Seoul earns its place on almost every Pakistani traveller’s wish list: five-century-old palaces beside some of the most modern streetscapes on earth, a food scene that runs from late-night tteokbokki stalls to Michelin-starred restaurants, and day trips from the DMZ to Jeju’s volcanic coast. K-dramas, K-pop and a shopping culture that never sleeps complete the picture.
South Korea is not, however, a casual visa destination. There is no e-Visa for Pakistani passport holders, no visa on arrival, and no K-ETA shortcut. Every ordinary Pakistani passport holder must apply for a proper visa at the Korean mission before travelling. The tourist route is the C-3-9 short-term general visa, and every application passes through close scrutiny. Processing is widely reported to take several weeks, so planning ahead is not optional.
This guide explains the official route as published by Korean government sources on 21 October 2026: the visa category, what it allows, the verified document rules, the official fee schedule, the K-ETA position, and what to do when the embassy’s own notice is the only authority that counts. It also tells you honestly which facts could not be verified on an official page.
Key Facts at a Glance
| Detail | Summary |
|---|---|
| Visa type | C-3-9 short-term general (tourism) visa, per the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular tables |
| Who needs it | Ordinary Pakistani passport holders must obtain a visa before travel; Pakistan is a visa-requiring nationality |
| K-ETA | Not available to Pakistani passport holders; K-ETA is for nationals of visa-waiver countries only |
| How to apply | In person at the Korean Embassy/Consulate in your country of residence (official Korea Visa Portal rule) |
| Official basic fee | Single entry up to 90 days: USD 40; single entry over 91 days: USD 60; multiple entry: USD 90 (basic rates; nationality may differ) |
| Stay allowed | Up to 90 days, single entry; not extendable for tourist stays |
| Visa Grant Notice | No passport sticker since July 2020; approved applicants print a Visa Grant Notice |
| Work | Paid employment is not permitted on a C-3 visa |
| Checked | 21 October 2026 against official Korean government sources |
Do Pakistanis Need a Visa for South Korea?
An official notice from the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the Philippines lists Pakistan among the nationals who must apply for a Korean visa, and the Korean Immigration Service’s official Visa Navigator treats visas as required for all foreigners except nationals of countries with a signed visa-waiver agreement or an entry permission designated by the Minister of Justice. There is no visa-on-arrival route for Pakistani ordinary passports.
Do not treat travel-agent confidence as an official position. Some agent sites claim visa-free entry for Pakistan under a 2026 arrangement; that claim could not be verified on any official Korean government page and should be treated as fiction until an official embassy or ministry notice says otherwise.
Why K-ETA Is Not Your Route
K-ETA is Korea’s Electronic Travel Authorization, and it sounds like a convenient shortcut but is not one for Pakistanis. An official notice from the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Ireland states the rule plainly: since April 2022, nationals of visa-waiver countries or designated visa-free countries must obtain an ETA before entering Korea, and you do not need a K-ETA if you have a valid visa. K-ETA is therefore a requirement imposed on people who do not need a visa, not an alternative to a visa. Pakistani ordinary passport holders are not in that system at all: Pakistan is a visa-requiring nationality and does not appear on the published K-ETA eligible-country lists. The route for you is the visa, full stop.
Anyone who tells you they can arrange K-ETA approval for a Pakistani ordinary passport is selling something that does not exist. Treat any such offer as a red flag.
What the C-3-9 Visa Lets You Do
The short-term visit category is called C-3. The Korea Immigration Service’s official Visa Navigator defines it as “persons staying for a short-term period for tourism, business, visitation, etc.” with a maximum stay of 90 days. Within C-3 there are subtypes, and the official consular table of the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Hong Kong maps “Short-Term General Tourism: Tourism in general” to C-3-9. So when a travel agent or checklist mentions the C-3-9, it means the general tourist visa.
Practical consequences follow from the official definitions:
- Stay up to 90 days, on a single entry. Shorter stays (for example, two weeks) are of course fine; the 90 days is a ceiling, not a promise.
- Not extendable for tourism. The official table marks C-3 as “NOT Extendable”. Do not plan a trip on the assumption you can lengthen it after arrival.
- Tourism and visitation only. “Visitation” covers family and social visits; short business liaison sits under the related C-3-4 category and medical tourism under C-3-3.
- No paid work. Korean immigration law has a separate category, C-4 Short-Term Employee, for short-term employment or profit-making activity. Working for pay on a C-3 puts you outside the law.
