An Alien Registration Card (ARC, 외국인등록증) is a card which all foreign residents are required to carry with them if they have stayed in the country for more than 90 days. It is similar to a Korean Resident Registration Number (주민등록번호) and the corresponding ID in the number of digits and the fact that it must be carried with a person at all times. An ARC does not allow a person to register for Korean webpages except for the few companies that have chosen to download the required software to recognize the number. In most cases the card itself must be scanned and sent through email when registering, taking from one day to a number of weeks.
If you leave Korea after your contract ends, you are usually required to turn in your ARC when going through immigration at the airport in Korea. If you do a midnight run, and do not tell immigration of your intent not to return, you get to keep your card.
If you return to Korea, you will be issued the same serial number on your new ARC, so save the number. Receiving a new card takes a certain amount of time, and it speeds things up being able to reference the number when making inqiries at the pension office, for instance, in the mean time.
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