Korea Medical Visa from Nepal (C-3-3): The Agency Decides

There are two ways to travel from Nepal to Korea for medical treatment, and the one you need depends on a single question that has nothing to do with your illness.

Is a registered medical tourism agency arranging it?

If yes, you apply for a C-3-3 medical tourism visa. If no — you found the hospital yourself, a relative in Korea made the appointment, your doctor in Kathmandu referred you directly — then the requirements are explicit: apply for a C-3-1, the short-term general visa.

That instruction is printed in the source list itself, and it still catches people constantly, because the purpose is medical so the medical route looks obviously right. It is not. C-3-3 is not "the visa for getting treatment in Korea". It is the visa for treatment delivered through Korea's registered medical tourism industry, and the heaviest part of the application belongs to the agency, not to you.

Get this wrong and you have assembled a file around an institution you do not have.

This guide covers the C-3-3 route. For requirements shared across all twelve routes — the Class A bank rule, validity windows, translation and notarisation — see Korean visa documents from Nepal.

Who qualifies

Those who want to stay in Korea for a short period for the purpose of receiving medical treatment of any kind, up to ninety days.

"Of any kind" is broad on the treatment and narrow on the arrangement. The breadth means the route is not restricted to particular procedures. The narrowness is in everything the inviter must produce: the invitation and guarantee letters must come from a medical tourism promotion agency, and the agency must hold registration with the Ministry of Health and Welfare as a medical tourism attraction institution.

No agency, no C-3-3.

Which route is yours

• Treatment arranged through an MOHW-registered medical tourism agency → this route, C-3-3
• General medical treatment not arranged through such an agency → the short-term general route, C-3-1. The requirements say so in as many words
• A relative in Korea arranging and hosting you → consider the family visit route, C-3-9, and discuss the medical element with the embassy
• Treatment expected to exceed ninety days → neither of these is sufficient. Raise it with the embassy and the agency before you travel, not after
• Accompanying a patient → nothing in this list covers a companion. Ask the agency and the embassy how they want a carer or family member documented

What the agency in Korea must produce

This half decides whether you have an application at all, so verify it before you spend anything on your own documents.

• Invitation letter, issued by the medical tourism promotion agency, bearing a registered corporate seal — or notarised if not sealed
• Guarantee letter, issued by the agency, with a registered official seal or notarisation, on the specific downloadable form
• Original corporate seal certificate
• Business registration certificate, photocopy
• A copy of the agency's Ministry of Health and Welfare medical tourism attraction institution registration certificate
• Hospital appointment confirmation

Two of these deserve particular attention.

The MOHW registration certificate is the document that makes this route available to you. An agency that cannot produce it is not a registered medical tourism institution, whatever its website says, and your C-3-3 application has no foundation. Ask for a copy early and treat reluctance as your answer.

The seals matter. The requirements specify a registered corporate seal on the invitation and a registered official seal on the guarantee, with notarisation as the alternative. In Korean practice a sealed corporate document is the formal, verifiable version; an unsealed letter on headed paper is not the same instrument. If the agency sends an unsealed letter, ask for it sealed or notarised rather than submitting it as it is.

What you provide from Nepal

• Visa application form, with your original signature on page 5 matching your passport signature
• A recent passport-size photograph, 35 × 45 mm, taken within the last six months
• Original passport and a photocopy
• Visa cover letter — purpose, tentative itinerary, who covers expenses
• Round-trip flight booking, departure at least fifteen business days after your application date
• Hotel booking voucher
• Treatment plan — the medical treatment schedule, in detail
• Medical report issued by a hospital in Nepal
• Job-related documents — job certificate, firm registration and résumé, original and photocopy
• Bank balance certificate, original
• Bank statement for the recent six months — original, Class A bank in Nepal only, deposits only, issued within one month of your application

All Nepali-language documents translated into English and notarised by an authorised notary public. Documents are valid three months from the date of issue.

The two medical documents are not the same document

This is the part applicants most often get wrong, because both sound like "my medical paperwork".

The medical report issued by a hospital in Nepal establishes your condition. It is retrospective and diagnostic: what is wrong, how it was investigated, what the findings are. It comes from your treating doctor or hospital here.

The treatment plan establishes what will happen in Korea. It is prospective and scheduled: which procedures, in what sequence, over what dates, at which facility. The requirements ask for the medical treatment schedule in detail, and a one-line letter saying treatment will take place does not satisfy it.

The two have to agree. A Nepali report describing one condition and a Korean plan addressing something else is the kind of inconsistency that stops a file. And together they have to agree with your dates: a treatment plan running six weeks alongside a hotel voucher for nine days and a flight home on day ten does not describe a coherent trip.

Get the treatment plan from the Korean side — the agency or the hospital — and read it against your own report before you submit.

Why a medical visa asks for your résumé

One item here appears on no other route in the twelve: a résumé, alongside your job certificate and firm registration.

It looks out of place on a medical application until you notice that occupation evidence is being asked for three times over. Job certificate, firm registration, résumé. That is unusually heavy for a ninety-day visit, and it is doing two jobs.

Funding. Medical treatment in Korea is expensive and there is no sponsor underwriting your living costs — the agency guarantees the arrangement, not your expenses. Your occupation and your six months of bank deposits are what show the treatment is affordable.

Return intent. A medical visitor is, by definition, someone whose health is the reason for travel, and the reviewer is weighing whether a person who is unwell will leave at the end of ninety days. A documented working life with a position to return to is the answer to that, and the résumé fills in what a one-line job certificate leaves out.

