More credit card holders eligible for SoKor’s simplified visa application

THE Korean embassy in the Philippines made it easier for Filipinos to travel to South Korea, as it expanded its simplified visa application process to more credit card holders.

In an announcement, the embassy said that the simplified process for visa application will also apply to credit card holders from BPI, RCBC, and Metrobank, beginning on July 22 to December 31, 2024.

These are the eligible credit card holders:

BDO

GOLD

• Mastercard Gold Credit Card

• Visa Gold Credit Card

• JCB Gold Credit Card

• UnionPay Gold Credit Card

• Diners Club International

• American Express® Cashback Credit Card

• American Express® Explorer™ Credit Card

ELITE

• Mastercard Titanium, Platinum and World Elite Credit Card

• Visa Platinum Credit Card

• JCB Platinum Credit Card

• UnionPay Diamond Credit Card

• Diners Club Premiere Credit Card

• American Express® Platinum Credit Card

• American Express® International Dollar Charge Cards (Platinum, Gold & Green)

BPI

GOLD 

• Gold Rewards

ELITE

• Platinum Rewards

• Amore Platinum Cashback

• Signature Card

RCBC

GOLD

• Mastercard Gold

• Visa Flex Gold

• JCB Gold

ELITE

• Black Mastercard

• Diamond Mastercard

• YGC Rewards Plus Platinum

• Hexagon Privilege

• Visa Platinum

• JCB Platinum

• UnionPay Diamond

• Visa Infinite

• World Mastercard and variants (RCBC Hexagon Priority, RCBC Balesin World, RCBC The City Club World)

Metrobank

• World Mastercard

• Femme Signature Visa card

• Travel Platinum Visa card

• Platinum Mastercard

• Dollar Mastercard

How will this work?

If a credit card holder is eligible for the simplified visa application process, they won’t need to compile multiple financial documents such as bank certificates, bank statements, or Income Tax Returns (ITR) to get a South Korean visa.

This process also applies to their immediate family members—spouse, children, parents, or in-laws—but they still need to present proof of relationship.

While financial documents are exempted, the Korean embassy emphasized that eligible travelers will still be required to submit the following:

• Original certificate of employment
• Copy of the front side of the credit card with complete information
• Copy of the latest three months of credit card account’s billing statement

In January, the embassy also announced that elected politicians, government officials, and professional license holders whose professions are physician, dentist, lawyer (including judge and prosecutor), certified public accountant, pharmacist, and veterinarian are also covered in this streamlined visa application process.

What to do with financial documents?

If a traveler has gathered and prepared their financial documents, the Korean embassy said they may still submit them if they prefer to do so.

Financial documents are the only exemption in the process. Other general documents for visa application such as a valid passport, visa forms, travel insurance, employment documentation, and travel itineraries are still required.

More flights to and from South Korea

Meanwhile, South Korea will welcome more Filipino travelers after it signed a memorandum of agreement (MOU) with the Philippines, increasing seats from flights between Manila and Incheon to 30,000 weekly.

Since 2017, only 20,000 weekly seats have been offered to travelers from the two countries.

The move was done to improve the air services relations of the Philippines and South Korea, said the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

“The increase in capacity will be felt by the market once airlines take advantage of the opportunity to carry more passenger traffic between the capital cities of the two countries,” it said in a statement.

Under the new MOU, flights from points outside the Philippines’ capital city to all points in South Korea will remain “open and without limits.”

Citing data from the Department of Tourism, the DOTr said that Korean tourists in the country were recorded at 682,362 in May 2024. It noted that Korea has also been the “top tourism market” of the Philippines even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.