South Korean passport holders can apply for the Indian eVisa entirely online, and Korea is one of only three nationalities eligible for Indian Visa on Arrival. Approval typically arrives by email in 24 to 72 hours.
90 days
Maximum stay per visit
24–72 hrs
Typical processing time
Up to 5 years
Longest validity offered
Eligible
Visa on Arrival
100% online
No embassy visit
Overview
South Korea holds a privileged position in India's visa system: it is one of only three nationalities eligible for Indian Visa on Arrival, alongside Japan and the UAE. That said, the eVisa remains the better instrument for most trips — it is cheaper, confirmed before you fly, and available in multiple-entry one-year and five-year versions.
The relationship behind the traffic is substantial. Korean electronics, automotive and steel groups have very large Indian operations — Chennai, Delhi NCR and Pune in particular — which generates a heavy and continuous flow of corporate travel. Leisure travel has grown alongside it, helped by Korean interest in Indian yoga, Ayurveda and Himalayan trekking.
Every South Korean citizen needs a visa or Visa on Arrival to enter India. The eVisa is an electronic authorisation issued by the Government of India, linked to your passport number, with no stamp and no consular appointment. Korean passport holders receive up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa.
At a glance
Eligibility
Yes, but Korea has two routes where most nationalities have one. The eVisa is applied for online before departure and approved within 24 to 72 hours. Visa on Arrival is available to Korean nationals at designated Indian airports for stays of up to 60 days — genuine, but it means queueing at the border, paying at a counter, and having the decision made after you have already flown.
For most trips the eVisa is the better choice. It is confirmed before boarding, cheaper, and available as a multiple-entry one-year or five-year visa. Visa on Arrival is best reserved for a genuinely unplanned short trip.
Choose the eVisa category by purpose. Tourism, sightseeing, trekking, visiting friends, and yoga or Ayurveda retreats fall under the tourist eVisa. Meetings, trade fairs, supplier audits and technical discussions require the business eVisa — the relevant category for the large Korean corporate presence in India. Hospital treatment requires the medical eVisa. Employment, journalism, research and long-term study are outside the eVisa scheme and need a regular visa from an Indian mission in Korea.
Stay & validity
South Korean citizens are permitted up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. The 30-day version allows double entry, with its 30 days counted from your arrival date. The one-year and five-year versions are multiple-entry, with validity starting on the date the Indian government grants the application.
Note that Korea is not in India's extended-stay tier — the 180-day per-visit tourist allowance applies to American, British, Canadian and Japanese nationals only. Korean travellers sometimes assume parity with Japan because both hold Visa on Arrival eligibility, but the eVisa stay limits differ.
The business eVisa does allow up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window, which is double the Korean tourist allowance and the right instrument for extended project work at Korean-invested plants in Chennai, Pune or Delhi NCR.
The eVisa is bound to a single passport number, so a Korean passport renewal during a multi-year visa's term invalidates it. Visa on Arrival, where used, permits up to 60 days. The medical eVisa gives 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Pricing
Live government fees and service charges for South Korean passport holders, shown all-in — nothing further is charged later.
Your nationality is pre-selected as Korea
Requirements
Everything South Korean passport holders need before starting an application. The first five items apply to every applicant; the rest are specific to your nationality or visa type.
Passport bio-data page — a clear colour scan or photo showing your photograph, full name, date of birth, passport number and expiry date
Recent passport-style photograph — square format, plain white background, full face visible, no shadows and no headwear other than for religious reasons
A valid credit or debit card to pay the government fee and service charge
Your return or onward ticket details, or at minimum your intended departure date
The address where you will be staying for your first night in India
Simple process
Four steps, entirely online, with our team checking every field before anything reaches the Indian authorities.
Enter your passport details exactly as printed, choose your visa type and duration, and upload your photo and passport data page.
Our team checks your photo dimensions, passport scan clarity, name spelling and date formats before anything is submitted.