Multiple-entry C-3 visas exist only for citizens of countries with a multiple-entry visa agreement with Korea. Whether Pakistani passport holders qualify is a question for the embassy’s own notice, which could not be retrieved on the check date.
Who Can Apply From Pakistan
Any holder of an ordinary Pakistani passport who plans a short tourism or social visit can apply. Applications from Pakistan are lodged at the Korean mission: the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Islamabad, or the Karachi office of the embassy at House No. 101, 29th Street off Khayaban-e-Muhafiz, Phase VI, DHA, Karachi (telephone 92-21-3585-3950/1), both of which are listed on the embassy’s own official website.
The official Korea Visa Portal states the location rule generally: a visa application should be made at the Korean Embassy or Consulate in the applicant’s country of residence. That is the official route for Pakistanis in Pakistan.
One honest gap: whether the Islamabad mission requires a prior appointment, or processes applications through a visa application centre, could not be confirmed on the embassy’s own pages on the check date. Agent sites disagree with each other on this point, so check the embassy’s “Visa Announcement” and “Visa Requirements” sections, listed on its official site, before you prepare your file.
Documents Required
The official Korea Visa Portal lists the core documents for a C-3 application everywhere in the world:
| Requirement | Official detail |
|---|---|
| Visa application form | The official visa application form (form No. 17), completed in full |
| Passport | Original passport, with sufficient validity |
| Photograph | Recent colour photograph, 3.5 cm by 4.5 cm, natural colour |
| Fee | Payable in US dollars, per the official fee schedule |
| Purpose documents | Documents for the corresponding status of stay (tourism itinerary, bookings and the like) |
| Mission additions | The head of the diplomatic mission may request additional documents or exempt documents for further evaluation |
That last line matters more than it looks. It means the definitive checklist for an application made in Pakistan is the Islamabad embassy’s own notice, not a generic list. The embassy’s website could not be read on 21 October 2026, so the Pakistan-specific extras below are what agents and applicants consistently report, not official text. Confirm each item against the embassy’s current notice:
- CNIC copy, and where applicable the NADRA Family Registration Certificate (FRC) and Marriage Registration Certificate (MRC).
- Six months of personal bank statements, ideally with an account maintenance certificate.
- For employed applicants: an employment letter or contract, recent salary slips, and a no-objection certificate from the employer.
- For self-employed applicants: NTN certificate, chamber of commerce or trade-body certificate, business registration documents, and business bank statements.
- Income tax returns, especially where they support the income shown in the statements.
- A travel itinerary in Korea, flight reservations, and hotel bookings or a host’s details.
- Travel history documents, such as previous visas, where you have them.
The most important documentary advice in this whole guide is simple: apply with honest, consistent paperwork. Korea is known for verifying financial documents, and large unexplained deposits or income that does not match the tax returns are classic refusal grounds. Six months of genuine, regular transactions beats a suddenly inflated closing balance every time.
Fees and Additional Costs
The official fee schedule published by the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sets the basic visa fees as follows:
| Visa | Basic fee |
|---|---|
| Single entry, stay not exceeding 90 days | USD 40 |
| Single entry, stay exceeding 90 days | USD 60 |
| Double entry | USD 70 |
| Multiple entry | USD 90 |
Two caveats are part of the official text itself and must not be separated from the figures. First, these are basic rates, and the published schedule states that the rates can be applied differently depending on nationality. Second, the fee in Pakistan is collected in Pakistani rupees at the embassy’s own rate, under the embassy’s own notice. On the check date, that notice could not be retrieved on an official page, so the exact PKR figure payable in Pakistan is not stated here. Third-party agent sites quote figures such as PKR 12,000 for a single entry, citing an alleged December 2025 embassy notice, but that notice could not be found on any official page. Treat such figures as unconfirmed until the embassy’s own page confirms them.
The fee is non-refundable once the application is submitted.
Processing Time and When to Apply
On the check date, no official processing-time figure for visa applications in Pakistan could be found on any retrievable Korean government page. Third-party sites quote wildly different numbers, from fifteen working days to a minimum of eight weeks, and none of them is an official statement. The official Korea Visa Portal does note that mission heads may request further documents during evaluation, which is how processing stretches when an application needs verification.
The practical conclusion is straightforward: apply far earlier than you think you need to. For a summer trip, start the process in the spring. Never book non-refundable flights or hotels until the Visa Grant Notice is in your hands, and build your travel dates around the visa, not the other way around.
