Coming to South Korea during the pandemic? Confused on everything you need to get done? Don’t worry, I’m here to help.
Arriving in South Korea has 3 stages - pre-quarantine, quarantine and post-quarantine.
Pre-Quarantine
Book your flight
The first thing you need to do to get here is book a flight. Obviously. However as of 20 Jan 2022, you will also need a negative PCR test within 48 hours of boarding your flight, otherwise you will be denied entry and your trip will end before it ever begins. It is also important to note that you will need to print this test out to show to the baggage claim attendees at your departing airport as well as when you arrive in Korea along with your other documents (visa, passport, etc..), so do not throw it away!
Make sure that your printed paper has these contents on it: Name (Should be same with passport) / Date of birth or passport number / Test method / Test date / Test result (Must have 'Negative') / Issue date / Name of testing center etc..
You can keep up with this here: https://www.koreanair.com/kr/en/travel-update/covid19/travel-restriction/korea
Arrival
In the final hour of your flight, your airline should pass out a few documents for you to fill out that you will need to get through customs. It will ask you questions regarding your address and phone number for quarantine. I’m not sure if this applies to short-term stays, but for my long-term stay I had to provide a Korean phone number of someone who could verify that I was coming. They will not let you in otherwise so make sure you have this prepared! Get in touch with your Airbnb host if you need to, as this is who got me in country. You will have several documents to keep track of at this point, so I do recommend having some kind of folder to holder full size papers. Customs will also give you a few more as you go through, and this will take a couple of hours so I would advise trying to be the first few off the plane. You can get through this entire process only speaking English, but it will be limited and a bit harder.
While going through customs they will first check your documents, then ask you to download 2 quarantine apps (they will set these up for you so no need to worry beforehand), then verify your quarantine address and call the provided phone number, then you will go to two desks where they will continue working you into the country. Afterwards you go to baggage claim and then to the area where you will book a cab and do any currency exchanges you need to do. A lot of things you will need to read are in Korean only, so I would advise you to bring Won before hand, and download the Papago app (for translation) and Naver Map app (basically google maps).
I would seriously recommend getting a Korean sim card before you get here. You can also get a Korean sim card at the airport, which I would recommend doing if you do not have someone who can relay all your texts to you from the government. You will need a Korean phone number to get through quarantine.
Accommodation
Now that you’ve booked your flight, the next thing you’ll have to do is find a place to quarantine before you actually start exploring Korea. It is important to note that unless you know someone who can give you a ride, you will be required to take a special cab to your quarantine destination so pick somewhere close to the airport if you want to save money.
If you do not want to go through the hassle of doing this one your own you can search for inclusive quarantine services.
As of 04 Feb 2022, quarantine is 7 days long. You can keep up with that here: https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/sg-en/brd/m_2444/view.do?seq=761451
Quarantine
When you get to your quarantine location you will have to follow the forms and pamphlets they give you at the airport. Don’t worry, these will be in English as well as Korean. On your first or second day (depending on what time you get there) you will have to your local health center and get a Covid-19 test. Once you return home this will mark the official start of your quarantine. You will repeat this process the day before you are scheduled to leave quarantine. They will give you the information needed to fill this out.
Food
You can pack food to eat for a week, but if not you’re going to have to use delivery apps to order food during this period. A few I would recommend are:
Shuttle Delivery: https://www.shuttledelivery.co.kr/en
Only delivers to certain locations - Yongsan-gu and Mapo-gu are the best locations (i.e., many restaurants in these areas).
Gmarket: http://www.gmarket.com
Accepts foreign credit cards - but you must make an account.
Prices can be more expensive when searching in English.
Food items are typically sold in BULK.
Note - These services will charge you more if you use a non-Korean phone number to use the apps.
A couple of days into quarantine, a package will be delivered to you full of essentials for Covid.
The care package
Post-Quarantine
If you don’t show any symptoms or receive a positive test result for Covid, you are now free to to travel! Enjoy.