Minors’ Passports Can Also Be Renewed Online Starting Tomorrow

Starting tomorrow, parents will be able to renew the passports of minors under the age of 18 online, without having to visit a government office in person.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. The Asia Business Daily

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on June 11 that, in cooperation with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Overseas Koreans Agency, it has established an online application service for the reissuance of passports for minors. The service will be available starting tomorrow through Government24 and the Overseas Koreans 365 Civil Service Portal.

Although the online passport reissuance application service has been in operation since July 2020, minors under the age of 18 were excluded due to the need to verify legal guardianship. As a result, for minors, a legal guardian such as a parent had to visit a passport agency or a diplomatic mission abroad in person to apply.

With this policy improvement, if an individual is verified as a legal guardian, they will now be able to apply for a minor's passport reissuance on their behalf through Government24 and the Overseas Koreans 365 Civil Service Portal.

This change is expected to significantly reduce the inconvenience for overseas Koreans, who previously had to visit distant diplomatic offices in person to renew their children's passports. However, in cases where additional verification is required, such as confirmation of parental relationship or legal guardian designation, applicants will still need to visit a passport agency or diplomatic mission as before.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recently been working to simplify passport-related administrative procedures. Since June 1, the process has been improved so that applicants now return their previous passports when receiving a new one, instead of submitting the old passport at the time of application.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.