Both "Spouse's Child" and "Child" Now Labeled as "Household Member"... "Protecting Blended Families"

The way relationships are indicated on resident registration records will be improved to prevent the privacy of blended families from being disclosed.

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The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on April 21 that a partial amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Resident Registration Act, which stipulates that the relationship to the head of household on resident registration records will now be uniformly labeled as "household member" instead of distinguishing between "child" and "spouse's child," was reviewed and approved by the Cabinet.

Under the revised law, all family members under civil law (such as children and parents), except for the spouse of the head of household, will be indicated as "household member." Anyone who is not a household member will be labeled as a "cohabitant."

There had been calls for a more reasonable labeling system, as the previous method could indirectly reveal personal family matters, such as those in remarried families.

The direct lineal ascendants and descendants of the spouse of the head of household will now be registered at the same rank as those of the head of household, eliminating unnecessary distinctions among family members.

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For foreigners, only Romanized names were entered on resident registration records, while only Korean names appeared on family relation registers, causing inconvenience when verifying identity. Going forward, both the Korean and Romanized names will be indicated together on the resident registration record to improve the accuracy and convenience of identity verification for administrative, financial, and other services.

In addition, the right to apply for corrections or changes to resident registration records-previously limited to foreigners themselves-will be expanded so that the head of household or another household member in the same household can also apply, enhancing accessibility for civil petition processing.

These revisions will take effect on October 29 of this year, taking into account the time required to improve the computer systems.

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