UK Border Agency in South Korea
Visa processing times in South Korea
This page explains how long you can expect to wait for your UK visa application to be processed if you have applied in South Korea.
Service standards
We have service standards for processing UK visa applications in South Korea. Our standards say that we will process:
- 90 per cent of non-settlement applications within 3 weeks, 98% within 6 weeks and 100% within 12 weeks of the application date; and
- 95 per cent of settlement applications within 12 weeks and 100% within 24 weeks of the application date.
Please note we define one week as 5 working days.
If our visa processing service is experiencing delays, we will publish a news story on this website to explain what is happening. You can find recent news stories on the right side of this page.
If we have taken more than 3 weeks (for non-settlement visas) or 3 months (for settlement visas) to process your application, and we have not published a news story to explain the delay, you can email the VFS call centre, who will forward your email to us for reply. You can find their contact details on the VFS Global in South Korea website.
We will not respond to your enquiry if you contact us before this time has elapsed.
Our recent performance
Our guide to visa processing times contains up-to-date information on the time taken to process UK visa applications in every visa application centre, by visa category. We update this information each month.
You can find out our recent processing times from the table below.
The processing time begins when our commercial partner VFS Global has received your completed application form, application fee, passport and supporting documents, and you have enrolled your biometric information. It ends when we have made a decision on your application and your passport is available for collection.
You can use this information as a guide to how long it may take to process your application, but we cannot guarantee that your application will be processed within that time. This is because of the unique circumstances of each case.
Track your application
You can use the free Track your application service from VFS Global to monitor the progress of your visa application.
Alternatively, VFS Global offers a SMS service (fee payable) which sends you a message at various stages of the visa application process informing you the status of your application and when your passport is ready for collection. You can find more information on the VFS Global in South Korea website.