If a Korean bank app accepts your number for texts but stops at identity verification, first identify which check failed. Receiving an SMS does not establish that the mobile line is registered in your own legal name, or that the app accepts your identity document and residence status. Seoul’s foreign-resident banking guide says a residence card and an own-name phone may be needed for online account opening, with availability varying by bank and stay status. A failed app check is a reason to ask the chosen bank about its other route, not proof that a branch will open an account.
Name the step that stopped
Keep the bank and app name, the exact on-screen message, and whether you were trying to open an account, register for mobile banking, or authorize a transaction on an existing account. These are different problems. For example, Woori Bank’s account-opening procedure places branch identity checking and account application before internet-banking registration and a security card. A later security-card or OTP prompt is not a substitute for the earlier document or own-name phone check.
If the message is about an own-name mobile number, check with your carrier whose name and identity document the line was registered under, then ask the bank which identity details its app must match. A visitor SIM that receives texts, a line registered to a companion, or a difference between the carrier’s record and the bank’s record may need a different fix. Do not keep buying SIMs on the assumption that another SMS-capable number will pass. Our Korea phone-number guide explains the wider difference between calls, texts and service identity verification.
Check the document route before retrying
Do not treat a passport and a foreigner residence card as interchangeable inside an app. Woori WON Global’s current service page describes remote membership and account opening for foreigners aged 17 or older who hold a foreigner registration card. It does not establish a passport-only tourist route or promise that every eligible holder will pass the live checks. Ask your selected bank which app, account product, residence status and document it supports before repeating the application.
The staffed route can be different. Woori’s English branch procedure lists a passport or foreigner registration card among possible real-name documents and then directs the applicant to visit a branch. That makes a branch inquiry reasonable if an online ID step excludes you; it does not mean a passport alone is sufficient for the account or that a short-stay visitor will be approved. Ask what else the bank needs for your purpose, address and stay status, and whether the branch can offer the account and mobile-banking features you actually need.
Contact the bank and confirm your route
For Woori, the same English procedure page lists its dedicated foreign-customer line as 1599-2288, then 1 for English, Monday–Friday 09:00–18:00. It also lists +82-2-2006-5000 for calls from abroad; confirm language routing when connected. For another bank, use the number or branch finder on that bank’s own site. Describe the failed step and ask which branch, identification, and supporting evidence to bring before traveling there.
At the branch or on the call, get separate answers to three questions: Can this bank consider an account application with your documents and stated purpose? If opened, will the account have any transfer or withdrawal limits, and what evidence would the bank require to review those limits? Can you register and use the specific app functions you need with your present phone identity, or is another bank-supported setup required? Keep the bank’s instructions and any completed application or decision record. An opened account, unrestricted transactions and working mobile banking are separate outcomes.