Ein koreanisches Gericht entschied, dass Passinhaber die romanisierte Schreibweise ihres Nachnamens nicht allein aufgrund persönlicher Vorlieben ändern können, wenn keine praktischen Unannehmlichkeiten im täglichen Leben entstehen.
Rechtsquellen zufolge entschied das Verwaltungsgericht Seoul am Montag gegen den 36-jährigen Kläger mit Nachnamen Lee in einer Klage gegen den Außenminister, um die Weigerung der Regierung aufzuheben, die Schreibweise seines Passnamens von „Lee“ in „Yi“ zu ändern.
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/society/20260310/lee-or-yi-south-korean-court-rejects-passport-surname-spelling-change
2 Kommentare
Revised Romanization kinda sucks
I think the issue stems from this part:
>The plaintiff also claimed that when he applied for the passport, he spelled his surname “Yi,” but a government official changed it to “Lee” before issuing the document. He said he requested his name to be spelled “Yi” when he applied for the passport a second time, but was told the change is not permitted, so he reluctantly received it with “Lee.”
It’s not so much that „Yi“ isn’t legally allowed in the first place, but rather, a certain government official’s unilateral decision to issue it as „Lee“ in this particular case, as it has once been accepted, can’t be changed back. Spelling of your name in English is normally at your personal discretion, but passport names are sort of „set in stone“. So there should be some sort of verification step before it gets irreversibly inked like this.