List of All Known Korea Social Service (KSS) Partner Western Adoption Agencies in the US and Europe.

Please Note: If you are adopted through one of KSS’ Partner Western Adoption Agencies below (in the time frames during which KSS worked with each Partner Western Adoption Agency) then you should initiate a Birth Family Search through KSS in Seoul. For KSS Adoptees ONLY, please see: Step by Step Korea Social Service (KSS) Birth Family Search.

Please see individually linked pages for more information on each of KSS’ Partner Western Adoption Agencies:

  • International Social Service / ISS - ISS may have been based in both Korea and the US.

    • ISS may have partnered in the US with a US ISS office and / or local US based Adoption Agency to conduct the home studies with adoptive parents. We do not know what all of these local US based Adoption Agencies might be. In one KSS / ISS Adoptee’s case, her US Adoption Agency was Children's Home Society - we are not sure if CHS simply conducted the home study in this Adoptee’s case, or if they had further involvement with her adoption.

    • ISS is now closed, and its files are now housed with Social Welfare Society (SWS) which is now called Korea Welfare Society (KWS) in Korea.

      • If you are a KSS / ISS Adoptee, contact both SWS (now KWS) AND contact KSS for a birth family search. This is because ISS files are now housed with KWS, but your files may also be at KSS. Please see the Korean Adoptee Starter Guide for contact info. for SWS (now KWS).

  • Welcome House / Pearl S. Buck Foundation - (Pennsylvania, US)

    • *Please Note: We believe that Welcome House in the US stopped working with KSS in Korea in the early 1980s, and started to work with Holt in Korea. The last case we know of between KSS and Welcome House was around 1982. After KSS stopped working with Welcome House, Welcome House began to work with Holt in Korea (please note that there is also Holt in the US). So if you were born / relinquished / adopted in the 1980s, just because you were adopted through Welcome House in the US, does not necessarily mean that you were adopted through KSS in Korea. You may have been adopted through Holt in Korea, and Welcome House in the US. If you are not sure, please feel free to contact us.

    • What’s also confusing is that Holt in Korea sometimes collaborated with KSS in Korea to send children to the US through Welcome House. We believe that this was more rare, and only know of one example. However, this is a possibility for some KSS Adoptees.

*Note: The adoptions of some KSS Adoptees were also facilitated through Holt in Korea, and KSS’ Western Partner Agencies in the US.

The Relationship of The Korean Adoption Agency KSS In Seoul To Its Western Partner Adoption Agencies In The US and Europe.

We think that the relationship of KSS as a Korean Adoption Agency (with its own on-site Orphanage) with its Western Partner Adoption Agencies in the US and Europe is often misunderstood. We've put together a graphic below which hopefully clarifies how children who were processed for international adoption through the Korean Adoption Agency KSS came from many possible original sources, and were "distributed" through its list of Partner Western Adoption Agencies in the US and Europe.

Please note that the graphic below omits KSS’ US Western Partner Adoption Agency “Love The Children” which was founded in 1978 in Pennsylvania.

KSS Western Partner Adoption Agencies in the US and Europe, 1964-2012:

Note: Year = Year of RELINQUISHMENT, NOT year of BIRTH:

  • International Social Service (ISS)

    • (KSS Partnership: Likely 1964-1967 ONLY)

  • Welcome House (WH) - Doylestown, Pennsylvania / US 

    • (KSS Partnership: 1964 - Early 1980s: the exact date in the 1980s is unknown but may be around 1982)

  • Lutheran Social Services (LSS) - Minnesota / US 

    • (KSS Partnership: Likely 1967 - around 2012)

  • SIA / BIA / Wereldkinderen - Netherlands 

    • (KSS Partnership: Likely 1969 or 1970 - around 2006)

  • Adoption Center (AC) / AC Børnehjælp - Denmark 

    • (KSS Partnership: Likely 1969 - around 2012) 

  • Terres des Hommes - Switzerland 

    • (KSS Partnership: Likely 1968 - 1978 or 1979)

  • Love The Children - Pennsylvania / US 

    • (KSS Partnership: Likely 1978 - Unknown - this was likely a short lived partnership)

  • Family Adoption Consultants / Foreign Adoption Consultants / FAC / F&CS Foster Care and Adoption Service - Michigan / US 

    • (KSS Partnership: 1985 - around 2012)

Above: KSS Brochure from around 2003. Note KSS’ list of Western Partner Adoption Agencies in the bottom graphic.

