Korea Medical Visa for Plastic Surgery: What You Actually Need (2026)

Most foreign cosmetic-surgery patients do not need a medical visa. Visa-waiver nationals enter Korea visa-free for up to 90 days, which covers almost every elective procedure and its recovery.

A medical visa — C-3-3 (short-term) or G-1-10 (over 90 days) — is only needed for longer treatment. As your registered concierge, we prepare the hospital invitation either way.

We are a registered medical-tourism concierge based in Seoul. We arrange and verify your surgeon, and we sit between you and the clinic.

Most relevant to this page: we issue the official hospital invitation and assemble the paperwork the consulate wants to see. You pay us nothing — our fee is covered by the clinic, never added to your bill.

This guide explains, in plain terms, whether you need a visa, which one, and what we do for you. Visa rules change and depend on your nationality, so reconfirm the specifics at the point of travel.

Do you even need a medical visa?

Probably not — if your whole trip fits inside 90 days and you hold a visa-waiver passport. Korea lets nationals of many countries enter visa-free for short stays (commonly up to 90 days), and immigration authorities accept elective medical treatment as a legitimate reason for a short visit.

For a single rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, or facial-contouring procedure plus recovery, that window is normally more than enough.

A separate medical visa becomes relevant when any of these apply:

• Time: Your treatment and recovery will exceed your visa-free allowance (e.g., staged surgery, or a procedure with a long monitored recovery).
• Nationality: Your passport is not on Korea's visa-waiver list, so you would need a visa to enter at all.
• Documentation preference: A formal medical-purpose entry is the cleaner option. Some patients want the documented medical-visa trail for insurance, employers, or future visa history.

Two facts worth confirming before you book flights:

• Visa-free allowance is by nationality, not by procedure. Always check your passport's specific allowance with the Korean mission for your country.
• K-ETA (Korea Electronic Travel Authorization): Korea has temporarily exempted a group of countries/regions (reported as 67, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and most of the EU) from K-ETA, reportedly through 31 December 2026. From 1 January 2027, K-ETA is expected to be required again for visa-free travelers. K-ETA is a travel authorization, not a visa — even exempt nationals still have a passport, an onward ticket, and proof of funds checked on arrival.
• e-Arrival Card: Separately from K-ETA, Korea now expects most arrivals to complete an electronic arrival card (online, before or on entry) unless they hold an approved K-ETA. It is a quick formality, not a visa — but don't be caught out at the gate.

Key fact: Visa-free entry covers the majority of our plastic-surgery patients. We confirm your specific situation in writing before you commit to dates — see How it works.

C-3-3 vs G-1-10: the two medical visas

Korea has two medical-purpose visas, split by length of treatment. The short-term C-3-3 is for treatment of 90 days or less. The long-term G-1-10 is for treatment expected to exceed 90 days and can be valid for up to a year with multiple entries.

The table below is the short version.

A practical note on the long-stay path. Many long-stay patients enter on C-3-3 and convert to G-1-10 inside Korea if treatment runs long, rather than applying for G-1-10 from scratch abroad.

Importantly, a C-3-3 short-term visa generally cannot be extended past 90 days except for narrow, documented exceptions (for example, no available flights, or a medical/force-majeure emergency).

So if your recovery might overrun, the realistic path is to plan the G-1-10 conversion before the 90-day deadline — not to count on an extension. Whether that route fits you depends on your clinic's treatment plan and your immigration office. We flag it as an option, not a guarantee.

Documents we help prepare

The document that only a Korean clinic (or its registered agency) can produce is the official invitation — and that is exactly the piece we handle. Korean medical institutions and registered agencies submit through the government's online system (HUNET) to obtain a visa-issuance confirmation that you then present to the consulate.

You cannot generate this yourself. It has to come from the verified Korean side.

Here is the realistic division of labor.

What we prepare or obtain on the Korea side:

• The official hospital invitation / certificate of confirmation of visa issuance, issued by the verified clinic via the registered HUNET channel.
• A treatment plan or appointment confirmation from the surgeon you've been matched with, in English/Korean.
• A business/registration certificate of the medical institution, where the consulate asks for it.

What you provide (and we tell you exactly how to format):

• A valid passport with adequate remaining validity.
• The completed visa application form and a passport photo to spec.
• Your medical history / diagnosis translated into English or Korean — for cosmetic cases this is usually light, but consulates may still ask.
• Proof of sufficient funds for treatment and living costs, and typically a return/onward itinerary.

