Expat Tom Sawyer was confused every time he saw the order of his name appear differently on administrative documents, either ¡°Sawyer Tom¡± or ¡°Tom Sawyer.¡±

He also struggled to confirm his identity in documents that were written entirely in English or Korean. Yet he expects more convenient administrative processing with the unification of name spelling for foreign nationals in the order of surname and personal name, as in ¡°Sawyer Tom.¡±

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety on Aug. 28 said it issued an administrative notice on the standard for writing the names of foreign nationals, effectively eliminating the practice of differing formats by administrative document.

The way such names were written on documents varied by administrative agency in the order of surname and given name and spacing, which caused inconvenience when foreign nationals had to confirm their identification.

Under the new standard, foreign names using Roman letters will appear in the order of surname and given name in all capital letters, with a space between both. The rule will require the use of a foreign name in Roman letters on the bearer¡¯s immigration-related documents such as the foreign or permanent resident card.

If no such document is available, the name must be written in Roman letters as written in the machine-readable section of the bearer¡¯s passport.

A foreign name in Hangeul should be written in the order of surname and given name but with no space in between. If the name is written in Hangeul in a public document or certificate such as a family register, it will also be written in Hangeul in official documents.

If the person has no such ID documents, his or her name in Roman letters will be written phonetically in Hangeul and follow the notation of foreign language spelling.

Another new rule is to have a foreign name written in both Roman and Korean letters for more convenient identification of foreign nationals. If the system cannot recognize both names, however, just one can be indicated.