South Korea’s Adjusted B1/B2 Visitor Visa Refusal Rate Hits 24.73% in FY2025

South Korean government data released Monday showed the adjusted refusal rate for B1/B2 visitor visas issued to South Korean nationals reached 24.73 percent in US fiscal year 2025, the highest level in comparable records since 2020. The fiscal year ran from October 2024 through September 2025.

The rate increased 9.76 percentage points from the previous fiscal year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs supplied the data to the office of Rep. Kim Dai-sik, a People Power Party member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.

“We need to closely examine whether our government's diplomatic and defense policies toward the US, as well as changes in Korea-US relations, have contributed to US visa refusals,” Kim said.

The number of B visas issued to South Koreans fell 21.2 percent, from 15,508 in 2024 to 12,226 in fiscal 2025. The figures concern applicants who needed a visa, not all South Koreans traveling to the United States.

B1 visas cover short-term business trips, including trade negotiations and equipment maintenance. B2 visas are used for tourism, medical treatment and visits to relatives or friends. Applicants may need one if they plan to stay more than 90 days or cannot use the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, or ESTA, including because of prior visits to Iran, Cuba or North Korea.

South Koreans traveling under ESTA are excluded from the visa figures. Comparisons with countries outside the Visa Waiver Program also have limits because travelers’ eligibility to apply for a visa differs.

Korean refusal figures climbed above earlier years and partner-country rates

The rate moved unevenly in the years before the latest increase:

The figures also put South Korea above several US allies and partners. Japan’s rate declined, while China’s also fell from its prior-year level.

The ministry cannot identify why individual applications were refused

The foreign ministry said the US government does not provide detailed reasons for visa refusals, making it difficult to establish what drove the increase. It offered a possible explanation, rather than a confirmed cause.

“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”

Some observers have also connected the rise to scrutiny of Korean corporate personnel. More than 300 Korean workers were detained by US immigration authorities at a Georgia construction site for a Hyundai Motor and LG Energy Solution battery plant in September last year. Some have speculated that US authorities may have treated South Korea as a “country of interest” and tightened visa standards. Others have raised the possibility of heightened scrutiny under the Donald Trump administration.

Those theories have not established why individual applicants were refused. The ministry’s official said: “Exact reasons for visa refusals are difficult to determine, as the US does not disclose them. I suspect that immigration becoming a contentious domestic political issue in the US has led to tighter visa screening policies”.

Visa delays and diplomatic disputes fuel competing explanations

Other questions have focused on strained bilateral ties, including prolonged tariff and security negotiations between Seoul and Washington. US lawmakers have called the Korean government’s fine against Coupang, a US company, over a data leak an act of discrimination against American business.

Restrictions on intelligence sharing followed remarks by Unification Minister Chung Dong-young about “Korean uranium enrichment facilities.” Critics have raised visa delays involving National Intelligence Service staff as part of wider questions about bilateral ties.

The timing does not align for every event cited in those debates. Ambassador Kang Kyung-wha discussed difficulty communicating with the White House during an October 12 parliamentary audit of South Korea’s embassy in Washington. Ruling Democratic Party leader Kim Min-seok also postponed a planned US visit earlier this month. Both events came more than a year after the visa data period ended.

The issue surfaced directly during the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee audit. Rep. Jung Chung-rae, a ruling Democratic Party member assigned to the Americas inspection team, could not obtain a US visa and was switched to the Europe team at short notice.

People Power Party Rep. Na Kyung-won cited that visa hold alongside intelligence-sharing restrictions, National Intelligence Service delays, Kim Min-seok’s cancelled visit and the ambassador’s comments. She said those developments “all illustrate the current state of South Korea-U.S. relations.”

“President Lee Jae-myung and the ruling party should take this rejection as an opportunity to first consider measures to restore the alliance to normal,” Na said.

The State Department counts each applicant’s final outcome once

The State Department calculates the rate by subtracting cases that were eventually approved from refusals, then dividing by issuances plus refusals minus those approvals. Its methodology treats an applicant’s final action in the fiscal year as the outcome for the calculation.

That rule prevents multiple applications by one person from being counted separately. Someone refused in April who reapplies and receives a visa in July counts as an issuance, not a refusal. The department calls cases where a denial or processing suspension is resolved through new information or changed circumstances “overcomes.”