Free before paid. Official before private. Adoptee-led before agency-led. Every link here was checked, and where something is unreliable I say so.
Start with the free government registration. Then widen the net with commercial databases, because a match only happens if you and your relative are in the same one.
The official route, and the only one connected to Korea's national missing-persons DNA database, where searching birth families give their samples. You do not have to travel to Korea: since 2020 you can give your sample at a Korean embassy or consulate, currently 35 diplomatic missions across 14 countries. NCRC first issues a "Certificate of Adoptee Without Identifying Birth Parent Information for Genetic Testing," then your local mission collects the sample and sends it to the Korean National Police Agency.
How to start: email your signed application, consent form and a copy of your ID to familysearch@ncrc.or.kr, then contact your nearest Korean embassy or consulate. NCRC family-search line: +82-2-6454-8500, weekdays 09:00–16:00 KST.
A nonprofit run by adoptees that mails free FamilyTreeDNA kits worldwide, and also collects DNA from birth families inside Korea, which is the part almost nobody else does. They have volunteer "search angels" who build family trees from your matches, and they help with first contact and translation in Korea after a match. They report 422 notifications of immediate-family DNA matches since 2016.
Cost: the kit itself is free; there is a non-refundable $10 USD administrative fee, and you pay return postage and any customs charges. Kits generally ship at the start of each month. Already tested elsewhere? You can transfer your raw data into FamilyTreeDNA and join their project group instead.
Test once, then upload your raw data everywhere you can. FamilyTreeDNA matters most because 325KAMRA uses it, so Korean birth-family samples land there. GEDmatch and MyHeritage accept free uploads of raw data from other companies. Ancestry has the largest overall database.
An honest warning: DNA testing is not common in South Korea. Whether you get a close match usually depends on whether someone in your birth family was also testing. Adoptees with an American birth father tend to find far more matches, simply because testing rates in the United States are much higher.
A matching registry where adoptees and Korean birth families both register, used alongside DNA rather than instead of it. Adoptee Hub also does birth searches, reunion support, counselling, translation and citizenship help.
The groups in Korea do the search work on the ground. The groups in your own country are the ones who will understand you at 2am.
The first adoptee-led NGO in Korea, and the most practically useful single organisation for an active search. They do 1:1 search consultations, review your file with you, run search itineraries inside Korea, interpret before and after reunion, and guide F-4 visa and dual citizenship applications. They also support adoptees in crisis and deported adoptees.
Their adoption agency directory is the best cross-reference anywhere: it maps foreign agencies (Holt International, WACAP, Bethany, DanAdopt/DIA, Adoptionscentrum, Wereldkinderen, Rayon de Soleil, Spence-Chapin and others) to the Korean agency that actually holds your file.
Cost: most individual services require membership. +82-2-325-6585 · gcr@goal.or.kr
Runs a guesthouse for returning adoptees, plus family tracing, legal support, trauma counselling and cultural programs. KoRoot is also the most important political node in the truth-commission cases: it represents adoptee rights groups from Australia, the United States and Sweden before Korea's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and works with sister groups in Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and the francophone countries.
+82-2-3210-2451 · admin@koroot.org · 21 Changuimun-ro 10-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul
Motherland visit camps and tours, translation, consultation, medical support, reunion assistance, scholarships and language schools. contact@inkas.org · +82-2-3148-0258
Note before you rely on it: their site only loads over plain http://, and the newest events listed are from 2019. Email first to confirm a program is still running.
The worldwide network connecting national adoptee organisations. Runs the triennial global Gathering in Seoul and leadership programs. The 2026 Korea Gathering ran 19–24 October 2026 in Seoul; registration for it has closed.
New York, founded 1996. All-volunteer nonprofit for adult intercountry adoptees: mentorship, programming, community.
alsoknownas.org →Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network. Annual national conference, dialogue and education for adoptees and their families.
wearekaan.org →Adoptee-led campaign for the Protect Adoptees and American Families (PAAF) Act — citizenship for every intercountry adoptee, including those already deported.
adopteesforjustice.org →An adoptee-run research project on Korean adoption paperwork. If you are trying to decode what your file actually says, start here. Read it on their site; they ask that their material not be copied.
paperslip.org →Birth search, reunions, counselling, translation, citizenship services, group trips to Korea, and the guidebook "Living in Korea: A Guide by Adoptees."
adopteehub.org →An adoptee accountability campaign aimed at NCRC. Its supporters page doubles as the best directory of adoptee rights groups worldwide.
earsonncrc.org →There are also many local US groups, including AKASF (San Francisco), AdopSource and AK Connection (Minnesota), AKA SoCal, AKAP (Portland), Boston Korean Adoptees, KATCH (Illinois), KAHI (Hawaii), Vermont Korean Adoptees, Nebraska KADs, Korean Adoptee Association of Philadelphia, Utah Korean Adoptees, and Asian Adult Adoptees of Washington.
