A handover control method and apparatus are provided to efficiently buffer packets in a Mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WIMAX) network. A serving radio access station (S-RAS) and an access control router (ACR) divide and buffer packets to be sent to a mobile station before and after a predetermined message exchange process. The Access control router (ACR) sequentially tunnels a packet buffered in the serving radio access station (S-RAS) and a packet buffered in the Access control router (ACR) into a target radio access station (T-RAS) when a handover for the mobile station is completed. Since an unnecessary buffering operation is not performed in the Access control router (ACR) and the radio access station (RAS), a resource waste may be avoided.