https://dontpanickorea.com/en A calm, step by step guide to living in Korea. Visas, housing, banking, phone plans, hospitals and paperwork, explained in plain language. en Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/jeju-east-drama-coast-by-bus https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/jeju-east-drama-coast-by-bus Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT The three drama shores on Jeju's east side can be strung together on a single route, the 101 express bus. They are Seongsan Ilchulbong from "When Life Gives You Tangerines", Gwangchigi Beach from "Welcome to Samdal-ri", and the sea at Gimnyeong, where three productions filmed. Seongsan Ilchulbong closes on the first Monday of every month, and the green rocks at Gwangchigi Beach only appear when the tide is out. If you pay the express bus in cash, you pay the maximum fare of 3,000 won from the start, so bring a transit card. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/songdo-gangnam-style-station-walk https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/songdo-gangnam-style-station-walk Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT International Business District Station, where the subway scene in "Gangnam Style" was filmed, and Songdo Central Park, the backdrop for two dramas, are one stop apart on Incheon Line 1. To get there by rail from Incheon Airport, take an AREX all-stop train and transfer to Incheon Line 1 at Gyeyang Station. The park's water taxi ticket office has no foreign-language service, so it is best to know the fares in advance. The observatory on the 33rd floor of G-Tower, at the northwest side of the park, is free, but it closes on Mondays and opens at 13:00 on weekends and public holidays. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/a-saturday-in-yeongdo-busan https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/a-saturday-in-yeongdo-busan Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT Yeongdo Bridge lifts only at 14:00 on Saturdays. Kkangkkangi Art Village tours run only on weekends, and the Taejongdae shuttle bus is off on Mondays and Tuesdays. To see all four of Yeongdo's sights in one day, go on a Saturday. You cannot board the Kkangkkangi boat without a physical ID, so foreign travelers need to bring their passport. Two official websites give different Taejongdae timetables, so follow the Busan Tourism Organization, which runs the service. Huinnyeoul Culture Village is a set of lanes where people live, so do not go there late in the evening. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-book-ktx-train-tickets-in-korea https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-book-ktx-train-tickets-in-korea Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMT KTX and other train tickets go on sale at 7:00 on the same date two months before departure. The window grew from one month to two on 1 October 2026. If you cannot use a Naver or Kakao identity check, buy on KORAIL's site for foreign visitors, and use the email address and password you entered there to find your ticket again. Non-member booking in the KORAIL+ app and on the Korean website only lets you pay after that identity check. If your plans change, the cancellation fee depends on the day your train leaves. For a Monday to Thursday departure, cancelling is free until 3 hours before the train goes. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/gyeongju-filming-locations-on-foot https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/gyeongju-filming-locations-on-foot Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Filming locations from "In Your Radiant Season" and "The Journey to Gyeong-ju" are within walking distance of each other in central Gyeongju. Only Cheonmachong and Donggung Palace and Wolji Pond require tickets. The other sites have no gates. Bulguksa has been free to visit since May 4, 2023. City buses 10 and 11 run there from downtown. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/incheon-old-town-goblin-filming-locations https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/incheon-old-town-goblin-filming-locations Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT The parks and streets are always open, but Incheon Art Platform and Jemulpo Club close every Monday. Hanmi Bookstore in Baedari closes on the second and fourth Fridays, and photography is not allowed inside. Between Incheon Station and Dongincheon Station, hizine has collected 8 drama filming locations within walking distance in the old town. Four are filming locations for "Guardian: The Lonely and Great God". https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/what-korean-emergency-alert-texts-mean https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/what-korean-emergency-alert-texts-mean Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT The alert that goes off on every phone around you at once is a government broadcast to your area, and its last line tells you what to do. There are three kinds. Safety guidance texts arrive with your ordinary message sound, emergency texts ring at the phone's full volume, and the top tier is kept for large-scale disasters that everyone has to receive. Only that top tier cannot be refused. The texts are written in Korean, and the government's Emergency Ready App shows them in 22 languages. