Employees of South Korean companies traveling to the United States under the electronic system for travel authorization (ESTA) are increasingly being denied entry by U.S. authorities.

It has long been common practice for many Korean employees to use ESTA for business trips but the U.S. under the Trump administration began viewing this as a form of unauthorized work and has been tightening enforcement, effectively blocking ESTA-based entries.

According to industry sources from the conglomerate circle on Wednesday, an employee of a Korean battery company’s supplier was subjected to a thorough inspection by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and was ultimately denied entry.

CBP reportedly questioned the engineer intensively about accommodations and itinerary, taking issue with the use of ESTA – intended for tourism or short-term business visits – as what essentially functions like a short-term work visa.

CBP now checks factors such as the duration of stay near a plant, accommodation locations, and consistency between declared purpose and actual statements to determine whether the visitor is engaging in real work.

This scrutiny has become even stricter in the wake of recent protests in Los Angeles.

Uncertainty is growing among many companies whose employees have traveled to the U.S. under ESTA.

ESTA allows nationals from participating countries to enter the U.S. for up to 90 days without a visa for purposes such as tourism, business meetings, or transit.

However, the growing number of entry denials highlights a widening gap between the original intent and actual implementation of the system.

Samsung Electronics Co. recently issued an internal notice to employees stating that “there has been a frequent rise in ESTA-based business trips being denied entry due to travel purposes not aligning with the program’s intent.”

It noted that “business trips using ESTA must be limited to a maximum of two weeks per trip, and any trip longer than two weeks must be pre-approved by the company’s overseas HR team.”

Other major corporations, including SK, Hyundai Motor, and LG have also issued similar internal guidelines, urging employees to exercise caution.

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