Your application goes to the Government of India on your behalf, and we keep you posted at every status change.
Print it or keep it on your phone, and we explain exactly how to present it at your port of entry in India.
Standard processing takes 48 to 72 hours and express handling 24 to 48 hours. Both are business-day estimates, and Indian public holidays — numerous and often state-specific — extend them.
Apply at least a week before departure, ideally two, so there is room to replace a rejected photograph without paying twice for express handling. Applications open 120 days ahead, but on one-year and five-year visas applying that far out wastes validity. Chuseok and the Lunar New Year are peak booking periods on Korea–India routes, so flights need earlier attention than the visa.
Separate from your eVisa, every foreign national entering India must complete the digital e-Arrival Card before boarding. It replaces the old paper disembarkation form and is required on every single visit, whatever visa you hold.
Getting there
Seoul Incheon has nonstop service to Delhi with Korean Air and Air India, and both Indian arrival points are designated eVisa ports. Chennai — the centre of Korean industrial investment in India — is usually reached via a South-East Asian hub or a Delhi connection.
Best time to go
October to March is India's dry season and the best window for leisure travel. For Korean travellers the Chuseok holiday in September or October falls at the start of it, and the Lunar New Year in January or February lands squarely in the best weather — both are natural windows, and both are fare peaks.
For business travel to Chennai and the Tamil Nadu industrial belt, note that South India has a different pattern from the north: the north-east monsoon brings rain from October to December, so January to March is the driest window there. Chennai in May and June is hot and humid rather than dry-hot, which is its own kind of difficult.
Avoid the northern plains in May and June, when temperatures exceed 45°C. For Himalayan trekking, June to September is the season for Ladakh and Spiti, which sit in the monsoon's rain shadow. India is 3.5 hours behind Korean time, so the shift on an 8- to 9-hour flight is manageable.
Avoid these
Refusals are rare, and almost always technical rather than substantive. These are the problems that come up most often on applications from Korea — we check for every one of them before submitting.
The defining Korean-specific problem. Korean names have several valid romanisations — Kim or Gim, Lee or Yi or Rhee, Park or Bak, Choi or Choe — and your passport uses one specific form. The eVisa must match it exactly, as must your airline ticket. Applicants who use an older romanisation, or the spelling from a previous passport, create a mismatch that Indian immigration will query.
Korea and Japan both hold Visa on Arrival eligibility, which leads Korean travellers to assume the eVisa terms match too. They do not. Japanese nationals get 180 days per visit on the tourist eVisa; Korean nationals get 90. The business eVisa does give Koreans 180 days per visit, which is often the answer for longer stays.
Visa on Arrival is a real advantage, but it caps you at 60 days, involves a border queue, and defers the decision until after you have flown. The eVisa is cheaper, confirmed in advance, and available as a multi-year multiple-entry visa. Reserve Visa on Arrival for genuinely unplanned trips.
Korean engineers on extended assignments at Indian plants sometimes use a tourist eVisa because it needs no invitation letter. Commercial activity on a tourist visa is a misuse of the category, and the business eVisa gives Koreans twice the stay allowance anyway. If the work amounts to employment in India, that requires an employment visa.
Korean convention places the family name first, and Korean passports print it in its own field. Fill the eVisa form to match the passport's field layout — family name in the surname field — rather than transposing the spoken order. Then check the airline booking matches.
Photo rejected on technical grounds
By far the most common cause of delay. The photograph must be square, on a plain white background, with your full face visible and no shadow behind your head. Cropped selfies and phone photos taken against a cream wall are routinely bounced back.
Passport scan unreadable
Glare across the machine-readable zone, a cut-off corner, or a scan where the passport number is blurred will stall the application. Photograph the page flat, in daylight, with no flash.
Applying too close to departure
The eVisa must be granted before you fly, and airlines check it at the gate. Applications submitted the night before a flight leave no room for a document re-upload.
