The things you have to settle before the surgery itself
Which procedure to have is decided at consultation. What has to be settled first is when to come, how long to stay, and what to bring. Here it is, in the order patients actually ask.
Medically reviewed byKikap Kim · Chief Director, Plastic Surgery
What to do before you book flights
The most common mistake is fixing the dates first and consulting afterwards. Doing it the other way round costs you nothing.
- 01
Online consultation first
Send front and side photographs and what you have in mind, and we will outline the possible directions, the examinations needed and how the schedule would be built. The number of days you need can only be worked out once that direction is set.
- 02
Hold two or three candidate dates
Surgery availability has to line up with flights and accommodation, so if you bring only one fixed date there is little room to adjust. Give us a few options and we will fit within them.
- 03
Confirm the length of stay
Your stay is set by how many post-operative checks you will have before flying home, not by the operation itself. It is safer to confirm this at consultation and then book flights.
- 04
Book flights and accommodation
Book once the schedule is confirmed. If you have already booked, tell us and we will first check what is possible within those dates.
Visas and entry preparation
Depending on your nationality, entry may be visa-free, or may require prior electronic travel authorisation or a visa. There is also a separate visa track for stays with a medical purpose. Requirements and procedures differ by nationality, length of stay and purpose, and policy changes over time — so please confirm against the official guidance of the Korean diplomatic mission in your country or the Korean immigration authorities, for your own nationality.
What we help with is the treatment side. If you need documents for your preparation — booking confirmation, planned treatment dates and the like — please request them through consultation. Note that issuing a visa is a decision of the authorities; we do not guarantee or handle visa issuance.
What to bring
These make consultation and the surgical decision faster, and reduce unnecessary repeat testing.
- Passport and flight itinerary — we place your follow-up checks around your departure date.
- If you have had previous breast surgery, those records — implant type, size, surgical approach and date.
- Current medications and allergy information — this directly affects anaesthesia management.
- Any recent health check results, if you have them (not required — necessary tests are done here).
- Tops that open at the front — pulling clothes over your head is uncomfortable after surgery.
- Accommodation details and a way to be contacted locally — we need to be able to reach you during your stay.
Language — from consultation through recovery instructions
The U&U website runs in nine languages: Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Vietnamese, Thai, Russian, Mongolian and Indonesian. Online consultation is available in the same languages.
Interpretation for your in-person visit depends on the language and the dates. Tell us at consultation which language you will use and we will explain what can be arranged. So that nobody asks fewer questions because of language, we confirm that pre-operative explanations and recovery instructions have actually been understood before we proceed.
From Incheon Airport to Gangnam, and to the clinic
U&U Plastic Surgery is at Myungkwang Building, 819 Nonhyeon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Gangnam sits where the city's main transport lines converge, so it is not difficult to reach from the airport. From Incheon International Airport there are several options — the airport railway with city connections, airport buses and taxis — and journey time varies with traffic.
If you plan to come to the clinic on your arrival day, tell us your landing time and flight number in advance. We set the consultation time allowing for travel time and how you are likely to feel. Detailed directions to the clinic are sent in your language once the booking is confirmed.
What to look for when choosing accommodation
We do not designate particular accommodation or make bookings for you. But some conditions are clearly better from a recovery point of view.
Distance from the clinic
You will come in at least once during your stay for a progress check. The shorter the journey, the better for recovery.
Lifts and stairs
In early recovery, carrying luggage or going up and down stairs is a burden. Check before you book.
Cooking or delivery options
An environment where you can eat regularly without going out is better for recovery.
Whether you are travelling with someone
If you are coming alone, it is worth being more conservative about accommodation, given travel on the day of surgery and early recovery.
A tight schedule can never come before safety
Patients travelling from abroad usually have tight schedules. That is why U&U has built the process so surgery on the day of consultation is possible when the schedule allows, and why specialist anaesthesiologists are resident to handle anaesthesia and post-operative pain management. The pre-operative examinations are also carried out in-house.
That said, if test results or your condition are not suitable for surgery, we do not proceed. We do not push ahead against your safety because of a schedule, and our policy is to tell you that judgement first. Saying "not today" to someone who has travelled a long way is not easy — but a clinic that can say it is, we think, a safe one.
