Republic of Korea for not more than 90 days (where a period of stay exceeds 90 days pursuant to a visa exemption agreement or the reciprocity, such period of stay) for the purpose of tourism, visit, etc.; 2. Status of long-term stay: a status of stay by which it is permitted to stay in the Republic of Korea within a maximum period exceeding 90 days prescribed by Decree of the Ministry of Justice for the purpose of study, training, investment, presence for business, marriage, etc.»Reference only and neither official nor legally effective, in the publisher's own words. The translation renders 일반체류자격 as 'standard status of stay' in the heading of the same article.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«제7조의3(사전여행허가) ① 법무부장관은 공공질서의 유지나 국가이익에 필요하다고 인정하면 다음 각 호의 어느 하나에 해당하는 외국인에 대하여 입국하기 전에 허가(이하 “사전여행허가”라 한다)를 받도록 할 수 있다. 1. 제7조 제2항 제2호 또는 제3호 에 해당하는 외국인 2. 다른 법률에 따라 사증 없이 입국할 수 있는 외국인 ② 사전여행허가를 받은 외국인은 입국할 때에 사전여행허가서를 가지고 있어야 한다. ③ 사전여행허가서 발급에 관한 기준 및 절차ㆍ방법은 법무부령 으로 정한다.»Added by Act No. 16921 of 4 February 2020. The words 제7조 제2항 제2호 또는 제3호 carry link spacing from the publisher's own markup.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«If deemed necessary for the maintenance of public order or the interests of the State, the Minister of Justice may allow any of the following aliens to obtain permission prior to his or her entry into the Republic of Korea»Reference only and neither official nor legally effective, in the publisher's own words. The sentence continues with the defined term and the two classes of alien.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«관광․통과 등의 목적으로 대한민국에 사증 없이 입국»The B-2 entry. The table is printed in two columns and the status code (B-2) falls between this line and the words 하려는 사람 that finish the sentence, so the quotation stops at the line break rather than stitching the columns together. The B-1 entry on the line above reads 대한민국과 사증면제협정을 체결한 국가의 국민으로서.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«제18조의3(체류자격별로 부여하는 체류기간의 상한) 법 제10조의2 제1항 제2호 에 따른 장기체류자격의 체류자격별 체류기간의 상한은 별표 1 과 같다.다만, 법무부장관은 국제관례나 상호주의 원칙 또는 국가이익에 비추어 필요하다고 인정하는 때에는 그 상한을 달리 정할 수 있다.»It delegates only for 장기체류자격 - long-term statuses. The missing space after 같다. is the publisher's.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
No list of the countries Korea has visa exemption agreements with was read, and none is in the Act, the Enforcement Decree table or the Enforcement Rules. The Act names the agreements as a class and leaves the membership to the agreements.
The ministerial decree made under article 7-3(3), which decides who actually has to hold a prior travel permit, was not located or read. The Act gives the Minister of Justice the power and says nothing about who is covered.
Nothing published by the Korea Immigration Service or by the K-ETA portal was read for this record. Everything here is from the Immigration Act, its Enforcement Decree and its Enforcement Rules.
The English quotations are from the Korea Legislation Research Institute, which states on the page that its translations are for reference only and are neither official nor legally effective. Where the two differ the Korean is the law.
- consolidates출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정]
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처 · consolidated to 2026-10-02
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- reportsIMMIGRATION ACT - Statutes of the Republic of Korea
Korea Legislation Research Institute
About this source
The state-funded research institute that produces and hosts the English translations of Korean statutes, at elaw.klri.re.kr under the title Statutes of the Republic of Korea. Its own statistics page counts 3,070 current translations - 1,593 statutes, 1,389 enforcement decrees, 3 enforcement rules and 83 others - against 21,044 former ones. Two addresses matter: /eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the frame, which carries the disclaimer and nothing else, and /eng_service/lawViewContent.do?hseq=<N>&lang=ENG is the text. The hseq identifies a particular translated version of a particular statute, so it behaves like a pinned address. Its own search is broken for an ordinary client: /eng_service/lawTotalSearch.do, /eng_service/lawAllSearch.do and /eng_service/lawTotalSearchList.do?type=abc all answer HTTP 500 with a Java NullPointerException. **The route that works is a POST to /eng_service/lawNameList.do with page=1, searchType1=korean and searchValue=<the Korean statute name>**, which returns the Korean and English titles with their hseq. A session cookie from /eng_service/main.do is required for anything on the site.
