Over 200,000 Korean children were sent abroad for adoption since the 1950s. If you are one of them and you have started wondering about the beginning of your story, this site collects the real, verified places to start: free DNA registration, your official records, the associations built by adoptees, and what it takes to come back.
Each step is free or nearly free. You can do the first three without leaving your country.
Everything else depends on this. Since July 2025 all Korean adoption records are held centrally by the National Center for the Rights of the Child (NCRC), not by the agencies. You must file it yourself, and it is free. How to file →
If your file has no usable birth-parent information, NCRC issues a certificate that lets you give a DNA sample at a Korean embassy or consulate in your own country. It goes into the national missing-persons database. 35 missions in 14 countries do this. Where to register →
An adoptee-run nonprofit sends free FamilyTreeDNA kits worldwide for a $10 admin fee. Then upload your raw data to Ancestry, MyHeritage and GEDmatch so a searching relative can find you in any database. Get a kit →
GOA'L in Seoul, KoRoot, Adoptee Hub, and your own country's association. They do the 1:1 search work, the interpreting, and the part nobody warns you about: what happens after a match. Find your people →
An F-4 visa lets you stay longer than 90 days. You can book an in-person file review at NCRC in Seoul or the archive in Goyang. Nationality restoration is possible too. Coming to Korea →
Notes on searching, on Korea, and on the paperwork nobody explains.
The free Korean police registration through your embassy, 325KAMRA's free kits, and which commercial databases are worth your money.
Open →Adoptee-led groups in Korea and about 25 country organisations, from Sweden's AKF (the first, 1986) to KAIAN in Australia.
Open →The official disclosure request, the four Korean agencies, the public search boards, and what the 2025 record transfer changed.
Open →F-4 visa, nationality restoration, language scholarships, and support if you end up living here.
Open →Motherland programs, group trips, and honest warnings about private tours that charge for things NCRC does for free.
Open →My own program: a 3 to 5 day accompanied trip. Interpreting at your appointments, reading your file with you, a visit to your birthplace, and support if a reunion happens.
See the tour →The Truth and Reconciliation Commission findings, the 2026 reinvestigation, and Korea's plan to end overseas adoption by 2029.
Open →I was born in Busan. I have lived in Madagascar, France, India and Singapore, and then I came home. I speak Korean, French, English and Hindi.
I accompany Korean adoptees who come back to search: sitting with them at agency and government offices, interpreting the conversations that matter most, and staying in the room afterwards. This site is the reference list I kept wishing existed, written in plain English and kept up to date.
This is a new business. There are no client numbers or testimonials on this site yet, on purpose. If you want to talk, the form below reaches me directly.