{"id":74423,"date":"2026-08-05T15:07:49","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T07:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=74423"},"modified":"2026-08-05T15:07:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T07:07:49","slug":"flying-to-south-korea-brace-for-80-minute-wait-at-incheon-airport-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=74423","title":{"rendered":"Flying to South Korea? Brace for 80-minute wait at Incheon airport immigration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/05\/01c3315f-b7f7-4a12-9e82-c76467b9a89d_16c00867.jpg?itok=NL2vfrxZ&amp;v=1785910015\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">Foreign travellers arriving in <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">South Korea<\/span> through Incheon International Airport can expect a long wait at the immigration counters.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The lengthy queues were apparent at Incheon International Airport\u2019s Terminal 1 on Friday, where foreign visitors stood waiting to clear immigration.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The line stretched beyond the 10 waiting lanes marked out by retractable belt barriers. Chaos ensued near the entrance as 300 to 400 new arrivals spilled into an already packed waiting area. Three or four guides from the Korea Immigration Service\u2019s Incheon airport office and an airport subsidiary were on hand, but they could do little to ease the confusion.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">As the line stretched, so did the wait. Passengers who reached the immigration counters at around noon were not processed until after 1.20pm. That 80-minute wait was not far behind the disruption seen during this year\u2019s Lunar New Year holiday from February 16-18, when the entire arrival process for foreign travellers took as long as one hour and 54 minutes and was described as an \u201cimmigration crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The International Civil Aviation Organization, meanwhile, recommends keeping immigration waiting times within 45 minutes.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A primary reason for the congestion is the surging number of foreign visitors to South Korea.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The number of foreign arrivals reached 2.04 million in June, up from 1.74 million during the same month last year, according to data released on Monday by the Korea Immigration Service. The first-half total rose 20.6 per cent to 11.05 million, from 9.15 million over the same period last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/asia\/east-asia\/article\/3363018\/flying-south-korea-brace-80-minute-wait-incheon-airport-immigration?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Foreign travellers arriving in South Korea through Incheon International Airport can expect a long wait at the immigration counters. The lengthy queues were apparent at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[27732,1350,14866,1410,10599,14077,1644,5246,2640],"class_list":["post-74423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-80minute","tag-airport","tag-brace","tag-flying","tag-immigration","tag-incheon","tag-korea","tag-south","tag-wait","wpcat-4840-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}