A clinic must be registered before it can treat international patients
To attract international patients in Korea, a medical institution has to register with its metropolitan or provincial government. This is a system established under the Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Healthcare System and Attraction of International Patients. Institutions that are not registered are barred by law from attracting international patients. U&U Plastic Surgery holds a registration certificate issued by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. The registration number is M-2020-01-08-5773 and it is valid until 14 July 2029.
We would like to be precise about what that registration is, though. It concerns eligibility, the permission to treat international patients. It does not mean the government has certified surgical skill or the quality of outcomes. If you see advertising written so that it reads that way, take a second look.
It is still worth verifying. A registered institution has a duty to report its international patient figures on a regular basis and must keep meeting the statutory registration requirements. If those requirements lapse, the registration can be revoked. We have published the certificate itself and the registration number on our verification page, so you can check the number against it directly.
The name of the operation is not what decides your stay
It is hard to answer "how many days" from the name of a procedure alone. The six factors below are what actually set the number. At the consultation we go through them one by one and count the days from there.
| Factor | Shortens the stay | Lengthens the stay |
|---|---|---|
| Extent of surgery | A single localised procedure | Several areas together, or revision |
| Suture removal | Dissolvable sutures only | Removal needed at week 1 |
| Drain | Procedures that use none | Procedures that keep one for several days |
| Follow-up visits | One before you fly home | A condition needing two or more |
| Companion | Travelling with someone | Travelling alone |
| Return flight | A short route | A long-haul route |
The journey is part of your recovery
Planning around the operation alone leaves things out. The shape of the trip itself affects how you heal.
Long flights and swelling
Sitting still for hours makes the legs swell and slows circulation, and after surgery that load is heavier. This is why we do not set the return flight separately from the surgery date; we fix them together at the consultation.
How you feel on arrival day
A consultation booked straight off a long flight is one where judgement is blurred. Send us your arrival time and flight number in advance and we will set the hour with the transfer and your condition in mind.
Time difference and sleep
Sleep matters in early recovery. If you are coming from a very different time zone, it is better to leave the first two days clear.
If you travel alone
You will handle the journey on the day of surgery and the first night by yourself. Book accommodation close to the clinic and make sure you have a way for us to reach you.
If something happens while you are here
This is what patients from abroad worry about most: something feels wrong in an unfamiliar country and you do not know where to go. So we settle the contact route before surgery. You get a way to reach us in the language you use, together with the criteria for which symptoms mean you should contact us straight away.
If something needs checking, we handle it in-house. An anaesthesiology specialist is on site, and a breast surgeon is in the building, so examinations including breast ultrasound can be done right away. You do not have to move between hospitals repeating the same explanation.
Sometimes an unplanned check pushes the schedule back. When that happens, the first thing we tell you is whether your flights need changing. We do not let something that needs checking slide in order to keep a schedule.
What to settle a week before you fly
Sorting these out at this point means less rushing once you land.
- Whether you have handled your current medication as instructed at the consultation. Do not stop or continue anything on your own; confirm it first, then decide
- Smoking and alcohol. These connect directly to healing, so please keep to the window we gave you
- Your menstrual cycle. Tell us in advance if it overlaps the surgery date and we will judge whether anything needs shifting
- What your travel insurance and home health insurance actually cover. Cosmetic procedures are often excluded, so check beforehand
- A way to be contacted locally. Arrange roaming or a SIM so we can reach you throughout your stay
- Your accommodation booking and the route to the clinic. Save it in advance so you are not searching for it the day after surgery
- Front-opening tops and comfortable shoes. Anything you pull over your head, and heels, are awkward in early recovery
The part after you go home is the longer part
The surgery takes days; recovery takes months, and most of those months happen at home. So before you leave we prepare two things: the criteria you will use to check yourself, and the information the medical team where you live will need if you end up seeing them.
The self-check criteria are built from photographs and symptoms. We tell you which angles to shoot and at what intervals to send them. We also separate which symptoms are normal progress and which are a signal to contact us immediately. Without those criteria people are anxious when they are fine, and let slide the one thing that actually needed checking.
