Head of NCRC Admits Unpreparedness For Adoption File Transfer - Says Process Could Take 10 YEARS To Resolve.
Recently the Head of the Korean Government Agency NCRC (The National Center for the Rights of the Child) admitted that NCRC was unprepared for the massive transfer of adoption files from ALL of the Korean Adoption Agencies (including KSS / Korea Social Service) to NCRC. The movement of ALL files from the Korean Adoption Agencies to NCRC is slated to begin in JULY 2025.
NCRC lacks the budget, space and staff to handle this MASSIVE file transfer. The Head of NCRC said that it could take up to 10 YEARS to sort out the massive movement of files.
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The file transfer will affect Korean Adoptees who were adopted through
ALL of the major Korean Adoption Agencies:
-HOLT
-Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) - formerly Eastern Child Welfare Society (ECWS)
-Social Welfare Society (SWS) / now Korea Welfare Society (KWS)
-Korea Social Service (KSS)
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Implications for KSS (Korea Social Service) Adoptees:
For this reason, we cannot more strongly recommend that KSS (Korea Social Service) Adoptees with ANY interest in birth family search should officially request a birth family search and their formerly secret “KOREAN Adoptive Child Study Summary” - NOW. We strongly urge KSS Adoptees to make any official birth family search / document requests through KSS - BY EARLY 2025!!!
*Please note that the “KOREAN Adoptive Child Study Summary” is a document UNIQUE to KSS (Korea Social Service) and ONLY applies to KSS Adoptees.
*Please DO NOT contact KSS if you are NOT a KSS Adoptee, as this will only waste severely limited resources.
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NON KSS Adoptees - those who were instead adopted through the Korean Adoption Agencies Holt Korea, Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) / formerly Eastern Child Welfare Society (ECWS), Social Welfare Society (SWS) / now Korea Welfare Society (KWS) - please see:
Korean Adoptee Starter Guide
Please note that Paperslip is mainly by and for KSS (Korea Social Service) Adoptees.
For those who are NOT KSS Adoptees please see:
Contact Info For The 4 Major Korean Adoption Agencies + Adoptee Facebook Groups
NEW! Advisory Sessions:
-ALWAYS FREE for Fellow KSS (Korea Social Service) Adoptees.
-Paid 1-hour Sessions for Non-KSS Adoptees.
Apologies we do not have the capacity to handle birth family search assistance requests for those who are NOT KSS (Korea Social Service) Adoptees. However, there is a TON of FREE CONTENT on Paperslip for ALL Korean Adoptees which we strongly encourage you to use!
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While it should in theory be possible for ALL Korean Adoptees to request a birth family search through NCRC once the files are transferred from the Korean Adoption Agencies to NCRC, we predict that there are likely to be VERY SIGNIFICANT DELAYS in response time from NCRC, as NCRC will be dealing with the birth family search requests of ALL Korean Adoptees around the WORLD following the file transfer.
As of Summer 2024, NCRC takes about 4 MONTHS to respond to an Adoptee request - and this is BEFORE NCRC takes over ALL adoption files from ALL of the major Korean Adoption Agencies: Holt Korea, Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) / formerly Eastern Child Welfare Society (ECWS), Social Welfare Society (SWS) / now Korea Welfare Society (KWS), and Korea Social Service (KSS). Once ALL adoption files are transferred to NCRC, we predict that things will be a MESS for an unknown period of time - possibly YEARS. NCRC currently lacks the budget, space and staff to handle the massive file transfer, and the current plan is to transfer ALL Korean Adoption Agency files to a temporary holding facility until such time as the Korean Government decides to properly fund an Adoption Records Center - funding which the Korean Government has already denied.
Our past experience shows that NCRC’s birth family search office is chronically underfunded by the Korean Government. Korean Adoptees are a low priority for the Korean Government and as a result, thousands of Korean Adoptees around the world are systematically denied their right to origin.
NCRC currently only has 2-3 birth family search workers to handle the birth family search requests of 250,000 Korean Adoptees around the WORLD. NCRC only plans to hire a TOTAL of 5-6 birth family search workers to handle the massive influx of files from Korean Adoption Agencies and the birth family search requests of ALL Korean Adoptees globally.
We will let you draw your own conclusions about how long your wait time might be for a response from NCRC after July 2025…