Load your ARC onto your phone with Korea's Mobile ID app
Since January 10, 2025, registered foreigners can carry a digital copy of their Alien Registration Card inside a free government app, valid everywhere the plastic card is, from bank counters to hospital check-in desks.
Park English2026-10-203 min read
Once your Registration Card is in hand, there is a second, smaller step worth doing in your first few weeks: putting a digital copy of it on your phone.
The Ministry of Justice launched a mobile ID for registered foreign residents on January 10, 2025. It carries the same validity as a physical card and is available to all registered expats aged 14 or older who possess smartphones in their names. You can use it instead of the plastic card in many places such as public and financial institutions, convenience stores and hospitals. That covers most of the counters where a teacher gets asked for ID in a normal month.
One limit worth knowing before you start: the mobile ID can be issued to one smartphone only, in your name. If you share a family plan or use a secondary phone, set it up on the one you actually carry.
How you set it up depends on when your card was printed.
| Your card | What to do |
|---|---|
| Issued after January 1, 2025 (has an IC chip) | Download the app, then tap the back of your phone to the card to read the chip |
| Issued before 2025 (no chip) | Visit an immigration office and have staff generate a one-time QR code for you to scan in the app |
If your physical card was issued after January 1, 2025, the IC chip lets you activate the mobile version simply by tapping the card to your phone. If your card was issued before 2025, you must visit an immigration office and scan a QR code to register the digital version.
Search the app store for 모바일 신분증 (Mobile ID), published by Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The interface is in Korean, so here is what the setup actually walks you through, step by step:
- Open the app and choose the option to register a new ID.
- Either hold your phone against the back of your Registration Card (chip method) or scan the QR code an immigration officer gives you.
- Set a PIN or password for the app.
- Let the app scan your face and match it against your ID photo.
- Your Registration Card now appears inside the app, ready to show on screen.
From there, you show the phone screen the same way you would hand over the plastic card. A bank teller, a pharmacist, a hospital receptionist, all of them can check it the same way.
One thing that genuinely varies: the mobile card can be used at participating banks for face-to-face account opening, but "participating" is doing real work in that sentence. Some branches are faster to accept it for a brand-new account than others, and a teller who hasn't seen one before may still ask for the physical card as backup. Bring both the first few times you try it somewhere new.
If your phone breaks or you switch devices, you repeat the setup: tap the chip again if your card has one, or go back to immigration for a fresh QR code if it doesn't. There is no shortcut for that part yet, and that is the one piece of this that still costs you a trip rather than a tap.
Keep the physical card in your wallet regardless. Immigration still expects you to carry proof of registration, and plenty of smaller shops and clinics have never seen the app. Think of the mobile version as a second copy that lives somewhere you are less likely to leave it than a bag pocket, not a replacement.