The Korean Adoptee Birth Family Search Landscape Looks A Bit Bleak, But…
January 31st, 2025:
Dear Fellow Korean Adoptees,
We’re not gonna lie, times are ROUGH in these streets for those of us with an interest in birth family search. Below we break down THE BAD NEWS first, followed by THE OTHER NEWS. Hang in there, because there are still things you can do, even if the landscape of birth family search admittedly looks a little bleak…
PROLOGUE -
INFORMATION FOR KOREA SOCIAL SERVICE (KSS) ADOPTEES ONLY:
*URGENT!!! Korea Social Service (KSS) Adoptees ONLY should contact us IMMEDIATELY for FREE birth family search assistance at paperslipadoptee@gmail.com
KSS Adoptees please see:
URGENT!!!
KSS (Korea Social Service) Adoptees MUST ACT NOW To Request BOTH A Birth Family Search AND Their Formerly Secret “KOREAN Adoptive Child Study Summary”!
For KSS Adoptees ONLY, here is the process for birth family search:
Please see the “NEW! Illustrated Step By Step Guide To Initiating Or Continuing a Birth Family Search Through KSS” about halfway down the page linked below for complete instructions on how to officially request BOTH a birth family search AND your “KOREAN Adoptive Child Study Summary” (which was NOT obtainable prior to mid 2021):
https://www.paperslip.org/step-by-step-kss-birth-family-search
Please complete STEPS 1-4, then email your completed forms to us at paperslipadoptee@gmail.com for a FREE review of your forms, BEFORE you send them to KSS. This could save you YEARS of wasted time.
We will send you additional important instructions once you email us for a review of your form.
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Korea Social Service (KSS) Adoptees ONLY should join the PRIVATE Facebook Group KSS Cribmates to keep up with the latest news - please be sure to answer the membership questions!
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Apologies but we simply CANNOT provide free birth family search assistance to NON-KSS Adoptees who were instead adopted through:
Holt, Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) / Formerly Eastern Child Welfare Society (ECWS), or Korea Welfare Society (KWS) / formerly Social Welfare Society (SWS).
If you are NOT a Korea Social Service (KSS) Adoptee and would like our PAID birth family search assistance, please contact us.
However, please note that our primary area of expertise is about Korea Social Service (KSS) Adoptees.
While Paperslip is a site by and primarily for KSS (Korea Social Service) Adoptees, there are MANY pages here with information relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees. There is tons of FREE information here for ALL Korean Adoptees. Please ACTUALLY READ our information which we have painstakingly assembled for you!
Please read carefully to note what information is ONLY related to KSS Adoptees, and what information is relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees.
Thank you!
First -
THE BAD NEWS:
January 31st, 2025:
In terms of birth family search, a few things are on FIRE at the moment:
ISSUE 1:
ALL Korean Adoptee Agency files move to the Korean Government Agency NCRC (National Center for the Rights of the Child) in July 2025.
Read here about the myriad issues with NCRC:
New MBC Video Highlights The Failures of NCRC - The Korean Government Agency Which Takes Over ALL Korean Adoption Files In July 2025
We have been steadily warning Korean Adoptees about this for a YEAR, but unfortunately, there are going to be plenty of people who will sadly miss the boat of requesting a birth family search through their KOREAN Adoption Agency BEFORE ALL Korean Adoption Agency files move to NCRC. To see our past posts about this topic, please see the IMPORTANT NEWS dropdown on our home page (sorry, we can’t hyperlink a dropdown menu).
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ISSUE 2:
One major Korean Adoption Agency, Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) / Formerly Eastern Child Welfare Society (ECWS), has already announced that it is winding down operations. Please see:
The Korean Adoption Agency Eastern Social Welfare Society (ESWS) / Formerly Eastern Child Welfare Society (ECWS) Announces Winding Down of Post Adoption Services
The other major Korean Adoption Agencies:
Holt, Korea Welfare Society (KWS) / formerly Social Welfare Society (SWS), and Korea Social Service (KSS) still currently operate Post Adoption Services (as of this writing), but we expect that ALL of the Korean Adoption Agencies will wind down operations at some point PRIOR to July 2025.
Please do NOT assume that you can submit birth family search requests to your Korean Adoption Agency through July 2025!
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ISSUE 3:
23 and Me, the DNA test with the MOST Korean DNA in its database, faces major financial issues in the wake of a prior data breach and will most likely CLOSE and sell its data.
We cannot in good conscience tell you TO TAKE this test, but we also cannot in good conscience tell you NOT to take this test. You risk having your data sold IF you take 23 and Me. But you could miss out on your most significant matches IF you DO NOT take 23 and Me before it (presumably) closes. It’s a very big catch-22.
Second -
THE OTHER NEWS - Not Exactly All Good, But Not Exactly All Bad:
January 31st, 2025:
Korean Adoptees Should Technically Be Allowed To Request A Birth Family Search Through NCRC AFTER The File Transfer From Korean Adoption Agencies To NCRC In July 2025:
Once ALL Korean Adoption Agency files move to NCRC in July 2025, Korean Adoptees should technically be able to request a birth family search through NCRC directly.
*Please note that for those Korean Adoptees whose Korean Adoption Agencies are STILL accepting new birth family search requests, that you should contact your KOREAN Adoption Agency FIRST. Please see:
Contact Info For The 4 Major Korean Adoption Agencies + Adoptee Facebook Groups
However, this means that once the Korean Adoption Agency files move to NCRC in July 2025, ALL of the Korean Adoptees from around the world will have to deal directly with NCRC. NCRC currently has around just 2 birth family search workers! Supposedly, they plan to hire 6 more for the file transfer, but this means that NCRC will have just 8 total birth family search workers to serve the needs of EVERY Korean Adoptee around the world who has an interest in birth family search. This even assumes that NCRC hires this many workers, which is no guarantee.
