US Adoptees:
File A FOIA Request For Your Full US Immigr. File.
Filing A FOIA Request is Simple and FREE.

Note:

*While this website is mostly geared toward Adoptees who were adopted through the Korean Adoption Agency Korea Social Service (KSS), there is also information here which is relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees, regardless of their Korean Adoption Agency. Please read carefully to note what info. is purely relevant to KSS Adoptees and what is generally relevant to ALL Korean Adoptees.

For US Adoptees, you can submit an online FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Request To Get Information About Your Adoption.

*Please note that this info. applies to ALL Korean Adoptees.

*UPDATE June 30th, 2024: Please be sure to READ this entire page BEFORE you fill out and submit your FOIA request!

*Please see the NEW section at the bottom for Adoptees without Citizenship.

*UPDATE June 30th, 2024 - Please see our updated NEW GRAPHICS and information below. Please READ this page carefully and watch the video BEFORE you fill out your FOIA request. Otherwise you may have an unsuccessful FOIA request! You may only have 2-3 attempts to submit a FOIA request, so please do NOT rush through your application.

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For US Adoptees, you can submit a simple and FREE online FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request in order to obtain your Immigr. file. This will NOT initiate a Birth Family Search with KSS in Korea (nor with any other Korean or Western Adoption Agency), however, we cannot more strongly recommend filing a FOIA request in order to obtain as much information about your adoption procedure as possible. An example FOIA request by a US Korean Adoptee returned an 80 page PDF. There will always be some redactions in a FOIA file. This is normal. Trying to get the redacted information will likely be a waste of your time, but you do you.

*Important Update, June 2024: Previously, the FOIA application had the option to request your “ALIEN FILE”, which was the way to request your ENTIRE FILE, instead of individual documents. NOW, you must select “Other” and TYPE “ALIEN FILE” in order to obtain your COMPLETE US Immigr. File. Please see the NEW GRAPHICS below.

*Important Note: Please be sure to watch this highly informative video about how to file a FOIA request (external link).

*Important Note: A FOIA request is about US Immigration. It is NOT a request purely related to Adoption, nor strictly related to Korean Adoption. However, because ALL Korean Adoptees adopted to the US were adopted trans-nationally (between Korea and the US), your FOIA request will contain many document pertaining to your Adoption. For this reason, we cannot more strongly recommend that ALL US Korean Adoptees make a FOIA request, so that they can receive as many documents relating to their adoption as possible.

Adoptee Rights Law has advised:

"You don’t necessarily need either (the current passport or A-number), though the A-Number is BEST if you have it. (You can find your A-Number at the top right hand of your US Naturalization Certificate). Generally you’ll need the birth name (Korean) at the time of entry to the US." *Please see NEW GRAPHICS below.

*UPDATE - Please NOTE: We believe it’s best if you use your NAME as it is written on your Korean Travel Certificate or Passport. For more information about what this document might look like, please see: Korea’s Evolving Travel Document System.

”Indicate on the FOIA form the names of adoptive parents, as sometimes they use those names to match any records. Do not use the field "Other Family Members" unless you have a specific reason to do it.”

Please see this important page with more information about FOIA:

Getting Your Own Immigration Records

How Do I Find My A-Number?

Your A-Number may be handwritten on your Korean Travel Certificate or Passport, or typed or handwritten on other adoption documents. Please see the graphic below for how to find your A-Number.

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Here is info. on how to submit an online FOIA request for US Adoptees:

FOIA (Freedom of Information Act):

We recommend that only naturalized US citizens file a FOIA request. If there are any citizenship issues in your case we would not recommend filing a FOIA request.

The application process is simple and FREE:

File a FOIA Request Here:

https://www.uscis.gov/records/request-records-through-the-freedom-of-information-act-or-privacy-act

A FOIA request will take several weeks to several months to process. You can track your progress online once you file your request.

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU FILL OUT YOUR FOIA REQUEST!

There was a recent online discussion over what Koreans consider to be a FIRST name vs. LAST name, and the fact that Koreans don't generally use MIDDLE names, caused us to wonder if Korean vs. Western naming conventions might be part of what is causing some Korean Adoptees' FOIA requests to FAIL. 

Because in the case of a name like "Jin Hee LEE" - where Koreans might consider "Jin Hee" to be the two-syllable FIRST Name, in the US, perhaps US officials might consider "Hee" to be the MIDDLE name. This is a GUESS and we cannot confirm what US officials would consider to be a "middle" name in the case of a Romanized Korean name such as "Jin Hee LEE". 

In general you want to use your Romanized Korean name spelled EXACTLY as it was on your US adoption documents. We highly recommend using ALL POSSIBLE VARIATIONS of your KOREAN name spelled in ENGLISH at US entry (see the GRAPHICS below for exactly how to do this).

There is the option on the FOIA application to "Add Name" and we recommend adding as many possible Korean name variations as make sense. Please see the graphics on the link below for a further explanation. 

Try using VARIATIONS of your Korean name (spelled in English) as it was at US ENTRY. Use the most likely variation FIRST.

For example, if your US documents say your name was “Jin Hee LEE” (where LEE is the LAST / SURNAME) note that in Korean “Jin Hee” would be your FIRST NAME (no middle name) but that in the US, they MIGHT consider “Hee” to be your MIDDLE name.

*You should use your KOREAN name spelled in English EXACTLY as how it appears on your adoption documents / US entry documents when it aks for “your full name used upon entry into the United States”.

We recommend trying ALL possible variations of your KOREAN name spelled in ENGLISH - you can click “Add Name” and enter multiple variations of your name (see below). Enter the most likely variation of your KOREAN name FIRST.

*Also note that you should add your English MAIDEN name as one of the variations.

*In general when filling out these forms, bear in mind that FOIA officers are trying to figure out what NAME you officially went by AT US ENTRY. If you had various name changes, are unsure of your name at US entry, if your adoptive parents had different last names from one another, etc. we strongly recommend using ALL POSSIBLE VARIATIONS of your most likely name at US entry, starting from the one that is based on any adoption documents you may have. If you have different kinds of Korean names on different adoption documents, we highly recommend using ALL POSSIBLE NAME VARIATIONS, starting with the one you feel most confident about.

*Please see the graphics below for how to fill out the relevant FOIA request pages:

IMPORTANT!!!
Be sure to select “Other” and TYPE “ALIEN FILE” in order to request your COMPLETE US Immigr. File. You will get the most amount of documents this way!

Do NOT select individual files! You will get FEWER documents this way!