Sources of Children Sent for International Adoption by The Korean Adoption Agency Korea Social Service (KSS) and The Relationship of KSS To Its Western Partner Adoption Agencies:

Sources of KSS Children:

Some of us were relinquished directly to KSS in Seoul, and some of us were relinquished to KSS feeder orphanages in or outside of Seoul. Some of us came from:

  • KSS in Seoul

  • Feeder Orphanages

  • Birth or maternity clinics

  • Unwed mother’s homes

  • Hospitals

  • Churches

  • Police stations

  • Found abandoned

Please see also: Sources of KSS Orphans + Orphanage List.

We use the term “relinquishment” to describe when a child is given up for adoption by birth family or other non-related individual/s (such as police officers, doctors, midwives, citizens, etc.) to an Adoption Agency (such as KSS in Seoul) or to a feeder orphanage in or outside of Seoul. KSS had feeder orphanages all around S. Korea.

Not all children sent for adoption were voluntarily relinquished. Many  children were foundlings - in other words, children found on the streets, then processed by police and taken almost immediately to orphanages. In many cases we know of, children were relinquished by extended family members without the consent of one or both birth parents.

Children were also abducted, and many birth families were pressured or coerced into relinquishing their children for adoption, with promises of a better life, or through other more underhanded means.

Korean Adoption Agencies such as KSS could have gotten children from anywhere in Korea, through many different means.

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Korea Social Service (KSS) in Seoul. KSS was a Korean Adoption Agency which had its own on-site Orphanage: The K.S.S. Receiving Home in Seoul. KSS tore down the majority of its campus in 2016, but one last “Post Adoption Services” building remains, where KSS Adoptees can still meet with a social worker for an in-person file review. All KSS Adoptees’ files remain at KSS’ “Post Adoption Services” building. To learn how to conduct a Birth Family Search through KSS, please visit here:

Step by Step Korea Social Service (KSS) Birth Family Search

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Korea Social Service (KSS) in Seoul matched children to Western Partner Adoption Agencies - NOT to individual Western adoptive parents:

KSS sent a “case file” containing the English Adoptive Child Study Summary and the photo of the child to one of its Western Partner Adoption Agencies to which KSS had matched the child, presumably at the first site of intake (whether at KSS in Seoul, or to a feeder orphanage in or outside of Seoul, in other parts of Korea).

KSS’ Western Partner Adoption Agencies matched individual children to individual Western Adoptive Parents.

KSS’ Western Partner Adoption Agencies were:

  • International Social Service (ISS) (ISS may have been based both in Korea and in the US - we are not sure).

  • Welcome House (WH) (Doylestown, Pennsylvania  / US)

  • Lutheran Social Services (LSS ) (Minnesota / US)

  • SIA / BIA / Wereldkinderen (Netherlands)

  • Adoption Center (AC) / AC Børnehjælp, Danadopt, and Danish International Adoption (DIA) - (Denmark)

  • Terre des Hommes - (Switzerland)

  • Love The Children (LTC) - (Pennsylvania / US)

  • Family Adoption Consultants / Foreign Adoption Consultants (FAC) / F&CS Foster Care and Adoption Service - (Michigan / US)

    *Please see the hyperlinked list at the top of this page for more specific information on each of KSS’ Western Partner Adoption Agencies.

KSS: Korean Adoption Agency and Orphanage in ONE.

The confusing thing about KSS is that unlike other Korean Adoption Agencies, KSS had its own on-site orphanage. So KSS was a Korean Adoption Agency and Orphanage in ONE.

KSS, like the other major Korean Adoption Agencies, also sourced children from many "feeder" orphanages elsewhere throughout Korea.

Only Korean Adoption Agencies (not individual orphanages by themselves) could process international adoptions, at least from around 1976 forward. Prior to that, people were just taking children out of the country willy-nilly.

KSS was the smallest of the 4 Korean Adoption Agencies designated by the Korean government as able to process international adoptions from around 1976 forward:

Holt, ESWS, SWS (now KWS) and KSS.

Of the estimated 150,000 - 250,000 children sent from Korea for international adoption, by KSS' own estimates "only" sent about 20,000 children were sent abroad for adoption. It appears that around 10,000 KSS Adoptees went to the US, and around 10,000 went to Europe.

KSS Separated Some Siblings and Twins Between Different Partner Western Adoption Agencies In The US and Europe.

It is known that KSS separated some siblings and twins between different Partner Western Adoption Agencies in the US and Europe.

For this reason, we cannot more strongly recommend that you request your Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary from KSS, and also take as many DNA tests as you possibly can.

Initiate Or Continue A Birth Family Search Through KSS in Seoul.

The best place to begin a Birth Family Search (BFS) is your Korean Adoption Agency - for KSS Adoptees, this means KSS in Seoul. For KSS Adoptees ONLY, please be sure to thoroughly read this page for more information about how to conduct a Birth Family Search through KSS in Seoul via email or in person:

Step by Step Korea Social Service (KSS) Birth Family Search