Financial Requirements
Korea publishes no fixed minimum bank balance for tourist visas. The assessment is qualitative: can you afford the trip you are planning, and does your financial life look genuine? That is why six months of statements matters more than a single balance figure. The embassy looks for regular income credits, spending that matches your declared employment, and a closing balance that makes the trip affordable without hollowing out the account.
Keep your statements real, keep them consistent with your tax returns and salary slips, and do not move money around just to make the balance look bigger. Manufactured balances are one of the quickest routes to a refusal.
How to Apply: Step by Step
- Check the embassy’s current notice. Confirm the requirements, fee and submission procedure on the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Pakistan’s official website (overseas.mofa.go.kr/pk-en). The mission’s own notice overrides every other source, including this guide.
- Download and complete the visa application form. Fill in every field honestly. Attach a recent 3.5 cm by 4.5 cm colour photograph.
- Assemble your documents. Gather the core documents from the official list above plus the mission-specific items in the embassy’s notice. Keep originals and copies organised; make sure names, dates and passport numbers match across every document.
- Prepare your trip evidence. A day-by-day itinerary in Korea, flight reservations and hotel bookings (or your host’s details) prove the visit plan is genuine.
- Submit at the mission. The official route is application at the Korean Embassy or Consulate in your country of residence. Bring originals, be ready to answer questions about your trip, and pay the fee as the mission instructs.
- Wait for the decision. The mission may ask for additional documents during evaluation; respond promptly and honestly.
- Print your Visa Grant Notice. Since July 2020, Korean embassies have not issued passport stickers. When your visa is approved, print the Visa Grant Notice from the Korea Visa Portal’s “Check Application Status and Print” section using your passport number, name and date of birth, and carry it with your passport.
After Approval: The Visa Grant Notice
This is the detail first-time Korea applicants most often get wrong. There is no sticker in your passport. The announcement of the label-free visa policy by the Karachi office of the embassy states that all Korean embassies stopped issuing visa labels from 1 July 2020, and that approved applicants receive a Visa Grant Notice instead.
The notice is your proof of visa status. Print it from the Korea Visa Portal (Application Status/Issue, then “Check Application Status and Print”), and present it together with your passport to the immigration officer on arrival. Keep both a paper copy and a digital copy on your phone.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Assuming K-ETA, an e-Visa or visa on arrival exists for Pakistani ordinary passports. None of these exist.
- Preparing the file from an agent’s generic checklist instead of the embassy’s current notice.
- Inflating the bank statement with a sudden deposit, or showing income that contradicts your tax returns.
- Submitting a blurry, wrong-sized or non-compliant photograph. The official specification is 3.5 cm by 4.5 cm, natural colour.
- Booking non-refundable travel before the Visa Grant Notice is printed.
- Planning any paid work, even informal or short-term, on a C-3 visa.
- Believing a guaranteed-approval promise. No agent can guarantee an embassy decision; the final decision rests solely with the Korean mission.
If Your Visa Is Refused
The usual pattern for Korean tourist-visa refusals is financial: weak or inconsistent bank evidence, unverifiable employment, or an itinerary that does not look like a real trip. Before reapplying, fix the actual weakness: strengthen the bank evidence with more months of genuine transactions, get a proper employment letter, and make the itinerary detailed and credible. Reapplying immediately with the same file rarely changes the outcome.
One firm rule: never respond to a refusal by manufacturing documents. A forged statement or employment letter turns a temporary refusal into a long-term credibility problem.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Pakistani citizens need a visa for South Korea?
Yes. Ordinary Pakistani passport holders must obtain a visa before travelling. Pakistan is a visa-requiring nationality, and there is no visa-on-arrival or visa-free route for ordinary passports.
Can Pakistanis use K-ETA instead of a visa?
No. K-ETA applies to nationals of visa-waiver and designated visa-free countries only, and a valid visa replaces any K-ETA need. Pakistani passport holders are outside the K-ETA system and must apply for a visa.
Is there a South Korea e-Visa for Pakistanis?
No self-serve e-Visa route for ordinary tourist applications from Pakistan could be verified on an official source. The official route is application at the Korean mission in Pakistan.
What is the C-3-9 visa?
The C-3 is Korea’s short-term visit visa for tourism, business and visitation with a maximum stay of 90 days. The C-3-9 subtype is the general tourism visa, per the official consular visa tables. It is single entry and not extendable for tourist stays.
