Australian Tourist Visa for South Korean Citizens: 2026 Guide
Updated: 5 August 2026
For a normal holiday, South Korean passport holders do not use the subclass 600 at all. You use the Electronic Travel Authority (subclass 601): apply in the Australian ETA app, stay up to three months per visit, enter as often as you like across twelve months. The subclass 600 is the exception route, not the default.
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Quick Facts: tourist visa for South Korean citizens
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Normal holiday visa | Electronic Travel Authority (subclass 601) |
| Exception route | Visitor visa (subclass 600) |
| Who the ETA is for | Republic of Korea passport holders |
| Stay per visit | Up to 3 months on the ETA; 3, 6 or 12 months on the 600 |
| ETA validity | 12 months from grant, or passport expiry if that comes first |
| Entries | Multiple entries on the ETA |
| Work rights | None, on either visa |
| Apply through | Australian ETA app (601), ImmiAccount (600) |
| eVisitor (651) option? | No. The eVisitor is for European passports |
| Cost | See the fee schedule for the current charge |
"Tourist visa" means two different things
Search for an Australian tourist visa with a Korean passport and two visas can answer. Usually only one is right for you.
The first is the Electronic Travel Authority, subclass 601. It's a digital visa, tied to your passport number in the Department's system. Nothing gets printed and nothing goes into your passport. South Korea is one of the eight countries and territories on the ETA list.
The second is the Visitor visa, subclass 600. It's open to passport holders from virtually every country, costs a good deal more, and takes much longer, because a case officer reads what you upload instead of a system reading a chip. You may apply for it. Most Korean travellers have no reason to.
So the rule is short. A holiday of three months or less, with a clean record and a chipped passport: apply for the ETA. Anything longer, or anything complicated: apply for the Visitor visa subclass 600.
The third short stay visa, the eVisitor (subclass 651), is not open to you. It is for European passports only, and the two lists do not overlap. Dual nationals get a choice of document; if your only passport is Korean, the ETA is your route and does the same job anyway.
The mechanics of the 601 on a Korean passport have their own page: Australian ETA for South Korean citizens. This one is about choosing between the two.
Which visa fits your trip
| Your trip | What to apply for |
|---|---|
| Two weeks in Sydney and Melbourne | ETA (601) |
| Three separate visits over one year to see family | ETA (601) |
| A conference in Brisbane plus a week of sightseeing | ETA (601) |
| Five months with your daughter after her baby is born | Subclass 600 |
| Medical treatment that will run past three months | Subclass 600 |
| An Australian relative is sponsoring your visit | Subclass 600, sponsored family |
| A criminal conviction you need to declare and explain | Subclass 600 |
| A passport with no chip, or no smartphone to scan it | Subclass 600 |
The subclass 600 has four streams: tourist, business visitor, sponsored family and frequent traveller. Most Korean applicants who end up on the 600 use the tourist stream. Parents and grandparents invited by children settled in Australia often go through the sponsored family stream.
If you come to Australia every year, look at the frequent traveller stream first. It gives a longer multi year validity on one application, each stay still capped at three months.
How a Korean citizen applies for the ETA
Since 2022 the ETA has been app only. No web form, no ImmiAccount pathway, no paper application. Any website offering to "process your Australian ETA" is a paid middleman or a scam. The genuine app is published by the Department of Home Affairs.
- Download the Australian ETA app from the App Store or Google Play. Check the publisher name before you install. Copycat apps exist.
- Open a new request and scan the photo page of your Korean passport.
- Hold the phone against the passport so it reads the NFC chip. Your name and date of birth come straight off the chip, so the romanisation of your Korean name is copied exactly as printed and you cannot mistype it.
- Take a selfie when the app asks. It matches your face against the chip photo.
- Answer the declaration questions on character, health and travel purpose. Answer honestly: a false declaration can lead to cancellation and a future entry ban, while an honest yes only sends you to a short manual check.
- Pay the service charge by card inside the app. For the current amount, check the Australian visa fees schedule rather than trusting a figure quoted on a third party site.
- Wait for the grant notification. Many are decided quickly, but not all. For what slows a decision down, see the visa processing times guide.
You do not upload bank statements, flight bookings or an employment letter for a standard ETA.
Apply before you book flights, not after. Refusals are uncommon for a Korean applicant with a clean record, but they do happen.
The subclass 600 is a real application
If your trip needs the 600, expect paperwork. Lodge it online through ImmiAccount, pick the correct stream, and upload supporting documents: your passport bio page, a photo, evidence of money, evidence of your job or study in Korea, an itinerary, and an invitation letter if you are visiting family.
The case officer assesses you against the genuine temporary entrant requirement. Plainly: do they believe you will go home. Your ties to Korea answer that. A job waiting for you, a course you are enrolled in, property, a spouse and children staying behind. The Department publishes no fixed bank balance, so ignore anyone who quotes you a magic number.
The 600 also decides your stay length for you. You do not pick three, six or twelve months; the case officer grants it. Twelve month grants exist, but they are the exception, and first time applicants more often get three or six. Read how long you can stay on a tourist visa before planning around a stay you have not been granted.
Stay length, and the rule most people miss
Your stay is counted from the day you enter Australia, not the day the visa was granted. Validity and stay are different things: an ETA can be valid twelve months while each visit is capped at three.