Standing: Reports, establishes nothing
Cannot be cited for: **Its translations are not law and it says so on every statute page**: "* Translations provided here are for reference only, and are neither official nor legally effective. * The links provided by an automatic program for the convenience of users may have some errors." It cannot be cited as the text of a Korean statute; the Korean at law.go.kr is. Four divergences were found in a single country's reading and all four change the rule: the English of 소득세법 제1조의2(1)1 attaches 183 days to both the domicile and the residence limb where the Korean attaches it only to the second; the English of 소득세법 시행령 제4조(3)1 says "exceeds 183 days" where the Korean says 183일 이상, 183 or more; the English of 출입국관리법 제18조(1) says a status entitling the holder to "job-seeking activities" where the Korean says 취업활동, employment activity, job-seeking being a different status in the same table; and the English of 재외동포법 제5조(2) makes the military-service bar lapse automatically from 1 January of the year the man turns 41, where the Korean makes it a discretion the Minister of Justice may exercise from that date. **It also lags.** Each translation states the Act it renders: the Immigration Act is translated at Act No. 20677 of 21 January 2025 while the Korean in force on 2 October 2026 is Act No. 21857, and the Enforcement Decree of the Immigration Act is at Presidential Decree No. 35540 of 27 May 2025 against No. 36728 in force. **It does not carry the attached tables** - every Appendix is referred to and none is reproduced - so the status-of-residence lists exist only in Korean. **No translation exists at all for 출입국관리법 시행규칙**, the Enforcement Rules, which carry the stay-period table and the marriage-visa criteria. **Its pages are English with Korean furniture**: the string 법령보기 화면 is printed as a table caption before every article, hundreds of times per document, so a reading from this publisher is a Latin text carrying a non-Latin script in place and `audit:readings` flags every quotation taken near one.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
- consolidates출입국관리법 시행령 [별표 1] 단기체류자격(제12조 관련)
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidates출입국관리법 시행규칙 [시행 2026. 9. 15.]
국가법령정보센터 (Korean Law Information Center), 법제처 · consolidated to 2026-09-15
About this source
The Korean state's legal information centre, run by the Ministry of Government Legislation. It publishes the consolidated current text of every Act, Presidential Decree and Ministerial Decree, each pinned to the date from which that version is in force, and prints the version line at the head of the document - 출입국관리법 [시행 2026. 10. 2.] [법률 제21857호, 2026. 8. 4., 타법개정] - which gives both the commencement date and the Act number that made the version. Three address shapes matter and only the third serves text. https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name> is a 1.2 KB iframe shell; /LSW/lsInfoP.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&urlMode=lsInfoP&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0 is a second shell with the chrome but no articles; THE BODY IS AT /LSW/lsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>&chrClsCd=010202&efYd=<YYYYMMDD>&ancYnChk=0, which answers an ordinary request and was read for this corpus with `pnpm sources:fetch --direct`. The lsiSeq is version-specific, so an address taken this way is pinned to the consolidation it was read from, which is why every citation of it carries a cut-off. Attached tables (별표) are not in the body: /LSW/lsBylContentsInfoR.do?bylSeq=<B>&lsiSeq=<N> returns hanFlSeq and pdfFlSeq, and https://www.law.go.kr/LSW/flDownload.do?flSeq=<pdfFlSeq> is the table as a PDF with a text layer. The site also carries the government's English translations at /LSW/eng/engLsInfoR.do?lsiSeq=<N>, keyed to the English version's own lsiSeq rather than the Korean one.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: **It consolidates; the Official Gazette (관보) promulgates.** What this site serves is the state's working consolidated text, and where it differs from the gazette the gazette is the instrument. The site says as much about its own comparison tool: 국가법령정보센터에서 제공하는 신구법 비교는 시스템으로 자동 생성한 것으로 참고용으로만 이용하시기 바라며, 정확한 개정내용의 확인은 제·개정이유(제·개정문) 또는 관보를 확인해 주세요. **Its English translations carry no legal effect and say so**, on the page: "ㅇ This English translation of the legislation has been provided by the relevant government ministry solely for the purpose of facilitating understanding of Korean laws. It does not have any legal authority or official effect and may not reflect the most recent amendments." It cannot be cited for the English. **It is not a substitute for the ministerial notices (고시) that carry most of the numbers.** Korean immigration, health insurance, driving and marriage-visa law delegate thresholds to notices of a Minister or a Commissioner, and those are published elsewhere; a reading of law.go.kr establishes the rule and not the figure. **The body address is undocumented and could move.** If /LSW/lsInfoR.do stops answering, re-derive it from the iframe src inside https://www.law.go.kr/법령/<name>.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source