South Korean Embassy announces a new visa policy

The South Korean Embassy in Ulaanbaatar held a briefing on its new visa regulations for Mongolian citizens.

Under previous regulations, when holders of regular Mongolian passports had visited South Korea four times or more within two years or had visited at least ten times, they were eligible to enter the Republic of Korea without a visa. Under the new visa requirements, these people will not be able to enter South Korea without a visa and will have to apply for a multiple entry visa at a South Korean embassy or at the Korean immigration office in South Korea.

People with numerous visa entries will be eligible to apply for a multiple entry visa with one of the following terms:

1. A 30-day multiple entry visa valid for 5 years

2. A 90-day multiple entry visa valid for one,

three, or five years

3. A 90-day single entry work visa

Applicants eligible for the first two visa options must have visited South Korea at least one time within the last two years.

The embassy said that the number of Mongolians illegally residing in South Korea without a residence permit has been increasing in recent years, and noted that the consular section of the embassy receives applications from nearly 600 Mongolian citizens each day.

People who have violated South Korean laws and those who have been charged fines of five million KRW will be ineligible to apply for the three visas.

Mongolians holding visas and residence permits for 30 European countries, including the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden, or for the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and Mongolian citizens traveling to those countries are eligible to stay in South Korea for up to 30 days en route to those destinations.