Without registration, an Overseas Korean Registration cannot prove a period of residence abroad The certificate records details as of the application date, so registering late leaves the earlier period of residence off the document.

Apostille Korea said it provides an agency service for issuing the Overseas Korean Registration certificate. The document cannot be obtained online and can take four days or more to issue, which makes it hard to handle personally for those living abroad or far from Seoul.

No registration, no certificate

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs introduced Overseas Korean Registration to protect Korean nationals living or staying abroad, make their activities at home and abroad easier and support effective protection policy. The system applies domestic resident registration to overseas residence, and the certificate records basic personal details along with the address in the country of stay, the purpose and status of the stay and the date of first entry. It covers every Korean national who resides or intends to stay for 90 days or more in a given area abroad, excluding those who hold foreign citizenship. New registrations must be filed within 30 days and changes within 14 days. A parent surnamed Kim, who enrolled a child in a middle school abroad last month with the intention of completing the child's secondary education overseas and later using the special admission scheme for overseas Koreans, returned to Korea briefly and applied for the certificate, only to be told that it could not be issued because the family had never completed Overseas Korean Registration.

Why the issuing procedure should be checked in advance

Even where a stay abroad can be demonstrated in fact, the certificate, which is the legal proof of that stay, will not be issued unless the applicant completed Overseas Korean Registration at the local consulate. The details recorded on the certificate are moreover fixed as of the application date, so registering late leaves everything before that point off the document. Anyone who needs the certificate should therefore first confirm that the registration exists and then familiarise themselves with the issuing procedure. Issuance can take four days or more and is not available online, so anyone who needs to use the document must visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jongno, Seoul, in person or appoint a proxy. That is a heavy demand for people whose family and acquaintances are all abroad, who live far from Seoul, or who need the document urgently. For special university admission, immigration matters and visa cases, the process can extend further into translation into each country's language, notarisation and legalisation.

Frequently asked questions

Source: 미래한국 · 2017-05-31