Ministry of Justice Announces Legislative Notice to Amend Nationality Laws Preventing Loss of Nationality for Overseas-born Minor Citizens

On the 9th, when the Supreme Prosecutors' Office decided that the Channel A case would be investigated by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office itself, reporters were waiting in front of the Ministry of Justice in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, to hear the position of Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae. / Gwacheon = Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Ministry of Justice will amend nationality laws to prevent minor Korean nationals born overseas from losing their Korean nationality against their will.

On the 21st, the Ministry of Justice announced a legislative notice for amendments to the Nationality Act, its Enforcement Decree, and Enforcement Rules containing these provisions.

First, the Ministry of Justice plans to expand the scope of those eligible to file nationality retention reports to include minors who were born and residing abroad and acquired foreign nationality later according to the foreign country's laws, so that they do not lose Korean nationality regardless of their own will. The retention report period will also be extended from 6 months to 1 year.

The nationality retention report system allows nationals who acquire foreign nationality through marriage to a foreigner, adoption or recognition by a foreigner, or acquisition alongside parents to maintain their Korean nationality by reporting within 6 months.

This system was introduced during the 4th amendment of the Nationality Act in 1998 and has been actively used with a total of 1,020 reports over the past 20 years. However, since the reporting period was relatively short at 6 months, many cases occurred where individuals lost their Korean nationality against their will by missing the reporting deadline, which became problematic.

Additionally, the Ministry of Justice stated that through this amendment, naturalization applicants will be able to receive accurate and efficient screening to verify if they meet the qualifications of a sound national by improving the naturalization application form and establishing grounds for qualified private interviewers to conduct naturalization interviews.

The naturalization application form will increase from the current 3 items to 8 items, and the total number of pages will increase from 4 to 11. Furthermore, qualified private interviewers such as retired public officials (from government ministries, educators, etc.) and social integration program instructors will conduct interviews to enhance the professionalism and balance of naturalization screening.

Moreover, the Ministry of Justice announced that it will establish legal grounds for online nationality applications to introduce the changed work methods due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) into nationality procedures.

For example, to minimize face-to-face contact, the nationality certificate awarding ceremony may be omitted in disaster situations such as infectious disease outbreaks. Currently, nationality applicants must take the oath of allegiance before the Minister of Justice and receive the nationality certificate to finally acquire nationality after naturalization approval.

In addition, the names of the naturalization certificate and nationality restoration certificate received by nationality acquirers will be unified as "Republic of Korea Nationality Certificate" regardless of the type of nationality acquisition, symbolizing the fact that they are Korean nationals.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.