1. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will begin offering “service that gives prior notice before passport expiration” on October 15, 2018, which notifies Korean nationals six months before their passport expires through a mobile phone text message, in order to prevent them from traveling abroad without knowing that their passport expired, or is about to expire soon.

※ Given the time taken to renew a passport, the text message will be actually sent six months and ten days before the passport expiration date.

2. A number of countries require people willing to enter their countries to have a passport valid for at least six months, but the cases have been continuing to occur where passport holders do not know about this and run into trouble when they try to leave or enter a country. The service is to prevent such problems from happening in advance.

3. The service will be provided in cooperation with KT Corporation, a telecommunication service provider. The service will be offered to any subscribers to the Republic of Korea’s three main telecommunication service providers (SKT, KT, and LG U+) who have consented to receive the text message through a mobile notice.

※ Due to systematic issues, the service can be delivered only to subscribers to domestic telecommunication service providers, not to overseas Koreans who subscribed to foreign telecommunication service providers.

o The mobile notice to be sent for the first time by KT to subscribers to the three main wireless carriers will ask them if they consent to be provided with the “service that gives prior notice before passport expiration,” and only those who consent to the service will receive the text message notifying them of the expiration date of their passport, and other related information.

※ The mobile notice can be received without installing an application. People can receive the notice and open a link shared by the notice free of charge.

4. The service is expected to provide Korean nationals planning to travel abroad with convenience by helping them to become aware of the validity of their passport in advance, and renew it. The Foreign Ministry will continue to work to find out the inconveniences or difficulties Korean nationals are experiencing regarding their passport, and to resolve them.

* unofficial translation