Starting December 1st new E2 visa (teaching visa) applicants will be required to submit a criminal record check. See IHT and Korea Timesone two for articles. The news actually came up over the weekend but due to being at the conference and other factors I was unable to blog it until now.

Now I support criminal record checks for teachers, I believe they are required in Canada an the U.S. for local teachers (but could be wrong). The problem here is that this measure is being introduced in a knee-jerk reactionary style due to the recent arrest of Christopher Paul Neil, an alleged pedophile who coincidentally did not have a criminal record and would have still been able to teach in Korea. This law goes into effect five weeks after being enacted. This leaves very little time for any sort of planning. Is this being applied to people renewing their visa or only to new applicants? Will the criminal record be kept on file? Currently degrees are verified everytime one gets a new visa or renews their current visa. Will everyone be required to resubmit criminal record checks each time they renew a visa? clearly this is unacceptable due to cost and red tape involved.

Knowing immigration and the general Korean proclivity to react and not plan adequately I’m positive that this regulation is going to turn into a nightmare for all parties involved: immigration, employers and instructors. There are already numerous threads on Dave’s detailing problems that public school teachers are having. One common problem is we want a criminal record check next week, but one poster found the time requirements for various countries to be 3-6 months. I can imagine delays with a large unexpected influx of requests for criminal record checks. It has also been suggested to use sites such as backcheck but which sites are acceptable and which are not. backcheck.net has options for Canada, US, and the UK but what about other E2 visa countries? Really this is not very well thought out.

Here are some choice quotes from the newspaper articles linked above:

Korea Times: From December, foreigners will have to submit diplomas and police check documents, when applying for a visa to get a job as foreign language instructor here.

In addition, they will be required to have an interview with a Korean consular official to work to teach in that capacity, the Ministry of Justice announced Saturday.

..The spokesman said the new regulation will help differentiate the majority of talented and qualified foreign language instructors from unqualified teachers and those with criminal records.

An individual interview for all 15,000 E2 visa holders. Wow, that’s going to result in some serious backlog or the plan is also to create jobs. Additionally the final sentence there seems to suggest that Christopher Paul Neil would not have come to Korea - wrong. He did not have a criminal record before being wanted by interpol.

IHT: Some doubt the policy will be effective enough. “Quite a number of foreign students and U.S. soldiers teach English [illegally],” Kim Jae-won, an owner of an English cram school, said. “What about them?”

Yes, let’s get criminal record checks for illegal teachers. Umm… perhaps doing a better job of enforcing current regulations will reduce the number of illegal teachers and then you wouldn’t have to worry about them. What about Hagwon owners who regularly cheat and lie to their teachers? Let’s do something about them too.

IHT: Jennifer Hansen, a Canadian teacher, said, “Most foreign English teachers are ‘drug addicts’ and ‘pedophiles’ to many Koreans. I think the new requirement can change that. They’ll know that legal English teachers, at least, passed the government criminal screening.”

it’s too bad that Hansons quote is phrased the way it is as it makes it appear that she believes foreign teachers are drug addicts and pedophiles even though that’s not what she said. If this regulation is successfully implemented then I do believe it will have a chance of potentially improving the reputation of EFL instructors in Korea.

There are several threads on Dave’s Cafe about this issue: one 11 pages, two, three

On the topic of improving reputation, several F visa holders have started a new group/organization. Anyone with a F2-1, F4, or F5 visa is welcome and encouraged to join. See the Dave’s thread here or go directly to the yahoo group. I’ve swiped the yahoo group logo and placed it to the left.

Also be sure to check out The Marmot’s Hole and Lost Nomad and Zen Kimchi for more information and commentary.

Will teachers continue to come to Korea with the additional red tape and lack of forethought put into this new regulation? The climate in Korea continues to become less and less inviting to foreigners and in particular foreign language instructors. For those of us exempt from this regulation (F series visa holders) this could mean a potentially lucrative pay day is coming. Or, as I suspect is more likely, this regulation will end up being brushed under the carpet and will only be annoying and frustrating to those teachers renewing or getting new visas over the next couple of months.

Have to go to class now, but will clean up this entry later and add more of my thoughts.