Who will be eligible for multiple citizenship?

By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter

The National Assembly recently passed a revision to the Nationality Law as part of efforts to prevent a brain drain and bring in talented foreigners, but questions linger on who will be eligible?

According to the Ministry of Justice, the revision will allow talented foreign residents to obtain Korean citizenship from Jan. 1 next year without renouncing their existing citizenship or citizenships, if they already have more than one.

What is interesting is that Koreans who have abandoned their Korean citizenship to pick up foreign nationality will also be able to apply for dual citizenship, unless they did so to avoid compulsory military service.

In addition, the changes will help some overseas Koreans and foreigners married to a Korean spouse to have multiple citizenships.

The measure came as Korea is increasingly becoming a multicultural society and many highly skilled Koreans have opted to remain abroad after studying or working overseas.

Statistics suggest that more than 90 percent of Koreans, who obtain another citizenship from a developed country such as the United States or Canada, voluntarily or involuntarily abandon their Korean nationality.

Of the Koreans who earned doctorate degrees in engineering in the United States, 31.3 percent remained there after graduation between 1996 and 1999, and 46.3 percent stayed between 2000 and 2003, according to the ministry.

The data also show that the majority of immigrants who opt to be naturalized here are from less developed countries, such as China and Vietnam.

Foreigners with exceptional talents



Under the revision, exceptionally talented foreign nationals in science, economics, culture and sports will be able to obtain Korean citizenship without renouncing an existing allegiance.

Dual citizenship will be granted on the condition that those concerned take an oath not to exercise their rights as a foreign national while staying here.

The law also defines that they should have skills that can contribute to the national interest, but the government has yet to decide who will qualify.

The specifics of the law will be drawn up over the next few months before it takes effect next year, said Cha Gyu-geun, chief of the ministry's Nationality and Refugee Division.

Those who have made a significant contribution to the country will enjoy the same right.

Similar to naturalized foreigners, foreign residents with dual citizenship will be exempt from military service. Koreans, who have been naturalized abroad, can also apply as foreign experts, unless they renounced their Korean citizenship to deliberately dodge military service.

"Some people believe Korean Americans, such as former pop star Yoo Seung-joon, had dual citizenship, but that's not true," Cha said. "Anyone who intentionally applies and receives another nationality immediately loses their Korean citizenship, and military dodgers are barred from regaining it."

Previously, the Korean government neither allowed dual citizenship nor immediately granted the privilege upon application.

Despite some criticism, foreigners who gain multiple citizenship status under the "exceptional talent category" will be able to vote in Korean elections upon approval of dual nationality.

Overseas Koreans



Koreans who have gained birthright citizenship abroad or gained foreign nationality while being underage, will qualify for dual citizenship without having to demonstrate exceptional talents.

Many of them automatically lose Korean citizenship due to the failure to make a choice of nationality within a certain period of time.

Under current law, Korean nationals who obtain citizenship from another country before turning 20 years old have to renounce one nationality before they are 22.

The government will not extend the privilege to so-called "anchor babies," whose mothers deliberately give birth in a country offering birthright citizenship, typically the United States, before returning to raise their children in Korea.

Korean adoptees will be eligible for dual nationality, in consideration that most of them lost their Korean citizenship upon adoption.

Unlike foreigners, males who regain Korean nationality before turning 36 years old will be required to serve in the military.

Also included in the list of people who can receive dual citizenship without having outstanding skills are overseas Koreans who are over 65.

Meanwhile, those who have renounced their foreign nationality to maintain Korean citizenship will be eligible for dual citizenship if they regain their lost nationality by 2016.

However, some lawmakers, including Reps Lee Jung-hee and Lee Chun-seok, are skeptical about the measure, claiming that hardly any one will be able to regain lost citizenship due to time constraints.

Foreigners with a Korean spouse



Foreigners without exceptional skills, married to Koreans, are also included on the list of people eligible for dual citizenship.

However, they will have to pass a naturalization test after staying here for two years to seek dual nationality.

Those divorced from a Korean spouse will not be able to apply for the privilege, as the government fears that such measures will increase the divorce rate among multicultural marriages, ministry officials said.

According to government figures, 6,187 Koreans divorced their foreign spouses in 2006, accounting for some 4.9 percent of that year's 125,937 divorces.

In past years, the figure for divorce in such marriages stood at 4,208 in 2006, 3,315 in 2004 and 2,784 in 2003.

On a similar note, Koreans who have gained foreign nationality through marriage will also be eligible for multiple citizenship.

Critics, however, say the legislation may trigger a backlash from the Chinese community here as the government excluded people who have lived in Korea for more than two generations, from the list at the last minute before proposing the bill to the Assembly.

Some 20,000 Chinese living here have refused to be naturalized because they strongly insist on keeping their original citizenship to maintain their cultural identity and keep relations with their ancestral homeland.

The government ruled them out as those who have lived here for generations, such as Chinese Koreans, are not mandated to serve in the military, even though they are quite capable of it.

The government will ban dual citizens from relinquishing their Korean citizenship if they do not have a foreign residency in an effort to prevent them from renouncing Korean nationality and exercising foreigners' rights while actually living here.

Dual citizenship abroad




Nearly 100 countries permit multiple citizenship. Israel has allowed dual nationality to reinforce solidarity among Jews living abroad and encourage them to return to their motherland since its modern state was founded in 1948. In the United States, a child born in the country is given American citizenship at birth. It is estimated that several million possess multiple nationality.

Even Germany, which has a very restrictive nationality law, grants dual citizenship under certain circumstances. The number holding dual citizenship in the country is estimated at 2 million.


http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2010/05/180_65288.html