Person A, who is preparing to study abroad, opened a new budget phone line before departure. This was because A had heard from a senior who had already studied abroad the advice that "if you don't have a domestic mobile phone, there are restrictions on using domestic internet services overseas, including public websites."
The inconvenience that required Korean citizens living abroad to open a domestic mobile phone line or visit a distant diplomatic mission in person to use domestic public websites is going away.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Overseas Koreans Agency said on the 6th that they improved the service so that overseas citizens living abroad can authenticate on public websites through an "overseas citizen certificate" without a domestic mobile phone.
Until now, overseas citizens had to obtain identity verification through a domestic telecom company to use public websites. Verification was not possible with a local mobile phone used overseas, so many overseas citizens either opened a separate budget phone line before leaving the country and bore the maintenance expense, or visited a diplomatic mission in person, which could take several hours round trip, to obtain a certificate.
In response, the government built a system that verifies identity using an overseas mobile phone number and an electronic passport and allows issuance of a certificate. If registered as an overseas citizen and in possession of a resident registration number and a valid electronic passport, people can immediately receive an overseas citizen certificate through five private finance apps—KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, and Toss. Using public websites such as Government24 has also become simpler.
When logging in on a public website, select "simple authentication" as the authentication method, enter the overseas mobile phone number with the country code, and authenticate with the issued overseas citizen certificate to use the service immediately.
A government official said, "With overseas citizens now able to use public services with mobile phones from their country of residence, practical convenience will improve significantly," adding, "We will continue to work with relevant ministries to steadily improve the digital service environment for overseas citizens."