[theqoo] THERE ARE A LOT OF BUZZ ABOUT GYOPOS FACING CONSCRIPTION BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS NEVER REGISTERED THEIR BIRTH AFTER IMMIGRATING

I started watching from Part 1, and he keeps emphasizing that he’s American.

The problem is, apparently his parents immigrated to the US, had him there, got him US citizenship, but never registered his birth in Korea.

Apparently, if the parents are still Korean citizens when their child is born, the child automatically gets Korean citizenship as well.

But because they never registered his birth, he never formally renounced his Korean nationality either.

And apparently under Korean law, if you don’t renounce your Korean nationality before around age 18, boys eventually can’t renounce it anymore and are basically required to serve in the military.

And until around age 43, I think? You can’t enter Korea.

So basically, you’re supposed to register the birth in advance, and if you get citizenship in another country, you’re also supposed to formally renounce your Korean nationality and take care of all that paperwork.

This guy apparently didn’t know any of that. He had been living in Korea for 7 years on a foreigner’s visa, and then he received something like a military draft notice. He freaked out and flew to the US within two days.

(Warning: There are a lot of comments cursing out the Korean government;;)

His argument is basically that the Korean government should have told him about this when he applied for his visa instead of just giving him a foreigner’s visa, so he blames the Korean government.

Apparently, his lawyer also said that because this was partly the Korean government’s fault, it might (?) be worth fighting the case.

(There are also some people in the comments pointing out that it was technically his fault for giving incorrect information when applying for the visa, even if he didn’t do it intentionally.)

But then it turned out that someone from the Korean military authorities had actually gone to his apartment and said that, now that they knew the circumstances of his situation—he had been living there without knowing about his Korean nationality—they would let him off.

However, apparently they told him that he couldn’t stay in Korea for more than 90 days a year.

They had apparently sent him some kind of notice and were planning to visit his home to explain all this, but he thought they were coming to take him away, so he fled to the U.S.

So he was like, “Oh, what a relief. The military was actually more understanding (?) than I expected.”

Then he realized that the Korean military wasn’t actually the bad guy and was on his side.

He says things like, “I was just way too scared,” and stuff like that.

But the problem is that apparently his parents were also told that they can’t stay in Korea for more than six months.

I guess their Korean citizenship is still active? (But didn’t they say they’d been living as American citizens for 20 years? ;;)

Or maybe you can reactivate/retain dual citizenship after turning 65?

He doesn’t explain this part clearly.

The problem is that his mother is sick, and apparently she needs to live in Korea for more than six months in order to receive benefits from Korea’s National Health Insurance.

(Regarding this, he says in the comments that he was planning to pay all the taxes he owed in Korea. 🤔)

The video ends here, and he says he’ll upload the rest tomorrow.

So the question is: Will he voluntarily enlist in the military in order to make sure his mother can receive health-insurance benefits? Or will he find some other solution?

There’s no conclusion yet~

Additional note: There’s still no conclusion!!!! He seems like an ordinary person, so I hope people won’t immediately start attacking him with hate.

Additional note: Even if you don’t register the birth, Korean nationality is apparently granted automatically. I’ve heard that there have been cases where the government only realized later that someone was a Korean citizen, for example, because they came to Korea and lived here, their address matched something, their immigration records matched, etc. I don’t know exactly how they determine it (there are probably specific investigative methods), but I guess they shouldn’t reveal those methods because people would just try to find loopholes and avoid detection.

According to this guy, his parents never registered his birth in Korea at all.

1. So he basically only wants the benefits ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

2. What the? Then stay in the US and get all your medical bills there

3. This is far too familiar to me ~ 

4. Get your medical bills expensed in the US then 

5. He’s basically a black-haired foreigner

6. Screw off from Korea 

7. Why not just pay for medical expenses instead of taxes? Are you out of your mind?

8. Even paying out-of-pocket would still be way cheaper here than in the US, right? Why does he covet Korean health insurance when he isn’t even going to live in Korea?

9. What kind of BS is this? Don’t come back to Korea

10. Then go live your entire life overseas. I bet he still wants to be back to Korea to get his medical treatments ㅋㅋ f*ck off

11. Why do we need to care about him? Stay in the US for your medical treatments too 

12. ??? Since you’re not Korean, just keep living in the US~ Don’t ever step foot in Korea. It shouldn’t be a problem to you right?

13. Then stick to your foreigner’s health insurance 

14. Why do we need to grant benefits to this black-haired foreigner?

15. Can all those black-haired foreigners screw off?