U.S. rejects record one in four Korean visitor visa applicants

Nearly one in four Koreans applying for U.S. visitor visas were rejected last year — the highest rate on record.

The adjusted refusal rate for U.S. B1 and B2 visitor visas for Korean nationals reached 24.73 percent in U.S. fiscal year 2025 — which ran from October 2024 through September 2025 — according to data the Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted to the office of Rep. Kim Dai-sik of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) on Monday.

The rate — which excludes applicants initially refused but later granted visas after submitting additional documents — jumped 9.76 percentage points from 14.97 percent a year earlier to its highest level since comparable data began in 2020.

B1 visas are for short-term business travel, while B2 visas are for tourism.

The refusal rate for Korean nationals stood at 8.46 percent in 2020, 18.03 percent in 2021, 17.38 percent in 2022, 14.44 percent in 2023 and 14.97 percent in 2024.

The figure then surged to nearly 25 percent last year.

Notably, Korean applicants were refused at a higher rate than those from other major U.S. allies.

The refusal rate for Japanese nationals slipped 0.08 percentage points to 5.68 percent last year from 5.76 percent in 2024.

Other U.S. allies that participate in the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, also posted lower adjusted visitor visa refusal rates than Korea. ESTA is an automated system that checks whether travelers are eligible to enter the United States under the Visa Waiver Program. The rate stood at 20.44 percent for Britain, 12.22 percent for Germany and 9.67 percent for France.

Although the refusal rates for Britain and France rose, they did so modestly, by 2.41 percentage points and 1.17 percentage points, respectively.

Even China, which does not have a visa waiver agreement with the United States, saw its refusal rate fall to 20.21 percent last year from 25.37 percent in 2024.

The rates for Indian and Vietnamese nationals were also lower than Korea’s, at 22.04 percent and 22.08 percent, respectively.

“The United States does not disclose detailed reasons for visa refusals, which makes it difficult to determine exactly [why the rate rose],” the Foreign Ministry told Rep. Kim’s office. “We presume that tighter visa screening policies may have had an impact as immigration has become an increasingly contentious domestic political issue in the United States.”

Questions have also been raised over whether tougher U.S. scrutiny of Korean corporate personnel dispatched to the country contributed to the sharp rise.

More than 300 Korean workers were detained by U.S. immigration authorities at a construction site for a Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution battery plant in Georgia, Atlanta in September last year.

Some have also raised the possibility that immigration authorities under the Donald Trump administration may have effectively placed Korea under heightened scrutiny and tightened visa standards.

Critics have also questioned whether strains in Korea-U.S. relations may have played a role.

Speculation has centered on the prolonged tariff and security negotiations between Seoul and Washington, the Coupang data leak and recent restrictions on intelligence sharing. U.S. lawmakers have called the Korean government’s fining of Coupang — a U.S. company — for a data leak from last year an act of discrimination against a U.S. business.

A recent parliamentary audit also drew attention to the issue after Rep. Jung Chung-rae of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), who had been assigned to the Americas inspection team of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, was unable to obtain a U.S. visa and had to switch to the Europe team at short notice.

Such cases have fueled calls for the two countries to improve their relationship.

“DP leader Kim Min-seok’s planned trip to the United States in October fell through,” PPP Rep. Na Kyung-won wrote on Facebook on Oct. 15. “The word is that there is no guarantee he will be able to renew his U.S. visa after the visa he received while serving as prime minister expires.”

The conservative lawmaker did not hold back.

“Former [DP] leader Jung’s visa put on hold, U.S. intelligence cut off, National Intelligence Service visas put on hold, exclusion from meetings, even the Korean ambassador to the United States expressing frustration — this is the current state of the Korea-U.S. relationship,” Rep. Na said. “President Lee Jae Myung and the DP should use the collapse of Kim Min-seok’s U.S. trip and this rejection at the door as an opportunity to first consider measures to normalize the alliance.”

Rep. Na called for concrete steps to repair security cooperation between the two countries.

“The causes of restrictions on intelligence sharing must be addressed, and trust in information protection and high-level communication must be restored,” Rep. Na said.

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon also weighed in.

“One in four visitor visas rejected. The Lee Jae Myung administration cannot ‘avoid’ the problem and expect it to be ‘resolved,’” he wrote on Facebook on Monday. “It will only ‘worsen.’”

BY CHO MUN-GYU [[email protected]]