Although the resident registration of any person with an unclear residential status was cancelled under previous regulations, the amendment to the Resident Registration Act on April 1, 2009 abolished the system for deleting the resident registration of persons who move to a new domicile without due notice. It has instead implemented a system where persons with an unclear residential status have their domicile registered as unknown to ensure they have access to various social safety nets and to protect their basic rights. As of 2017, there are around 440,000 persons of unknown domicile.

However, there is a lack of information on how these persons of unknown domicile came to be of such status and what the actual circumstances are. This has raised concerns over various issues such as demographic errors and welfare blind spots.

Moreover, although the current Act prescribes quarterly factual investigations of resident registration to sort persons of unknown domicile, labor shortage and work burdens make it virtually impossible for persons in charge of resident registration affairs at administrative agencies to determine the whereabouts of persons of unknown domicile.

Accordingly, the Amendment prescribes grounds to conduct investigations of persons of unknown domicile every three years to accurately identify the causes and circumstances of unknown domiciles and use the information to improve systems in relevant areas including resident registration statistics and identification of welfare beneficiaries (Article 20, paragraphs 9 through 11 newly inserted).

Prescribe grounds to conduct investigations of persons of unknown domicile every three years to accurately identify the causes and circumstances of unknown domiciles and use the information to improve systems in relevant areas including resident registration statistics and identification of welfare beneficiaries. Require the head of any relevant institution, corporation, organization, facility to comply with any request from the head of Si/Gun/Gu for the submission of data or a statement of opinion necessary to conduct an investigation, unless otherwise justified (Article 20, paragraphs 9 through 11 newly inserted)