Overseas Koreans to Get Easier Registration
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Korean residents abroad are expected to recover their resident registration more easily.
The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) Wednesday advised the ministries concerned to improve related systems in a bid to help them identify themselves with a locally registered address.
When it comes to opening a bank account or dealing with administrative matters, people here are always required to submit an ID card. This requirement has caused a great deal of difficulty for overseas Koreans who do not have such a card issued by the Korean government due to their emigration, during extended stays here.
``We have received many civil petitions that overseas Koreans couldn't get administrative documents including taxation notification because their resident registration was erased,'' an ACRC official said.
``Even after they reported a current, temporary residence to the Ministry of Justice, many of them failed to get those documents and instead, were fined for defaults,'' he added.
Under the current law governing the legal status of overseas Koreans, they should receive the same advantages as local residents when dealing in real estate or in financial activities after reporting a place of residence for more than 30 days.
Despite this rule, however, the lack of an information-sharing system between the justice ministry and other government agencies has resulted in a failure to deliver administrative documents.
As of April 2009, about 108,600 overseas Koreans reported their local address to the ministry but many of them had difficulty receiving administrative documents to the registered place and identifying themselves at financial institutions.
Once the ACRC's recommendation is implemented, overseas Koreans who frequently visit here for business or wealth management will no longer have to deal with documents mailed to the wrong address or the complicated identification process.
``We will keep monitoring troubles they experience,'' the official said.
The agency takes civil petitions through its on-line center, www.epeople.go.kr.