NCRC has itself admitted that it does NOT have the budget, staff, or physical building for permanent preservation of Korean Adoption files.
We do not think it is hard for Korean Adoptees to figure out that going forward, birth family search will be ROUGH. We do not know exactly what the birth family search process will be once ALL Korean Adoption Agency files move to NCRC.
FOIA For US Adoptees:
FOIA For US Adoptees
IF you are a US Adoptee, you can file a FREE FOIA request. A FOIA request does NOT initiate a birth family search through either your Korean or US Adoption Agency. However, you can potentially obtain DOZENS of pages of adoption related documents through FOIA. Please be sure to CAREFULLY READ the FOIA page above BEFORE filing a FREE FOIA request. If you do not read our information, you could miss out on obtaining IMPORTANT information about your adoption.
Please carefully consider IF you should file a FREE FOIA request:
Note: In the current US political environment, you should carefully consider if you want to file a FOIA request. We will leave it to your common sense to deduce why we would make this statement.
Note: We do not know if FOIA is guaranteed for forever in the current political environment. However, you could also miss out on the opportunity to gain some important / interesting information about your adoption if you do NOT file a FOIA request.
Please be sure to read more about FOIA below:
FOIA For US Adoptees
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DNA Testing:
Frankly, birth family search may, in the future, boil down to primarily DNA testing. Please take ALL possible DNA tests if you have interest in finding any blood relatives.
DNA Testing
In our experience, many Korean Adoptees have the unrealistic expectation that they will immediately find birth parents through DNA testing. They get sorely disappointed if this does not happen right away. Unfortunately, this is not how it works, since DNA testing in Korea is not as popular as it is in the West.
DNA is a long game that can take years of time and patience. We know Korean Adoptees who have eventually found birth parents after YEARS of remaining on the major commercial DNA tests.
It is important to read our DNA Testing page to understand important nuances - such as the fact that the test FTDNA has been distributed for FREE for years to Korean Adoptees and Korean birth parents in Korea for over 10 years. It’s also important to understand that you should take ALL POSSIBLE DNA TESTS if you really want to find birth family.
We find that Korean Adoptees often only take ONE DNA test, IF they take DNA tests at all. And they often start by taking a test which has a very small database, or has a database with few Koreans in it, and get disappointed too easily.
DNA testing gives Korean Adoptees the opportunity to find blood relatives, but is no guarantee of finding birth parents. Korean Adoptees have often found siblings, half-siblings, aunts, uncles, and other more distant relatives such as cousins. On rare occasions, Korean Adoptees find birth parents directly through DNA testing. We always give the advice that it is interesting for a Korean Adoptee who previously had no known blood relatives to find ANY blood relatives through DNA testing. Having an open mind will allow you to meet some very interesting people! Some of your DNA matches may even one day help in your birth family search. Finding at least SOME blood relatives through DNA testing is a GUARANTEE for those who take DNA tests. The more Korean Adoptees who take DNA tests, the more of us will at least find each other. And the lucky ones will find more closely related relatives, up to parents, by finding a 2nd cousin match or closer and working carefully with their close cousin matches. We strongly recommend NOT including in your online DNA profile that you are an Adoptee. We also recommend NOT mentioning that you are an Adoptee when you reach out to DNA matches, until you have formed a relationship of trust. Telling a person you are an Adoptee too soon can easily scare them away.
We completely understand that privacy issues are real with DNA testing. Unfortunately for Korean Adoptees, there may be no other way to find blood relatives than by taking DNA tests.
Please read carefully below about the different kinds of DNA tests. In particular please note that the following tests are one-to-many commercial DNA tests:
23 and Me
Ancestry
MyHeritage
FTDNA
23 and Me and Ancestry are the only two tests you have to BUY. You can transfer raw data for FREE from Ancestry to FTDNA and MyHeritage.
The following test is a one-to-one test only:
The Korean Missing Person’s DNA Test
You can this test at either at a:
1. Korean Police Station in Korea
Currently requires an “Adoption Certificate” from your Korean Adoption Agency, at least until July 2025 when ALL Korean Adoption Agency files are transferred to NCRC. The “Adoption Certificate” is only good for 3 months.
2. Korean Consulate in your home country.
Requires the “NCRC Certificate” from NCRC. Waiting times may be up to 4 months, and the “NCRC Certificate” is only good for 3 months.
Please be sure to read more about DNA Testing below:
DNA Testing:
https://www.paperslip.org/dna-testing
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NCRC Likely Has Access To Its Own Korean Government Adoption Records That Are SEPARATE From Korean Adoption Agency Records:
While Korean Adoptees frankly SHOULD be apprehensive about the upcoming transfer of ALL Korean Adoption files to NCRC, here’s something NCRC will likely not tell you:
NCRC is a Korean Government Agency. Even though the majority of International Korean Adoptions were handled by the major PRIVATE Korean Adoption Agencies, the Korean Government itself has its own records about Korean Adoptees.
Whether or not Korean Adoptees can gain access to these records is a different story.
But FYI…NCRC has more than it is letting on. And these are the Korean Government records that are NOT currently in the possession of the major private Korean Adoption Agencies, whose files will be transferred to NCRC in July 2025.
PUSH. NICELY.