The need for ethnic-Koreans to register their residence status back home during their stay in the motherland is becoming increasingly urgent.
Two years after the South Korean Ministry of the Interior implemented the resident status registration for ethnic-Koreans in its country, only 46,832 have been registered as of January 2017. The figure falls well short of the South Korean government’s estimation of around 110,000 ethnic-Koreans who are believed to be residing abroad.
The South Korean capital reportedly have the highest number of returning Korean national residents at 19,564, while the Gyeonggi Province and Busan came in second and third with 13,265 and 2,626, respectively.
The registration process was implemented on Jan. 22, 2015 to help Koreans residing abroad to better utilize the government-sanctioned resources, such as financial transactions and other administrative needs, during their return to the motherland.
Koreans who live abroad are encouraged to apply for registration if their stay in South Korea will last for 30 days or longer. They can submit their applications at any community service centers.
By Byong Il Kim