How much is the South Korea tourist visa fee for Pakistanis?
The official Ministry of Foreign Affairs basic fee schedule sets single entry up to 90 days at USD 40, single entry over 91 days at USD 60, and multiple entry at USD 90, but these are basic rates that can differ by nationality. The exact PKR figure payable in Pakistan follows the Islamabad embassy’s own notice, which could not be retrieved on the check date, so confirm the current figure with the embassy before applying.
How long does processing take in Pakistan?
No official processing-time figure could be verified on the check date, and third-party claims range from a few weeks to eight weeks. Apply several months before your trip and do not book non-refundable travel until approval.
Where do I apply in Pakistan?
The official route is application at the Korean Embassy or Consulate in your country of residence: the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Islamabad, or its Karachi office. Confirm the current submission procedure and any appointment requirement on the embassy’s official website before you go.
How long can I stay on the C-3-9?
Up to 90 days on a single entry. The stay is not extendable for tourism, so plan your trip within the permitted period.
Can I work in South Korea on a tourist visa?
No. Paid employment and profit-making activity fall under a separate category (C-4), not the C-3. Working on a tourist visa is unlawful.
Do children need their own visa?
Every traveller needs their own visa, including children, each linked to their own passport. Apply separately for each family member.
Official Sources
Every visa fact in this article was checked on 21 October 2026 against the following official Korean government sources:
- Korea Visa Portal, application via diplomatic missions (route, single-entry C-3, core documents): https://www.visa.go.kr/openPage.do?LLANG=EN&MENU_ID=10105
- Korea Immigration Service, Visa Navigator (C-3 definition, max 90 days, not extendable; C-4 employment category): https://www.immigration.go.kr/bbs/immigration_eng/230/454085/download.do
- Ministry of Government Legislation, “Understanding the Visa” (visa-required rule, single vs multiple entry): https://easylaw.go.kr/CSM/CsmOvSave.laf?ccfNo=1&cciNo=1&cnpClsNo=1&csmSeq=1887
- Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Hong Kong (C-3-9 as Short-Term General Tourism; via official page search excerpt): https://www.mofa.go.kr/hk-en/wpge/m_24976/contents.do
- Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Ireland (K-ETA for visa-waiver nationals only; via official page search excerpt): https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/ie-en/brd/m_23773/view.do?seq=761768&page=1
- Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the Philippines (Pakistan among visa-requiring nationalities; via official page search excerpt): https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/ph-en/brd/m_3277/view.do?seq=684583&page=2
- Karachi office of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Pakistan, label-free visa policy announcement (no sticker since 1 July 2020; Visa Grant Notice; via official page search excerpt): https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/pk-karachi-en/brd/m_2825/view.do?company_cd=&company_nm=&itm_seq_1=0&itm_seq_2=0&multi_itm_seq=0&seq=758852&srchFr=&srchTo=&srchTp=&srchWord=
- Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Pakistan, Karachi office (address, contact, hours): https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/pk-karachi-en/index.do
- Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the Sultanate of Oman (official basic fee schedule, nationality caveat): https://www.mofa.go.kr/om-en/wpge/m_11050/contents.do
Genuine Limitations
Three facts could not be verified on an official page on the check date and are stated honestly as gaps:
- The exact PKR fee payable in Pakistan and the embassy’s current fee notice. The official USD basic schedule is published; the Islamabad mission’s own notice, which governs what you actually pay, could not be retrieved.
- Processing time in Pakistan. No official figure exists on any retrievable page; third-party claims contradict each other. The article does not repeat any of them as fact.
- The mission-specific document checklist and submission procedure. The embassy’s “Visa Announcement” and “Visa Requirements” sections exist on its site but their contents could not be retrieved.
The article handles all three by pointing the reader to the embassy’s official website as the final authority.
Related Guides
- Coming from an easier online visa? Compare with our Malaysia visit visa guide, where Pakistanis apply fully online.
- Planning a multi-country Asia trip? See the Thailand visit visa guide.
- Short-haul e-Visa comparison: the Singapore visit visa guide.
Disclaimer
TourPointGo is an independent information website, not a government authority, embassy, visa consultancy or law firm. Visa rules change; always confirm the current requirements on the official websites of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Pakistan (overseas.mofa.go.kr/pk-en) and the Korea Visa Portal (visa.go.kr) before you apply or travel. This article was researched against official sources on 21 October 2026.
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