Tourist visa rules eased for S. Asians

By Kim Tae-jong

The government will ease visa regulations for tourists from 11 South Asian countries from April 1 to attract more visitors.

Under the more lenient new rules, tourist visa applicants from the countries will be required to submit fewer documents to prove their economic and employment status, the Ministry of Justice said Tuesday.

At the same time, groups of tourists can receive visas without submitting personal documents separately if local tour agencies can guarantee their status as a whole.

It will also be less complicated to apply for “double-entry” visas, which allow tourists to enter the country a second time within six months for either tourism or a brief visit between overseas trips.

They are currently issued only to very wealthy people and valid for one year, according to the ministry.

The validity of the double-entry visas will be extended to three years, if they earn over $10,000 a year, are a pension recipient, have a profession such as journalist or doctor, hold a Korean university diploma or have a family member living in Korea as a migrant husband or wife.

“The move aims to attract more tourists from South Asian countries that already account for a large portion of the international tourists here,” said Kim Do-kyun, official from the Ministry of Justice. “We’ll gradually ease other visa regulations to encourage more international tourists under more convenient terms.”

The 11 countries are Myanmar, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh.

The number of tourists from these nations has steadily been increasing, recording 357,932 last year, up 21.1 percent from the previous year.

The ministry, however, will monitor to see if illegal migrants take advantage of the eased regulations.

“We first amended the visa rules for the Chinese last year and we concluded there has been no major problem such as an influx of illegal migrants. We hope the new visa rules for the 11 countries will also work well without creating any trouble,” Kim said.

동남아 관광객 위해 비자규정 완화

정부는 관광객을 더 많이 유치하기 위해 4월1일부터 동남아 11개국에 대한 비자 규정을 완화할 계획이다.

법무부는 29일 새 비자 규정으로 관광비자신청자들의 재정 및 고용상태를 증명하는 서류 건수가 줄어들게 된다고 말했다.

또한, 국내 여행사에서 개개인 전체의 신분을 보장할 수 있다면 단체 관광객들은 별도의 개인 서류를 제출하지 않고도 비자를 받을 수 있다.

이번에 실시되는 규정이 적용되는 국가들은 미얀마, 캄보디아, 스리랑카, 라오스, 네팔, 파키스탄, 필리핀, 베트남, 인도 그리고 방글라데시이다.

법무부 김도균 과장은 “동남아 관광객의 수가 계속 늘어남으로써 더 많은 외국인을 유치하기 위해서 규정을 완화했다,” 며 “점차 여타 국가에도 적용할 예정,”이라고 말했다

또한 법무부는 불법 체류자들이 이 새로운 제도를 악용하지 않도록 각별히 모니터 하겠다는 밝혔다.

김과장은 "비자 발급 간소화로 관광객이 늘어나는 반면 불법체류자도 많아질 거라는 우려가 있지만 불법체류 때문에 입국을 제한할 수는 없다"며 " 비자 발급 간소화를 지속할 것"이라고 말했다.