[1] By 1904, passport issuance was conducted by the Imperial Korean Foreign Office (대한제국 외부).

The passport was written in English, French, and Korean Hanmun, and contained the bearer's name, address, age, and destination.

Even these were in fact colonial subject passports just like BN(O) passports and a special permit was required to travel to Japan (abolished only at the end of colonial rule when the Allied naval blockade disabled travels from/to Japan anyway) Thus, some Koreans resorted to naturalising as citizens of China and acquiring Republic of China passports instead.

One specimen is the passport of An Cheol-yeong, preserved by his son An Hyeong-ju of Hawaii; in 2012, the younger An donated that passport and his collection of nearly 2,500 other documents of Korean American history to the National Library of Korea in Seoul.

[4] Another specimen is the passport issued in 1903 to diplomat Min Yonghwan, which is held by the Soongsil University Museum.