I am so happy right now!
A few months ago, I posted about the issue of my daughter’s family documents missing something that I considered very important… my name! The issue was something I was committed to following up, but a few other things got in the way… most notably a libel case that I wanted to be able to give my full attention when it was required. I expected that to go away within a few weeks, but the damn thing took a few months before I was even called in to be questioned!
Anyway… Professor Benjamin Wagner weighed in on the post recently with an awesome suggestion. Rather than fight the issue myself, fusion-baby should bring the case to court in her own name, possibly as part of a class action. It was an amazing idea! I threw the idea around friends in similar situations, and there was some interest in bringing it to court.
Now, that is not necessary. Roboseyo sent me an email today. It was unexpected because, as much as I like Roboseyo, we are not in any kind of regular contact. The first email I ever received from him concerned the ATEK series on Hub of Sparkle earlier this year, and so did the last one I received from him. Anyway… the title asked me if this was the news I had been waiting for, and it contained a link to a JoongAng Daily article that made my year!
The Supreme Court said yesterday it will revise regulations to allow foreigners married to Koreans here to have their nationality and foreigner registration number recorded on the family relation registry starting this month.
To date, the registry has only carried records of genders and dates of birth of spouses and children of Koreans who have yet to acquire Korean nationalities. For this reason, those Korean families have had difficulty dealing with various situations here.
“The rule change will resolve inconveniences that foreigners who have families with Koreans face. For instance, when the spouse of a Korean wants to open a bank account on behalf of his or her child, he or she must be tested by a notary public to prove his or her relationship with the kid or bring along his or her wife or husband,” said the Supreme Court in a statement.
The family relation registry has five different types of certificates, depending on their usage: default certificates, family relation certificates, marriage relation certificates and adoption certificates.
The certificates are issued either over the Internet or by local district offices. The family registry system replaced the hojuje, or a patriarchal family registry system in Korean, on the first day of 2008 following persistent claims that the long-standing system was based on a patrilineal lineage system.
According to the revised rules, those who want to have their nationalities and foreigner registration numbers recorded in the family registry can file an application with local district offices.
By Seo Ji-eun [spring@joongang.co.kr]
So: Thank you Professor Wagner for giving me some awesome advice. Thank you to guys and gals at AFEK for giving me your support, and thank you Roboseyo for sending me the link which caused a wave of instant relief. I feel even better today than I did yesterday after the wife booked me some Guns N’ Roses tickets!
