Adoptee Homeland Tour participants: NCRC visits may not be guaranteed on all tours — or for all tour participants.

Above: Our AI generated image depicting the metaphorical long line in which Adoptees must stand for NCRC.

Please be advised that I have recently learned that NOT everyone was able to visit NCRC during a recent popular annual Adoptee Homeland Tour to Korea. This is unfortunately a direct result of the fact that NCRC has just ONE meeting room for file reviews with Adoptees at NCRC’s Temporary Storage Facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do where all former Korean Adoption Agency files are currently stored, and currently meets with Adoptees just 3 times per day / 3 days per week. This means that just 9 Adoptees per week can VIEW their former Korean Adoption Agency file at NCRC’s Temporary Storage Facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do.

Korean Adoptee tours typically take place in the Spring or Summer, when there are already high numbers of Adoptees in Korea, many of whom are also trying to visit NCRC. This is why Adoptees who plan to visit Korea for birth family search, and who intend to visit NCRC, should make sure to schedule appointments with NCRC’s two different locations BEFORE booking their travel plans. NCRC visits are not a guarantee for any Korean Adoptees visiting Korea, given the fact that NCRC is perpetually and deliberately understaffed and that NCRC has few meeting slots for Adoptees per day / week. Adoptees who plan to visit NCRC’s two locations in person to both VIEW and get a COPY of their former Korean Adoption Agency file must FIRST book an appointment at NCRC’s Temporary Storage Facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do to VIEW their file. Adoptees must book a second appointment a few days later at NCRC’s Main Office in Seoul to get a COPY of their file. A pre-requisite for both of these appointments is to submit an online Petition for Adoption Information Disclosure request through the KAS website, which NCRC still uses.

To reiterate:

For IN-PERSON NCRC visits, VIEWING the file at NCRC’s Temporary Storage Facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do is a pre-requisite for obtaining a COPY of an Adoptee’s file at NCRC’s Main Office in Seoul. This presumes that an Adoptee can even successfully create an account on the KAS website through which Adoptees must FIRST submit a Petition for Adoption Information Disclosure request BEFORE booking a reservation at either of NCRC’s two locations. The KAS website has been riddled with problems for YEARS, which NCRC never fixes.

Unlike in the past, when Adoptees participating in Homeland Tours could visit their individual Korean Adoption Agencies to review their files — ensuring that most Adoptees had the opportunity to at least attend a file review meeting — all former Korean Adoption Agency files have now been transferred to NCRC’s Temporary Storage Facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do. With only one meeting room available for Adoptees, there is now a significant possibility that some Adoptees will be unable to secure an appointment to visit NCRC and review their Korean adoption files. This is because NCRC can only meet with a limited number of Adoptees per week. So when there is a big Homeland Tour with dozens of Adoptees in Korea at the same time, or when there is a big Adoptee conference going on, or when it is basically Summer when tons of Adoptees are in Korea — NCRC’s limited appointment times at its two locations — particularly at NCRC’s Temporary Storage Facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do — are going to be hard to get.

For in person visits to NCRC in Korea, visiting NCRC’s Temporary Storage Facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do to VIEW an Adoptee’s file is a PRE-REQUISITE for obtaining a COPY of an Adoptee’s file at NCRC’s Main Office in Seoul.

(Those who do NOT intend to visit Korea in person, and who submit a Petition for Adoption Information Disclosure request purely online through the KAS site face 5-8 month long response times from NCRC for fulfillment of their requests).

Large Adoptee tours with many Adoptee participants all visiting Korea at the SAME TIME are going to have problems booking appointments with NCRC due to NCRC's limited meeting slots and the tight schedules of most Adoptee tours.

Also, Adoptee conferences which bring a large number of Adoptees into town will also clog up NCRC’s limited bookings. Essentially it is impossible to 100% accurately predict when NCRC will be slammed by Adoptee requests for in-person visits. Adoptees must also factor in Korean holidays, during which NCRC will also be closed.

This is a critically important point for any Adoptee considering an Adoptee Tour or planning a trip to Korea for a birth family search, regardless of whether they participate in a Homeland Tour: you are NOT guaranteed a visit to NCRC during your trip, and therefore you are NOT guaranteed the opportunity to view or obtain your adoption file while you are there.

I strongly advise that anyone who plans to visit Korea for a first time birth family search consult with me at least 4 months prior to their trip to Korea. I have talked to several Adoptees who went to Korea recently and who struck out with the NCRC process — failed to visit NCRC and obtain information — because they did not understand how complicated the process would be. While I have shared information freely to Paperslip for years, in my experience, people don't read and the process is too complex and overwhelming for Adoptees to navigate without assistance.

This is why I have offered paid consultations for the past few years, to spare Adoptees' the possibility of wasting an expensive trip and not receiving any information.

Please see:

NEW! Advisory Sessions - For Both KSS and Non-KSS Adoptees

For information about Homeland Tours for Korean Adoptees, please see:

Korean Adoptee Resources - MAIN.