Sweden's AKF, founded in Stockholm on 19 November 1986, was the first Korean adoptee association in the world and today connects around 300 adoptees. These country groups are listed in the KoRoot and E.A.R.S. directories; smaller volunteer sites go up and down, so email before you count on a program.
The organisation of Korean single mothers. In 2025, 64.3% of all adoptions in Korea involved children born to unmarried parents. If you want to understand the conditions your birth mother was making decisions under, this is the group that speaks for them today.
This is the door everything else opens from. It is free, and you have to walk through it yourself.
You must file this yourself. If you are under 18 you need your adoptive parents' consent. Adoptees processed under the Civil Act rather than the special adoption laws cannot use this route.
What you get without anyone's permission: background information — adoption date, the stated reason for relinquishment, your pre-adoption name, your date and time of birth, and your birth parents' ages at the time.
What needs consent: your birth parents' identifying information — name, date of birth, address, contact. It is released only if they consent. If consent is not given, GOA'L advises waiting a year and requesting again.
Once your disclosure request is filed, you can book an in-person file review, either at NCRC's Seoul office or at the temporary archive facility in Deogyang-gu, Goyang. Reservations open 14 to 50 days ahead, and slots are limited — NCRC raised its daily in-person consultations from 3 to 5 for October 2026 because of the IKAA Gathering. A disclosure request must already be on file before you can book.
Two free, public, searchable boards where both adoptees and Korean families post. You can search by name, sex, date of birth and blood type. Entries show pre-adoption name, sex, date of birth, country adopted to and place of birth.
Records are now held by NCRC, but agency names still matter for identifying your paperwork. Two pieces of advice from GOA'L: contact the Korean agency, not your agency in the adoptive country, because foreign agencies often charge high fees for file requests that are free from the Korean side. And if you were privately adopted with no agency involved, go straight to NCRC.
| Agency | Korean name | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Eastern Social Welfare Society | 동방사회복지회 | +82-2-332-3941 |
| Holt Children's Services | 홀트아동복지회 | +82-2-331-7015 |
| Korea Social Service (KSS) | 한국사회봉사회 | +82-2-908-9191 |
| Korea Welfare Services | 대한사회복지회 | +82-2-552-0887 |
Staying longer than 90 days, getting your nationality back, and what support exists if Korea becomes home again.
A multiple-entry visa and residence card for people of Korean descent who want to stay longer than three months. GOA'L guides adoptees through the application; NCRC issues the Adoption Verification Certificate the application needs.
GOA'L F-4 guide →Adoptees can restore Korean nationality and hold dual citizenship. The required Adoption Verification Certificate comes from NCRC, which improved its issuance process in August 2025.
GOA'L citizenship guide →GOA'L runs Korean language scholarships for adoptee members. InKAS has also historically funded language schools.
GOA'L membership →Adoptee Hub publishes "Living in Korea: A Guide by Adoptees," written by people who did it. KoRoot's guesthouse in Jongno is the usual soft landing for a first long stay.
Adoptee Hub →There is integrated support for adoptees in crisis and for deported adoptees. NCRC: +82-2-6454-8645 / 8646. The delegated operating agency is GOA'L: +82-2-325-6585.
GOA'L Adoptees in Crisis →Thousands of intercountry adoptees were never naturalised by their adoptive parents and some have been deported. Adoptees For Justice campaigns for the PAAF Act to fix it retroactively.
PAAF Act →Group programs, and how to tell a good one from one that is selling you something free.
The large triennial adoptee gathering in Seoul, organised by the worldwide network of adoptee associations. The 2026 Gathering ran 19–24 October in Seoul.
ikaa.org →Summer, autumn and winter motherland visit camps and tours. Confirm by email that the program is still running before you plan around it.
inkas.org →Accommodation in Jongno-gu built specifically for returning adoptees, with staff who understand why you are here. Often the cheapest and gentlest first stay in Seoul.
koroot.online →Adoptee-led group trips to Korea, paired with their birth search and reunion support so the trip connects to an actual search.
adopteehub.org →Not a tour: a working trip. GOA'L builds an in-Korea search itinerary around your file and interprets the meetings, including the ones after a match.
goal.or.kr →My own program. A 3 to 5 day accompanied trip: interpreting at agency and government appointments, reading your file with you, a visit to your birthplace, and being in the room during and after a reunion.
See the program →Everything above is free and you can do it yourself. If you would rather not do it alone, my 3 to 5 day program covers the parts that are not free: the planning, the language, and the company in the room.