Ministry of Justice Expands Outstanding Medical Tourism Institutions to 112

Providing Convenience with Simplified Visa Application, Faster Issuance, and Increased Accompanying Family Quotas

The Ministry of Justice is expanding the designation of outstanding medical tourism attracting institutions.

Ministry of Justice Building, Gwacheon-si, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Yonhap News

The Ministry of Justice announced on September 21 that, starting from October 1, the number of "Outstanding Foreign Patient Medical Tourism Attracting Institutions" will be increased from the current 90 to 112. This expansion comes as the number of foreign patients visiting South Korea surpassed 2 million last year.

The system designates foreign patient attracting institutions with a low rate of illegal stay and outstanding performance, providing conveniences such as simplified visa application, shortened issuance periods, and the possibility to invite a larger number of accompanying family members.

Previously, in June, the Immigration and Foreign Policy Headquarters of the Ministry of Justice revised related regulations by easing application requirements for outstanding attracting institutions and introducing additional points for regional locations.

Of the designated institutions, 89 are medical institutions and 23 are non-medical institutions, with 90 located in the Seoul metropolitan area and 22 in non-metropolitan regions.

Since October last year, the Ministry of Justice significantly increased the number of outstanding attracting institutions from 39 to 90. Following this, the number of issued medical visas (C-3-3) increased by about 40%.

Jinsu Lee, Acting Minister of Justice, stated, "We will actively develop visa systems that can spread the economic ripple effects of medical tourism to local areas, thus contributing to regional economic revitalization and balanced national development."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.