▲ Photo courtesy Jarrod Hall

Lee is an elementary student. His father is Korean and his mother is from Japan. A while ago, in order to participate in a summer camp, he submitted a copy of the resident registration of his home.

The resident registration or Jumindeungnokdeungbon in Korean is a document that lists the family members in your household.

▲ The resident registration or Jumindeungnokdeungbon in Korean

However, because of a rule that stops foreign spouses from being included on this form unless they apply for the form together with their Korean spouse at the public office, the child was misunderstood as being a child without a mother.

Even though his mother currently lives in Busan, because of her status as a foreigner, if they want her name included on the form, both of his parents have to go together to the public office every time they want to get a copy of it.

If she was Korean, she would be automatically added to the form.

However, after a six month preparatory process, from March 30, 2018, foreign husbands and wives will be able to put their name on the copy of the resident registration without their Korean spouse. With the revised Resident Registration Act, the process to put foreign husbands and wives’ name in the resident registration becomes simplify so that you can do it yourself.

It is hoped that through this change, misunderstandings like the one above will be reduced.

According to 2016 Population and Housing Census by the National Statistical Office, the number of multicultural households in Korea was 316,000 households in 2016. This is a 5.6% increase from 299,900 households in 2015.

The Korean government has been implementing various policies for multicultural families and said that "Foreign husbands and wives who got married with Koreans and live in Korea, are valuable domestic human resources."