How Long Is a Korean Visa Valid? Visa Validity vs Stay Period

Two different ‘valid’ dates on every visa

The most common reason people ask how long a Korean visa is valid is that there are two separate timeframes, and confusing them causes overstays and missed deadlines.

1. Visa validity — the period during which you may enter Korea. If you do not enter within this window, the visa expires unused.
2. Stay period — how long you may remain after entry. This is granted at the port of entry and, for long stays, printed on your Alien Registration Card (ARC).

The dates printed on the visa label itself are the authoritative source for the entry window. The stay period is a separate decision, so a visa with plenty of validity left does not mean you can stay longer than the period you were granted.

Single-entry vs multiple-entry validity

Korean visas are classified by how many times they allow entry:

• Single-entry visa — allows one entry before the visa’s expiry date. It is typically valid for a short window from the date of issue, often three months, and it is gone after one entry.
• Double-entry visa — allows two entries and is usually valid for around six months.
• Multiple-entry visa — allows repeated entry within its validity, commonly issued for 1-year, 3-year or 5-year terms.

The exact validity of your visa is set by the issuing mission and printed on the visa, so check the dates rather than relying on a general rule. The number of entries matters too: leaving Korea on a single-entry visa without a re-entry permit can end your status, which is why long-term residents should understand how their ARC interacts with re-entry rules.

Short stays: the 90-day boundary

Most short-term visits — tourism, business meetings, family visits — fall into the short-stay group, where the permitted stay is limited to 90 days or less.

• Visa-free entry (B-1) and tourist/transit entry (B-2): the stay is set by the visa waiver agreement for your nationality, usually a maximum of 3 months, and is not extendable for many nationalities.
• Short-term visit (C-3) and other C-series visas: stay within 90 days.

If you are visa-exempt, you must also check whether K-ETA applies. K-ETA approval is valid for three years and allows multiple visits, but it does not override the visa-free stay period — on each visit you must still leave before the permitted stay expires.

Long stays: the ARC stay period

If you are staying longer than 90 days, you must register for an Alien Registration Card (ARC) at the local immigration office after entry. From that point the real ‘validity’ that matters is the stay period printed on the ARC, not the visa label in your passport.

• Study (D-2, D-4), work (E-2, E-7, E-9), marriage (F-6) and residence (F-2, F-4, F-5) statuses are long-term stays.
• The stay period granted varies by status and is decided by immigration; the ARC shows the date by which you must renew or depart.
• You cannot simply stay until the visa’s entry window expires — you must apply to extend before the ARC stay period ends. See how to extend a Korean visa and our visa renewal guide.
• If you plan to travel abroad during a long stay, check the re-entry rules, because leaving without the right re-entry permission can terminate your status.

For how visas are organised by purpose and how to apply, see how to get a Korean visa. Korean immigration publishes the authoritative rules on the visa portal and HiKorea, and every case is reviewed individually — the figures here are general as of August 2026.