Regarding traveling to Korea
South Korea is still implementing a 10days of mandatory quarantine policy for all foreign entries to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
[ As of 25th Nov, 2021 ]
As an exemption, only vaccinated Korean citizens, long-term visa holders or their immediate family members (parents and children) can apply for exemption from quarantine through the Korean embassy before entering the country - In this case, the Janssen vaccine requires at least one dose, and other vaccines are needed at least two doses.
Foreigners who entered the country on a tourist visa will be quarantined for 10 days at a nationally designated accommodation facility (hotel, etc.)
The cost of facility stay is around $100(USD) per day. (Meal included)
For more details, refer to the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the USA
[ Updated on 28th Nov ]
Arrivals from “high risk countries”
Since 00:00 on November 28th, 2021, foreign arrivals from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, and Malawi, are banned to enter S. Korea as a prevention of “Omicron" virants spread. Only Koreans allows to come in, yet quarantine exempt doesn’t apply.
[ Updated on 2nd Dec ]
For all foreign arrivals between
3rd Dec (0:0) ~ 16th Dec (24:00), 2021
The quarantine exemption policy is suspended for 2 weeks because of the threat of Omicron variants. All arrivals from other countries comply with mandatory quarantine of 10 days. [reference]
Additionally, Nigeria is added to the group of “high risk countries” mentioned above. [reference]
[ Updated on 16th Dec ]
The same policy is extended up to 6th January, 2022
Latest news about Korea entry & quarantine rule is written in a separate article so as to keep the originality of this article. You can follow up-to-date news in the new article linked below.
South Korea Quarantine Rules For Foreigners - Up to date
This article is interpreting 2 up-to-date public announcements published in Korean government's official "COVID-19" website on 10th and 30th December, 2021. Some details were supplemented based on..
koreanvibe.kr
Domestic Rules of Visit
Although it is not common to travel to Korea in this Covid-19 era, I would like to briefly write down information about the “Rules of visit” which is now mandatory when entering all stores in Korea. This would matter after your quarantine is over.
3 Rules of visit
- Measuring body temperature
- Leaving a log of visits
- Hand sanitizing (optional)
Measuring body temperature
When you enter stores in Korea, there must be a thermometer at the entrance. Simply, you can put your wrist or forehead close to thermometer and wait a second, the measured temperature will appear. The body temperature should be fine unless it exceeds 37 degrees Celsius (36.5°C is standard)
Leaving a log of visits
In Korean Covid-19 policy, people who visited the same place at the same time as the confirmed case should be tested for Covid-19 and self-isolated 14 days. In order to contact the relevant individuals in such a situation, all visitors must leave a record of their visit with contact number when entering public and commercial facilities - such as restaurants, cafes, and department stores. (This record will be discarded after being used only for the government's epidemiological investigation)
When it comes to the "HOW", the government has been looking for best ways which can protect personal information well. So far, three solutions have been established. Each store might carry 2~3 of the methods available, you can use any one of the ways to leave your record.
Way 1 | KI-Pass (QR check-in)
Only Korean phone number holders can use QR check-in provided by Kakao Talk, Naver, Pass app - "KI-Pass" is its official name. Anyone can download those apps and use them, yet QR check-in service can verify "who you are" only through domestic cellular data providers. If you have a Korean cell phone number, try QR check-in. You could refer The figure below which is showing where you can find the QR code in the app.
Way 2 | Call +82-80-xxx-xxxx
As you might know, getting QR code verification is rather cumbersome. Especially for travelers with loaming phone, we recommend a simpler and quicker method of calling to the "visit record-only hotline" of each store - This is what locals prefer too.
A little twist needed for international callers
Each store has a different Covid-hotline number all starts with "080-" (refer to photo below). However, it's in domestic form. You, international caller need to add the nation code of Korea "+82", and skip the first "0". For example, if the shop's Covid-19 hotline is "080-987-6543", after all, "+82-80-987-6543" becomes the real number you need to call. When you call it, recorded vocie will be heard for a couple seconds, and it would hang up automatically. To summarize, find a phone number shapes like "080-xxx-xxxx", and call in the form of "+82-80-xxx-xxxx". That's all.
Way 3 | Write on paper guest book
Humans' one of oldest friends, paper guest book will wait for you together with digital methods aforementioned. Kind restaurants and shops will put it af the main entrance though, highly possibly, this method could have been excluded to protect visitors privacy better if you can't see it. To illustrate, if you have a stocker following you, they can see your personal phone numbers, region of stay and visit time after you get in. As for the aspect of officers, they could suffer from miswritings of contacts that some people do intentionally. No matter what, if the other 2 ways don't work, you can say that those don't work and you need paper guest book instead. That's your right.
Information you will write on paper
Required information on the Covid-19 guest book are visit date & time, area of your resident(country, city, district name all in one cell), your contact, and check box for agreement of seeing the written information only when necessary. Those cells are all in a row.
Again, you can use any one of those methods for the visit record.
Hand sanitizing
Enjoy free hand sanitizer during your travel wherever you go! Helping people to keep their hands clean is one of duties of store owners. At the same time, Government office set some budget to provide sanitizers to small store owners once in a while.
Summary
3 rules of visit you need to follow for all store visits are like below.
1. Measuring body temperature
2. Leaving a log of visits
- QR check-in or
- Call Covid hotline or
- Write on Guest book
3. Hand sanitizing for free
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