Foreigners Obliged to Provide Fingerprints from H2 2009

Beginning the latter half next year, foreign visitors aged over 17 should mandatorily provide their fingerprints and facial pictures to the Korean government.

The Ministry of Justice announced the new legislation on the revised bill ‘Immigration Control Law & Relevant Rules’ which contains such contents.

Under the revised bill, the government newly made a clause on ‘fingerprint information collection’, and stipulated: “Foreigners should offer fingerprint and facial information during the immigration screening procedure.”

But, foreigners aged below 17 or visiting for the purposes of diplomacy and public affairs have been ruled out from the subjects to providing physical information.

Foreigners refusing to offer physical information will be disadvantageous during an immigration approval process.

The government had previously collected fingerprints of foreigners residing in Korea for a long-period (for more than a year), but abolished such a policy in 2003.

With illegal foreign residents and foreigners’ crimes rapidly increasing, the government revived the fingerprint collection policy in six years.

The government plans to tender the revised bill to the National Assembly upon undergoing discussion in the Cabinet meeting to be hold at the month-end at the earliest.