So write the résumé properly rather than treating it as a formality. Current position, employer, duration, previous roles, and anything that shows continuity. If you are self-employed, the firm registration carries the same weight. If you are retired or not working, raise it with the agency and the embassy rather than leaving the section empty — an unexplained gap on the item that carries your funding and return intent is the worst place in the file to have one.

What the reviewer is weighing

Is the arranging institution genuinely registered? The MOHW certificate, the business registration, the corporate seal certificate, the sealed letters.

Is the treatment real and scheduled? Hospital appointment confirmation, treatment plan, and your Nepali medical report corroborating the need.

Can you pay for it? Bank balance certificate, six months of Class A deposits, occupation documents and résumé. No one is guaranteeing your costs on this route.

Do the dates cohere? Treatment plan, hotel voucher, flight booking, itinerary and cover letter all describing one trip of one length.

Will you leave? The return booking, and your working life in Nepal.

Sequencing

1. First, before spending anything. Ask the agency for a copy of its MOHW medical tourism attraction institution registration certificate. If it cannot produce one, stop and reconsider the route — you may be a C-3-1 applicant.
2. Next. Confirm you hold an account at a Class A bank with six months of deposit history. If not, this is the constraint that takes months, not weeks.
3. Early. Request the agency's full set: sealed invitation and guarantee letters, corporate seal certificate, business registration, MOHW certificate, hospital appointment confirmation, and the treatment plan.
4. At the same time. Obtain the medical report from your hospital in Nepal, and check it against the treatment plan when that arrives.
5. Three to four weeks out. Job certificate, firm registration, and write the résumé.
6. Four to six weeks out. Notarised English translations of all Nepali-language documents, including the medical report.
7. Two to three weeks out. Flight booking respecting the fifteen-business-day rule, and the hotel voucher — for a duration that matches the treatment plan.
8. Last two weeks only. Bank balance certificate and six-month statement. One-month validity.
9. Finally. Cover letter against the assembled file, page 5 signature, documents in the published order.

Full reasoning in the validity clock section of the main guide.

Where medical applications come apart

Applying C-3-3 with no registered agency behind it. The defining failure on this route, and the requirements warn about it directly.

An agency that cannot produce its MOHW registration certificate.

Unsealed invitation or guarantee letters, where a registered seal or notarisation is specified.

A treatment plan that is not a schedule — a letter confirming treatment rather than a detailed sequence of procedures and dates.

The Nepali medical report and the Korean treatment plan describing different things.

Trip length that does not match the treatment plan.

A thin or missing résumé, on the item carrying funding and return intent.

The usual four: a bank that is not Class A, an expired statement, a flight inside fifteen business days, a page 5 signature that does not match.

Practical preparation

Treatment abroad involves more than the visa. Worth settling before you fly:

How you will pay, and in what currency. Nothing in this list involves Korean insurance, and National Health Insurance is for residents, not ninety-day medical visitors. Clarify costs with the agency in writing, including what happens if the treatment plan changes once you are there. On moving money, sending money from Korea to Nepal covers the mechanics in reverse.

Language in a clinical setting. This is the setting where translation matters most and where machine translation is least safe — consent forms, dosages and post-operative instructions are exactly the text where a plausible-looking translation can mean the wrong thing. Confirm with the agency what interpretation it provides at the hospital, in person, and do not rely on an app for anything you are being asked to sign. The Nepali community in Korea covers interpretation services and district support centres, several of which help with exactly this.

Someone with you. The list does not provide for a companion, so if you need one, raise it with both the agency and the embassy early rather than assuming a second application will be straightforward.

Questions people actually ask

My cousin in Seoul booked my hospital appointment. Is that C-3-3? No. Without a registered medical tourism agency arranging it, the requirements direct you to a C-3-1 application. You may also want to look at the family visit route if your cousin is hosting you — discuss the medical element with the embassy.

How do I check whether an agency is really registered? Ask for a copy of its Ministry of Health and Welfare medical tourism attraction institution registration certificate. It is a required document in the application, so an agency that will not provide it cannot support your visa regardless of anything else it promises.

Is the hospital appointment confirmation enough on its own? No. It is one of six documents the inviter provides, and it does not substitute for the agency's registration and sealed letters.

What if my treatment will take longer than ninety days? This route is capped at ninety days. Raise the question with the agency and the embassy before travelling, because the answer determines whether this is the right route at all.

Can I work while I am in Korea for treatment? No. C-3-3 is a visitor status.

Do I need a résumé even though I am going for medical reasons? Yes — it is on the list, alongside the job certificate and firm registration. It carries your funding and return intent, which is why it is there.

I am retired and have no job certificate. Raise it with the agency and the embassy rather than submitting a blank. Your bank documents carry more of the weight in that case, and how they want occupation evidence handled is their call, not something to improvise.

Sources and accuracy

Requirements above are drawn from the trilingual visa document lists published by DAGACHI and World DAGACHI at worlddagachi.com, working from the English versions.

The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Nepal sets and changes these requirements without notice. Download the guarantee letter form from the embassy's own website, confirm the current list before paying an agency or booking anything, and check the date on this page. Nothing here is medical, legal or immigration advice — decisions about treatment belong with your doctors, and this page cannot tell you whether a particular agency or hospital is suitable.

If something here is out of date, tell us.