The information for doctors at home is about what was done and how. If you have implants, that means manufacturer, model, size and the plane in which they sit. Some products also carry a unique identifying number. If you are ever examined in another country, having this makes reading the images and judging the situation far more accurate.
What we do and what we do not do
Every clinic that guides medical travel draws the line in a different place. We set ours out first so nothing comes as a surprise later. We do not claim to do anything that is not written here.
| Area | What U&U does | What U&U does not do |
|---|---|---|
| Clinical schedule | Narrows the direction online, then designs your length of stay and visit dates | Does not push an unsafe plan through to fit a flight |
| Visa | Provides documents you need to prepare, such as booking confirmation or planned treatment dates, on request | Does not obtain or guarantee a visa. That decision belongs to the authorities |
| Flights and lodging | Gives you the criteria that favour recovery | Does not book on your behalf or designate a particular provider |
| Language | Runs the website and online consultation in nine languages | Does not guarantee on-site interpretation in every language at all times |
| After you go home | Follows your progress online and sets out what to have checked locally | Does not designate a local clinic or take responsibility for care given there |
What to ask when you ask about money
We know the total is the first thing you want to ask from abroad. The trouble is that a figure quoted before the direction is settled means nothing, because the number moves with which operation and how much of it. So narrowing the direction in the online consultation is, in practice, the faster route to an accurate answer.
Once you have a figure, the next thing to establish is what it covers. Ask how far into examinations, anaesthesia, post-operative care, follow-up visits during your stay, recovery care and checks after you go home that amount reaches. Clinics bundle these differently, so the same number can describe entirely different scopes.
It also helps to settle payment method and timing in advance. Exchange rates and card company policies are not within our control. What we do make clear at the consultation is how you can pay, and when each amount falls due. The principle is that you should not hear about a line item for the first time after you land.
You are allowed to come and decide not to
Please do not feel that having travelled this far you must have something done. There genuinely are consultations that end with the conclusion that now is not the time. Sometimes the test results say so. Sometimes what you want and the state of your tissue do not line up. Sometimes the schedule you planned is too tight for recovery.
When that happens, we say so. What we give you instead is the reason it is not now, when to review it again, and what to do in the meantime. Making sure a consultation that did not turn into surgery today was not a wasted journey is, we think, our job.
The questions we are asked most before you travel
- How many days should I plan for?
- It depends on the procedure and how many progress checks you want before flying home. Tell us your preferred dates at online consultation and we will first show you what is possible within them and where it would be pushing too hard.
- Is it all right to come alone?
- Many patients do come alone. Just choose accommodation close to the clinic, given travel on the day of surgery and early recovery, and make sure you have a way to be contacted during your stay.
- Is interpretation provided?
- It depends on the language and the dates. Tell us at consultation which language you will use and we will explain what can be arranged. The website and online consultation run in nine languages.
- How is payment handled?
- Payment methods and procedure are explained at consultation. The total and what it covers are only fixed once the surgical direction is decided, so narrowing that down at online consultation first gives you a more accurate answer.
- What if a problem comes up after I return home?
- We continue to follow your progress online after you return. Before you leave we go through self-care and the warning signs to watch for, and if needed we list the items to have checked locally.
- I have already booked my dates — can they be accommodated?
- We will fit within them as far as possible. But if we judge that the schedule puts your recovery at risk, we will tell you that first — we do not push ahead against recovery to meet a diary.
Worth reading before you plan the trip
Guides by Procedure
- Breast Augmentation Cost Guide — Quote Structure & Country Comparison
- Breast Revision Surgery — Capsular Contracture & Implant Replacement
- Breast Lift (Mastopexy) — Correcting Sagging Breasts
- Nipple & Areola Surgery — Inverted Nipples & Accessory Breasts
- Motiva Breast Augmentation
- Post-Surgery Breast Screening — Mammotome & Ultrasound
- Fat Transfer & Hybrid Breast Augmentation
Let us plan the schedule together
Tell us the dates that could work and how many days you can stay, and we will set out what is possible within them and what you should prepare. Before you book flights is the best moment.