KoreaClear · Travel answer
Can I enter Korea during transit using a Canadian visa or permanent residence?
Short answer
A Canadian visa or permanent-residence document may support a qualifying tourist-in-transit visit to Korea. The complete itinerary matters: a Canadian document and separate tickets alone do not establish eligibility.
What to do
- Write out all flights and stops, including how long you stay in each country before and after Korea.
- Ask the Korean mission to check your nationality, document type and validity, intended Korean stay and onward ticket against the current transit rules.
- For a Vietnamese traveller spending seven days in Vietnam, distinguish Vietnam–Korea–Canada from Canada–Vietnam–Korea and provide the complete onward route.
- With separate tickets, confirm boarding-pass issuance and baggage handling with both airlines.
Check before relying on this
- Ask which intervening-country rule applies to your direction of travel; do not treat time in Vietnam as time in Korea.
- A self-transfer requiring landside baggage reclaim needs permission to enter Korea.
More details and examples ExpandCollapse
Route and duration
The airport describes travel to a qualifying country, or travel from it after a stay toward a home or third country. Its summary does not establish every document, nationality or duration condition. Have the mission check a two-, three- or seven-day Korean stop as part of the complete itinerary before treating it as eligible.
Sources and provider examples
External sources may use another language.
Sources last checked: . Rules, hours and services can change.