Korean, husbands, Vietnamese, women, seek, reform, registration, law

Have any readers with Korean spouses experienced similar problems to these people? (Translation from reader Christina Murphy.)

"My wife couldn’t acquire Korean citizenship and her name is not on my residence registration. In our son’s school this caused a great misunderstanding about his home life because people think he’s from a single parent family.”

Korean husbands of wives without Korean citizenship are using their catch phrase, ‘"Put my wife’s name on my resident registration!" as they try to gain support from the government to reform the Resident Registration Act (주민등록법). However, the skeptics’ reaction is that there is a problem with giving them voting rights.

At the Daum Cafe site Han Quoc-Vietnam Family the topic "Resident Registration Act – International wives appeal to alter the partner register" opened with “We are concerned that our non-Korean wives’ inability to register their names could lead to trouble and other penalties. The fact that our wives’ names have been omitted from the registration certificate is a big discrepancy and we request that we’re recognized as living together.”

Since the formation of the cafe in 2002 there have been 10,000 members involved in both online and offline activities.

Kim Byeong-ryong of Ulsan, who leads the Daum cafe site and married a Vietnamese woman in 2006, told Yonhap News, “at the end of the year my wife couldn’t visit schools or financial institutions because she wasn’t a naturalized citizen and so she wasn’t on my resident registration certificate. The family registration is separately submitted and so there is a lot of trouble to confirm anything. It would be good if at least the husband’s approval of her request could have her recorded on the residence registration.”

One man married to a Vietnamese woman said, “members of the site have gone to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security (행정안전부) and other local government institutions many times to urge them to alter the Registration Act. But the law and public affairs are still greatly insufficient, leaving us with wasted time and feeling embarrassed.”

Center for a Multicultural Korea (한국다문화센터) general secretary Kim Seong-hoi pointed out that husbands with non Korean wives who aren’t registered are simply noted find it very difficult to explain to schools, financial institutions, and public officials the discrepancy between their family register (호적등본) and residence registration (주민등본상) when all they have is the family register. The government should not only reform the law, but more forward thinking measures must be taken.

A Ministry official said, "we have considered the requests raised by civic organizations, but even if the law is reformed there will be little benefit to those affected, so in recognition of the rapidly increasing divorce rate in international marriages and whether or not voting rights will be granted to foreigners right after marrying Koreans, for now we proceeding on a provisional basis."

The official spoke skeptically of the "Institutional Improvement Plan" which will revise related rules and regulations, saying, "the residence registration problem for foreigners without citizenship will be addressed," adding, "the rules and regulations are just a means to implementing the law."

The official added that for permanent residents, due to various points such as taxes and other obligations of citizenship, the Ministry would be willing to address the residence registration issue.