We don't file your visa for you at your local consulate — that's your step. But we make sure every document the consulate could ask for from the Korea side is in your hands first, correctly issued.

How we verify the clinic behind that invitation is covered in How we vet clinics in Korea.

Processing time, extensions, and overstays

Plan for one to two weeks of consular processing and never let your authorized stay lapse. Short-term medical visa-issuance processing commonly runs about 3–10 business days, but it varies by mission and season. Apply early, not the week before surgery.

• Extensions: As noted above, a C-3-3 generally cannot be extended beyond 90 days except in narrow documented cases. If recovery runs longer than expected, the path is usually a change of status at a Korean immigration office before your current permission expires — not after. For visa-free entrants whose recovery overruns 90 days, the same rule applies: act before the deadline.
• Overstays are serious: Overstaying carries fines and potential bans on re-entry, which can wreck a future surgery trip. If anything in your recovery timeline slips, tell us immediately so we can coordinate with the clinic on the paperwork side. We can help you assemble extension/conversion documents; we cannot and do not make immigration guarantees.

Bringing a companion

Yes — a spouse or family member assisting your care can usually be documented alongside your medical entry, and a non-medical companion can simply travel on their own visa-free entry.

For most short cosmetic trips, a friend or partner accompanying you just enters under their own nationality's visa-free rules. No special "medical" status is needed for them.

Where a relative is formally assisting your treatment, immigration allows accompanying family (typically spouse and children) to be included on the medical-visa documentation.

We can include a caregiver in your invitation paperwork where it's appropriate, and we'll tell you honestly when it isn't necessary so you don't over-file.

Help with the rest of the stay — accommodation, airport pickup, language — is covered in English support for Korea surgery and Medical trip planning for Korea.

How to decide which entry you need

Use this five-step check, then let us confirm it in writing.

1. Estimate your total in-Korea time. Add surgery date, monitored recovery, and the suture-removal/follow-up window your surgeon requires. Most single procedures land well under 90 days.
2. Check your nationality's visa-free allowance with the Korean mission for your country. Confirm the day-count and whether K-ETA applies to you for your travel dates.
3. If total time ≤ 90 days and you're visa-waiver-eligible: you most likely enter visa-free — no medical visa required.
4. If total time > 90 days, or you're not visa-waiver-eligible: you likely need C-3-3 (≤90 days, if you need a visa to enter at all) or G-1-10 (>90 days).
5. Send us your dates and passport country. We confirm the route, issue the hospital invitation, and hand you a document checklist before you book anything non-refundable.

Start that confirmation at Get a consultation.

What we can and can't promise

We can prepare and verify the Korea-side paperwork; we cannot approve your visa — only the Korean government does that. To be explicit:

• We do issue the official hospital invitation through a verified, registered clinic, assemble your document checklist, and flag the right entry route for your timeline.
• We do not guarantee visa approval, override consular discretion, extend stays by ourselves, or advise you to overstay or misstate your purpose. Visa decisions rest entirely with Korean immigration and consular officers.
• Rules, day-counts, K-ETA status, and fees change — reconfirm the specifics against your Korean mission and HiKorea at the time you travel.

If a clinic or agent ever tells you to enter on the "wrong" basis or hide your treatment purpose, treat it as a red flag — see registered vs. illegal brokers in Korea.

Related: Plastic surgery in Korea for foreigners · Recovery stay length in Korea · Medical trip planning for Korea · Get a consultation

Sources & last updated — June 2026

• Medical Korea (Korea Health Industry Development Institute / KHIDI), official medical-visa guidance, C-3-3 and G-1-10 categories and required documents — medicalkorea.or.kr/en/medicalvisa
• Korea Ministry of Justice / HiKorea, immigration and visa categories (C-3-3, G-1-10), stay, extension, and change-of-status rules — hikorea.go.kr
• Korea Ministry of Justice / K-ETA portal notice on the temporary K-ETA exemption (reported as 67 countries/regions), reportedly effective through 31 December 2026 (notice published December 2025) — k-eta.go.kr
• Your nearest Korean embassy/consulate, for nationality-specific visa-free allowance, the electronic arrival card, and document requirements — overseas.mofa.go.kr

This page is logistics orientation for prospective patients, not legal or immigration advice. Visa rules change; reconfirm the specifics with the official Korean authorities for your nationality and travel dates before you commit to plans.