The three month clock resets every time you leave and come back. Fly to Auckland for a week, return, and a fresh three months starts. True, and also where people get themselves into trouble.
Condition 8558 caps you at 12 months inside Australia in any 18 month period. The reset has a ceiling, in other words, and the Department of Home Affairs watches entry patterns. A visitor visa is for visiting. If your travel history starts to look like living here, an officer can cancel the visa or turn you around at the airport.
Two other conditions to know. Condition 8101 means no work in Australia. Condition 8201 caps your study at three months. Some subclass 600 grants also carry condition 8503, no further stay, which blocks you from applying for another visa while you are onshore. It is not applied to ETAs by default. If you get it, read the 8503 waiver page.
The ETA cannot be extended. If you are already in Australia and want more time, the answer is a new subclass 600, and it is not automatic. See how to extend an Australian tourist visa.
Work, study and the remote work question
No visitor visa gives you work rights. Not the ETA, not the 600.
Business visitor activities are allowed, and examples draw the line better than rules. Attending a conference in Sydney is fine; being paid to speak at it is work. You can meet a supplier and negotiate a contract, but not stay on to install the equipment. If money is earned for something you physically do on Australian soil, you have crossed over. What you can and cannot do on a tourist visa covers the harder cases.
Remote work for your Korean employer is a grey area, and we will not pretend otherwise. Work for an Australian business or client is clearly out. Answering your Seoul office email from a Melbourne cafe has not been explicitly prohibited for short visits, nor explicitly authorised. If remote work is the real purpose of the trip, a visitor visa is the wrong document.
Study is capped at three months. A semester at an Australian university needs the student visa (subclass 500). If you want to work while you travel, the working holiday visa for South Korean citizens suits that far better than any tourist visa.
Before you fly
Check these:
- Your Korean passport is biometric and valid well past your return date. Six months of remaining validity is not a formal visa rule, but airlines and border officers prefer it.
- You will travel on the exact passport you applied with. The visa is tied to that number.
- You have not renewed your passport since the grant. Renewing kills the visa even if it has not expired, and you must apply again on the new document.
- Everyone in the family has their own visa, including babies. There is no family application.
- You have travel insurance with medical cover. Australia's public health system does not cover visitors, apart from citizens of the few countries holding a reciprocal healthcare agreement.
Airlines check your visa status electronically at check in, through Advance Passenger Processing. No valid visa, no boarding pass. That check happens at Incheon, not at the Australian border.
What Korean applicants get wrong
Booking flights first and applying second. Easily the most common, easily the most avoidable.
Trusting advice from a relative who last travelled years ago. The ETA moved to the app in 2022, so the old travel agent route is gone and anything you were told before then is out of date.
Hiding something on the declarations. A minor conviction from a decade ago, a refusal for a different country, an overstay somewhere else. Declaring it sends you to a manual assessment, which may take days or weeks and cannot be hurried. Hiding it risks cancellation and a ban. One costs you time. The other costs you years.
Treating a refusal as the end. An ETA refusal does not automatically mean a subclass 600 refusal, because the 600 lets you upload and explain what the app could only make you tick. It's a separate application and a separate decision.
Weighing up other visa types too? The Australian visa guide for South Korean citizens covers study, work and skilled routes, and the 600 vs 601 vs 651 comparison sets the three side by side.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do South Korean citizens need a visa to visit Australia as a tourist?
Yes. There is no visa free entry for Korean passport holders. You need either an Electronic Travel Authority (subclass 601) or a Visitor visa (subclass 600) before you fly. For an ordinary holiday the ETA is the standard route, applied for through the Australian ETA app on your phone.
Can Korean travellers get an Australian visa on arrival?
No. Australia does not hand out tourist visas at the airport, and you will not be allowed to board without one. Airlines verify your visa status electronically at check in, so the failure point is Incheon, not Sydney. Apply days before you travel, not on the way to the airport.
Should I apply for the ETA or the subclass 600?
Apply for the ETA unless something rules it out. It costs less and needs no supporting documents. Move to the subclass 600 if you want to stay longer than three months in one visit, you are being sponsored, you have a character issue to explain, or your passport has no readable chip.
Can I extend my stay once I am already in Australia?
The ETA cannot be extended. To stay longer you would lodge a new subclass 600 from inside Australia, which is a fresh application with documents and no guarantee. Check your grant letter first for condition 8503, no further stay, because that condition blocks an onshore application unless you win a waiver.
My ETA was refused. Can I still apply for the subclass 600?
Yes. An ETA refusal does not automatically mean a subclass 600 refusal. The app gives you tick boxes; the 600 gives you space to explain, with documents attached. Deal with the reason for the refusal directly in the new application rather than lodging the same facts again and hoping for a different officer.
Do my children need their own tourist visas?
Yes, every traveller needs their own visa, including infants. There is no family application and no way to add a child to a parent's ETA. Each child needs their own Korean passport and their own grant, applied for individually in the app using that child's passport chip.
What happens if I overstay by a few days?
Treat this seriously. Overstaying any Australian visa, even by one day, can trigger a three year exclusion period that blocks future visas. If you realise your stay is running out and you cannot leave, get advice from a MARA registered migration agent before the visa expires, not after.