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/emergency-numbers-in-korea-for-foreigners https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/emergency-numbers-in-korea-for-foreigners Sun, 27 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Call 119 for a fire, a rescue or an ambulance and 112 for the police, even if you speak no Korean, and say where you are before anything else. If you cannot talk, the fire agency also takes 119 reports by text message, photo, video call, its 119 app and a web form it set up for foreign residents who are not fluent in Korean. For interpretation, the volunteer line BBB (1588-5644) answers in 20 languages around the clock, while 1345, 1330 and 1339 each keep their own hours. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-find-and-rent-a-home-in-korea-as-a-foreigner https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-find-and-rent-a-home-in-korea-as-a-foreigner Fri, 25 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT A Korean lease asks for a large deposit up front, so the order matters: check the registry and the landlord first, pay second, and file your move-in report the day you move in. Most of the risk sits in that order, not in the rent itself. Seoul announced free lease counseling for international residents in seven languages in 2024, worth checking before you sign. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/health-declaration-when-entering-korea https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/health-declaration-when-entering-korea Tue, 22 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT If you stayed in or passed through a priority quarantine control area, you must declare your health to a quarantine officer when you enter Korea, even if you have no symptoms. If you visited a quarantine control area, you declare when you have suspected symptoms such as a fever or cough. On September 21, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced the fourth-quarter designations that apply from October 1, 2026. There are 32 countries on the priority list and 177 on the quarantine control list, and Japan and Hong Kong have been newly added to the quarantine control list. You declare through Q-CODE, which you can fill in from 7 days before arrival, or on a paper health questionnaire. Not declaring, or declaring falsely, can bring a fine of up to 10 million won. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/buying-tickets-for-seouls-palaces https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/buying-tickets-for-seouls-palaces Sat, 19 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT The age for free entry depends on which passport you hold, and the combined ticket does not cover the rear garden at Changdeokgung. That garden runs separate sessions with separate quotas for each language, and Jongmyo cannot be walked into on a weekday without a reservation. Even the closing days split between Monday and Tuesday. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/national-pension-refund-when-you-leave-korea https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/national-pension-refund-when-you-leave-korea Fri, 18 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT If you live and work in Korea, National Pension contributions come out of your pay. The lump-sum refund is how you get that money back when you leave. Not every foreign national qualifies, though. You need one of three things: a home country whose own law gives Korean nationals an equivalent benefit, a home country that has a social security agreement with Korea covering lump-sum refunds, or enrollment under the Training Employment (E-8), Non-professional Employment (E-9), or Working Visit (H-2) status. You can claim at any National Pension Service branch in the country, and the right disappears five years after it arises. There is also a way to collect it in foreign currency at Incheon Airport on the day you fly. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/extending-your-stay-from-a-shelter-in-korea https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/extending-your-stay-from-a-shelter-in-korea Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Since August 24, 2026, foreign nationals who have suffered domestic violence, sexual violence, child abuse, or human trafficking can apply for a stay extension, or for the grant or change of a status of stay, at the Immigration Office that covers the area where their shelter or other protective facility is located. Before, the rule was to apply at the office covering your registered place of stay, so people who had moved into a shelter still had to go back to the office for their old address. It covers foreign nationals for whom a remedy procedure, such as a trial or an investigation, is under way because of this harm. For domestic violence, it only covers spouses of Korean nationals. The Minister of Justice may grant these people a stay extension until the procedure ends. Call 1345 to find the office for your shelter's area, and the Danuri Call Center at 1577-1366, open 24 hours, for emergency support and interpretation. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/free-flu-shots-in-korea https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/free-flu-shots-in-korea Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) runs the 2026-2027 National Immunization Program for influenza from September 21, 2026 to April 30, 2027. The free shot covers children aged 6 months and older who were born between January 1, 2012 and August 31, 2026, pregnant women, and people aged 65 and over who were born on or before December 31, 1961. Each group starts on a different day. Children who need two doses and pregnant women start on September 21, children who need one dose on September 28, and people aged 75 and over on October 12. You can get the shot at any nearby designated clinic or public health center, whatever your registered address. If you are not in a covered group, you pay at a clinic. The influenza advisory was already issued on September 11, before the shots begin. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/myeongdong-by-day-and-night https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/myeongdong-by-day-and-night Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Myeongdong is the first busy district most visitors run into in Seoul. Leaving after the main street of cosmetics shops and food carts would be a shame: the cathedral and the old theatre sit just off it, the cable car up Namsan is a short uphill walk, and after dark the same street turns into a different place. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-sort-trash-and-recycling-in-korea https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-sort-trash-and-recycling-in-korea Mon, 14 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT In Korea, trash is sorted by type before it goes out. General waste that cannot be recycled goes in the official waste bag for where you live, and leftover food is drained and put in a food waste bag or collection bin. Chicken bones, clam shells, eggshells and peach pits are not food waste. They go in the official waste bag. Paper cartons such as milk and soy milk cartons go out on their own, not with newspapers or boxes. How waste is sorted and kept is set by local ordinance, and a household that breaks the rules is fined 100,000 won the first time. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/unpaid-wages-in-korea-filing-a-claim https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/unpaid-wages-in-korea-filing-a-claim Sat, 12 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT If all or part of your wages did not arrive on payday, or you left a job and were not paid your wages and severance within 14 days, your pay counts as unpaid. File a petition with the regional employment and labor office that covers the workplace, or on the Labor Portal, and a labor inspector investigates. There is no fee. The rules on final settlement and wage payment apply to workplaces with four or fewer regular employees too. If the employer still does not pay, the Korea Workers' Compensation and Welfare Service pays a simplified substitute payment of up to 10 million won to people who have left the job. It covers people who filed the petition within one year from the day after they left. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-book-a-train-or-bus-out-of-seoul https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-book-a-train-or-bus-out-of-seoul Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Holiday train booking ran through one Korean-language page, for KORAIL members only, on a day fixed by each line, and all of it closed on 11 September. Since 15:00 on the 11th, whatever is left has been on open sale to anyone in the app, on the website and at station counters, membership or not. If the train you want is sold out, join the waiting list. Express buses have been on sale since 25 August and keep selling until an hour before departure, and cancelling one two days ahead costs nothing. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/korean-tteok-rice-cakes-and-pizza-seolgi https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/korean-tteok-rice-cakes-and-pizza-seolgi Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Tteok is closer to rice than to bread, which is why you eat it the day you buy it. The queues outside rice cake shops right now were made by pizza seolgi, a plain white steamed rice cake topped with tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni, but convenience store rice cake sales had been roughly doubling every year before those queues appeared. This guide covers how to read the names on the shelf, how to eat tteok before it hardens, and how to get hold of pizza seolgi, as of 8 September 2026. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-book-an-immigration-office-appointment-in-korea https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-book-an-immigration-office-appointment-in-korea Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Since April 2021 no immigration office in Korea accepts an application from someone who arrives without an appointment. But a lot of what people queue for never needs the counter. Extension of stay, status change, re-entry permit, address change and passport change reports are all filed through HiKorea online, and a permit granted that way has the same legal effect as one granted over a counter. The online extension route is closed to E-7, F-6, F-2, F-4, F-5, D-8, D-3 and G-1 holders, and first alien registration and card reissue are counter only. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/which-certificate-korean-sites-ask-you-for https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/which-certificate-korean-sites-ask-you-for Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT A financial certificate sits in a cloud run by the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute, renews itself every three years and needs no PC security software. A joint certificate is a file on your own device, expires after one year and needs a security program installed. Simple authentication is not a certificate you hold at all but a prompt inside an app you already use. Which of the three you need is decided by the site in front of you, not by your visa. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-get-korean-immigration-certificates https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-get-korean-immigration-certificates Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT When a landlord or a bank asks a foreigner for a document, the document they mean is almost always 외국인등록 사실증명, the Certificate of Foreign Resident Registration. The Immigration Act puts it in the place of a Korean's resident registration card and residence extract. There are two ways to get it, not three. Online at Government24 it is free but needs a certificate login, and at a counter it costs 2,000 won per copy. The unmanned kiosk cannot issue it at all. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-climb-haebangchon-hill https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-climb-haebangchon-hill Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Haebangchon is a neighborhood where people live on the slope below Namsan, so every approach is uphill. Ride the neighborhood bus up to the five-way junction, then take the market alley, the 108 Stairs and the Sowol-ro viewing deck in turn, and half a day is gone. The elevator beside the stairs is a mobility aid for residents, not a tourist ride, so find out whether it is running before you go. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/what-closes-during-a-korean-holiday-week https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/what-closes-during-a-korean-holiday-week Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Chuseok 2026 falls on Friday 25 September, and the public holidays run from the 24th to the 26th. None of them lands on a Sunday this year, so no substitute holiday is added. The break runs four days to Sunday the 27th, and Monday the 28th is a normal working day. Government offices, immigration counters and bank branches stop for those four days. Convenience stores, subways and emergency rooms keep going. The two things worth sorting out in advance are train tickets and medication. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-report-a-change-of-address-in-korea https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-report-a-change-of-address-in-korea Mon, 07 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT If you hold an alien registration card and you move, you have 15 days from the day you move in to report the new address. You do not have to go to immigration for it. The community service centre covering the new address takes the same report, and it is free by every route. Miss the deadline and it is not an administrative fine but a criminal one of up to 1,000,000 won, and the online form on HiKorea closes as soon as the 15 days are up. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-go-to-a-kbo-baseball-game https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-go-to-a-kbo-baseball-game Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Tickets are sold by the home club, not by the KBO. There are three different vendors and each has its own sign-up hurdle, so start by checking who the home team is for the game you want. You can bring your own food in, but glass bottles, cans and plastic bottles over 1 liter are turned away at most gates. The 2026 regular season has been extended to 7 October, with the postseason following after that. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-order-korean-fried-chicken-and-beer https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/how-to-order-korean-fried-chicken-and-beer Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT Order chicken through an app and beer can come with it. But if the alcohol costs more than the food, that order is not a delivery the law allows. Bone-in or boneless, half and half, an extra tub of pickled radish: those are matters of taste, not price. The delivery fee and the minimum order are set by each shop, so the same chicken comes to a different total on each app. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/noraebang-and-coin-karaoke https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/noraebang-and-coin-karaoke Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT If the sign registers the place as a singing practice room, the law bans both alcohol and hostesses there, so nothing can be added to the bill beyond the room. A place that sells alcohol is not a noraebang but a bar, and its pricing is a different world. Once you know that one distinction, getting a room takes a few minutes whether you are alone or in a group. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/compare-remittances-from-korea-by-what-arrives https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/compare-remittances-from-korea-by-what-arrives Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT The place advertising the lowest fee does not always send the most money. Pick by the number that lands in the other person's account for the same amount sent. Holders of the Overseas Korean (F-4) and Working Visit (H-2) statuses, and the family living with them, get a preferential exchange rate on post office transfers from 1 September 2026. https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/visiting-the-dmz https://dontpanickorea.com/en/guides/visiting-the-dmz Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT There is a hard line between what a foreign visitor can and cannot do right now. The Paju DMZ peace tour takes you inside the Civilian Control Line on a same day ticket if you bring your passport, while the Panmunjom tour and the DMZ Peace Trail accept applications from Korean nationals only. Imjingak and the two unification observatories need no clearance at all.