Conditions
These conditions are set by the Government of India and do not vary by nationality. They are worth reading before you book, because two of them — the port-of-entry rule and the restricted-areas rule — catch out a lot of otherwise well-planned trips.
Validity is measured from your date of arrival in India, not from the date you apply. You also need at least two blank pages for immigration stamps.
The India eVisa is accepted at India's designated eVisa airports and authorised seaports. It cannot be used to cross a land border, so overland arrivals from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh or Pakistan need a different visa.
Every person travelling needs their own eVisa and their own passport, including infants and children. Children cannot be added to a parent's application.
An eVisa does not grant access to Protected Areas, Restricted Areas or Cantonment Areas. Parts of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Ladakh, the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep require a Protected Area Permit or Restricted Area Permit in addition to your visa.
You cannot extend an eVisa from inside India or convert it into another visa category. If your plans change, you must leave and apply again.
Diplomatic, official and service passports are not eligible for the eVisa route, and neither are international travel documents or refugee travel documents.
Consular services
Neither mission is involved in an eVisa application, which is handled entirely online. They cover what the eVisa cannot: employment, journalism, research and long-term student visas, OCI cards, and consular services for Indian nationals in Korea.
FAQs
The questions South Korean passport holders ask most often about applying for an Indian eVisa.
Up to 90 days per visit on the tourist eVisa. Korea is not in the extended-stay tier — the 180-day tourist allowance applies to US, UK, Canadian and Japanese nationals only, which surprises Korean travellers who know Korea shares Visa on Arrival eligibility with Japan. The business eVisa does permit up to 180 days per visit within a one-year window, and the medical eVisa 60 days from first entry with triple entry.
Usually not. Visa on Arrival is genuine for Korean nationals at designated Indian airports, but it caps your stay at 60 days, requires queueing and paying at the border, and leaves the decision until after you have flown. The eVisa is cheaper, confirmed before departure, and available as a multiple-entry one-year or five-year visa. Visa on Arrival suits genuinely unplanned trips.
Exactly the one printed on your current passport, character for character. Korean names have multiple valid romanisations — Lee, Yi and Rhee are all the same surname — and only the passport spelling is correct for the visa. Make sure your airline ticket matches too, because Indian immigration compares the eVisa against the passport.
Fees are set by nationality and duration, so the pricing panel on this page loads live figures for South Korean passport holders across all available options. You can compare 30-day, one-year and five-year prices side by side, and the amount shown is the full cost including our service fee.
The business eVisa, if you are there for meetings, technical discussions, supplier audits or commissioning work rather than employment. It permits up to 180 days per visit within a one-year multiple-entry window — double the Korean tourist allowance — and requires an invitation letter from the Indian entity on its letterhead. If you are being employed in India, on an Indian payroll, that is an employment visa from an Indian mission in Korea.
There is no nonstop service. Seoul Incheon flies nonstop to Delhi with Korean Air and Air India, but for Chennai — the centre of Korean industrial investment in India — a connection through Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong or Hanoi is usually faster than routing via Delhi. Chennai is a designated eVisa airport, so either approach works for the visa.
You need either an approved eVisa or eligibility for Visa on Arrival. If you are relying on Visa on Arrival, make sure your airline is satisfied before you reach the gate — practice varies, and having an eVisa in hand removes any ambiguity. The eVisa is the safer choice for anything other than a last-minute trip.
October to March for North India and the classic circuits, with the Lunar New Year falling in ideal weather. For Chennai and Tamil Nadu the pattern differs: the north-east monsoon brings rain from October to December, so January to March is the driest window there. For Himalayan trekking, June to September is the season in Ladakh and Spiti.
Your nationality is already set to Korea. Complete the form in under ten minutes, and our team will check every detail before it reaches the Indian authorities.
Other nationalities
Stay limits, fees and requirements differ by passport. Here are the guides for other nationalities.
