How I prepared my INDEPENDENT TRC 3 submission in 4 million not so easy steps over 8.5 years of time.
For more in-depth information about the COMPLETE TRC 3 submission process, please see:
Paperslip links related to submitting your case INDEPENDENTLY to TRC 3.
+
Please Note:
Below is just an overview of MY personal TRC 3 INDEPENDENT submission process.
I submitted my TRC 3 case INDEPENDENTLY in person to TRC’s office in Seoul on Friday, March 27th, 2026. This has been the culmination of nearly a decade of investigation I have done into my and my likely twin’s separate adoption cases.
Your process may look very different in some respects, though the basic requirements for TRC 3 submission are the same for everyone.
The full story of how I came to gather so many adoption documents is one for a book, not a post like this. I’ll save it for my novel.
For now, suffice it to say that I have a metric ton of adoption documents — for both myself and my likely deceased twin sister “Baby A” — and that I have done a metric ton of research in both of our separate adoption cases, starting in 2018 and 2020 respectively for our separate cases.
How did I organize my documents and information for my TRC 3 submission? Find out below.
Please note: the steps below may not have occurred in this exact order—life tends to be a lot more messy than a simple list.
+
Document Acquisition Step 1:
I spent years of time returning repeatedly to my Korean Adoption Agency, KSS (Korea Social Service) in Seoul, prior to the transfer of all of its files to NCRC on July 19th, 2025.
I visited KSS in Seoul in 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2023.
I have also visited Korea without visiting KSS in 2022, 2025 and 2026.
I photographed “my” entire KSS file at KSS in Seoul in 2018.
I photographed the file of my likely twin, “Baby A”, at KSS in 2019. At the time, and for over one year, I thought that “Baby A” was me, and that I had found my REAL file.
I did not realize until 2020 that “Baby A” was NOT me, and was my likely twin sister. It appears that “Baby A” — whether she was my twin or not — passed away at KSS between late 1975 - early 1976.
I will say that it pursuit of truth in my and my likely twin’s separate adoption cases, it has helped me to be a pushy person. I honestly did not know that I had this in me to push as hard as I have over the years. But I have PUSHED. And for me at least, I am fortunate in some ways that this has yielded results.
I have carefully preserved the photographs I have taken and documents which I have collected over the years in various digital formats. These have naturally found their way into my TRC 3 submission on March 27th, 2026.
+
Document Acquisition Step 2:
I was fortunate to file a successful FOIA request around 2019 or 2020 when it was still safe and meaningful to do so.
I received nearly 90 pages through a free FOIA request. These mostly relate to the U.S. side of my adoption.
I do NOT recommend filing a FOIA request right now without consulting an attorney. Please read the information on the FOIA link above for more information.
+
Document Acquisition Step 3:
I am fortunate in that I get along well with my adoptive parents, and that they have saved all of my adoption documents. In 2018, I asked them to find them so that I could seriously look at them for the first time.
I am fortunate that my adoptive parents have good memories, and could fill in the gaps of the adoption process from their end in which I did not previously have an interest, nor understand.
Since first becoming interested in my adoption history in late 2017, I have picked my adoptive parents’ brains over the years to try to better understand the adoption process from their end.
I have taken notes, interviewed my adoptive parents, filmed my interviews of them, etc. It helps that I like to take notes and am generally pretty organized. The information I have gathered from them has greatly helped to inform my overall understanding of the proxy adoption process to the US. This in turn has informed my TRC 3 submission.
+
Document Acquisition Step 4:
Around two years ago, I took over my original adoption documents from my adoptive parents. This felt like a big deal, and a big responsibility.
I finally put on my big girl pants and bought a fireproof / waterproof safe to put them in this year.
However, the documents remained in just one big stack until I began to prepare for TRC 3. Truthfully, I hadn’t looked at or read all of them, and I still haven’t read every single document. However, preparing my documents for TRC 3 helped to give me insights into my adoption process that I did not have before.
+
Document Acquisition Step 5:
Shortly before my in-person INDEPENDENT TRC 3 submission on March 27th, 2026, I visited NCRC’s Temporary Storage Facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi-do. This allowed me to obtain further evidence, which I included in my TRC 3 submission.
I will write about this visit in a later post.
+
Research and Advocacy Steps:
I dug up the entire history of KSS and co-founded this website, Paperslip.org in 2020. Paperslip has been a labor of love, and I am very proud of what has been accomplished through it.
I decoded my Korean Adoption Agency KSS’ formerly secret K-Number codes between 2020-2021.
On December 18th, 2020, I was the first Korean Adoptee to submit any cases of Adoptees to TRC 2. While this submission did not initiate the later official investigation which began on December 7th, 2022, it did precede it by two full years. This is how TRC 2 first became aware of systemic switching.
This ultimately paved the way for Switching to be acknowledged as a human rights violation in the March 26th, 2025 TRC 2 Interim Report.
I discovered a formerly secret KSS document in “my” file in 2018, which I coined as the “Korean Adoptive Child Study Summary” in 2021. I helped hundreds of KSS Adoptees request and obtain this document from KSS for free, between 2021-2025, prior to the closure of KSS. I also coined the term “English Adoptive Child Study Summary” at the same time, and have used Paperslip since 2020 to educate KSS Adoptees between the differences between these documents.
Based on my research and advocacy, I helped 45 KSS Adoptees in the initial stages of their birth family searches who eventually found their birth families. I’ve assisted countless others in their overall search requests to KSS.
My years long research and advocacy for KSS Adoptees has significantly helped to inform my TRC 3 submission.
+
I was blocked from TRC 2 by DKRG, despite my case being among the first 34 accepted — and despite (or because of) the fact that DKRG was well aware of my years of work with KSS Adoptees.
I applied for TRC 2 on September 11th, 2022 — the two year anniversary of when I had first realized that I might have had a twin — and my case was among the first 34 accepted by TRC 2 in December 2022. However, without explanation or apology, I was subsequently blocked and ghosted by DKRG — the group that has presented itself as a “Korean Rights” organization and has acted as a representative for both TRC 2 and TRC 3. I had originally submitted my case through them, and they still retain my adoption documents.
Their actions appeared to be an attempt to claim credit for my years of independent research into KSS history and practice. After enduring prolonged mistreatment, I ultimately withdrew my TRC 2 case in March 2023. As a result, I lost the opportunity to seek justice for both myself and my twin through the TRC 2 process.
I have waited three long years for TRC 3 to begin.
(Note — The TRC 2 and TRC 3 commissions are mostly thanks to the work of Brothers Home victims. Brothers Home victims pushed for there to be a TRC 2 investigation for YEARS).
In March 2026, I traveled to Korea, at my own expense and in the midst of extreme turmoil in the U.S., to submit my TRC 3 case in person at the TRC office in Seoul — because I will be damned if I trust any intermediary with my case THIS time.
