Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jasobang]

Two years back we were informed by the immigration folks that the age limit for our son to determine his nationality was 19. At this time he could choose Korean, mom's nationality, or Canadian, dad. If Korean was to be chosen then he would be required to fulfill his military service.

Recently however, I've heard something of the contrary where they have set the age limit much lower. This change was in reference to kids with dual nationalities entering foreign high schools. It was thought of as an advantage that they shouldn't have, I guess.

Does anyone have any factual or verified information regarding this? I'm not concerned with the reasons for the changes but rather the actual changes. Has the age limit been lowered?

[bluelake]

I can only speak from my son's experience a year ago. In his case, he had to renounce the Korean side of his dual nationality (US being the other) before January 1 of his eighteenth year, or else he would have to submit for military duty. We got the paperwork in by the cutoff, so he was safe.

There were discrepancies as to what age was the max for having dual citizenship (What? Korean government offices contradicted each other? Wow, that's unheard of! ). Some said eighteen, while others said twenty-one. The only thing that was agreed upon was the cutoff age for avoiding military service.


T

[prairieboy]

Wasn't the law changed last year? I remember it being quite a big news story in the papers as well as a hot topic on this board back in May 2005. At that time a choice had to be made by everyone holding dual citizenship by or before the end of May 2005.

As I understood it at the time, the 18 or 19 age limit was out and a choice had to be made basically at birth otherwise Korean citizenship could not be renounced until after a boy's military service had been completed.

There were several threads on this board about the subject.

Cheers

EDIT:

Here's the link to the thread I was mentioning. Hope it helps.

[Jasobang]

Thanks for the link to that thread Prairieboy. It was just what I've been lookng for.

[Captain Corea]