Thousands of Canadians teaching English in Korea will be forced to undergo criminal background checks and provide clean bills of health under a new law aimed at foreign language instructors in the Asian country.

The new visa regulations, which came into effect this month, have faced a harsh response from incumbent language teachers as well as applicants for the E-2 teaching visa.
Most teachers denounce the move, saying that it will only make the visa issuance procedure more complicated and create delays without meeting the government's aim the screening of unqualified foreign language teachers, reported Korean media.

“Screening and health checks will deter some, but the rest of us honest teachers don't wish to be left hanging around for months waiting for things to be finalized,'' said Kurt from South Africa, who works at a language school in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.

“I'd rather go to China,'' he was quoted as saying.

Currently, there are over 170,000 foreign language instructors from overseas with the E-2 visa - 6,700 from the Unites States and 5,000 from Canada.

Korea is one of the most lucrative places to be an English teacher, with first-year teachers making $2,500 a month, plus housing and airfare and other perks.

Before the changes, foreign language teachers could renew their visas by visiting a neighboring country and then return without additional documentation. Now, they may have to wait a long time to obtain a criminal background check and make a long trip back to their home countries to prepare the needed documents.

The new move was initiated by concerns over unqualified foreign language teachers.
Last October, Interpol arrested a Canadian English instructor in Thailand on charges of molesting juveniles. It was found that he had worked at an international school in Gwangju here until Oct. 11 before he was arrested.

 In July, two Australian and Canadian English instructors were punished on drug charges.
But most foreigners are skeptical about the effectiveness of the new regulations.

“What people don't realize is that this is a knee-jerk reaction based on a pedophile, who was teaching in Korea but arrested in Thailand, who didn't even have a criminal record,'' English teacher Keith from Seoul said. “

Sure there are some bad people out there. But why put us all into one category?''

As part of efforts to ease the discontent, the Ministry of Justice has granted a three-month grace period for current E-2 visa holders to give them more time to prepare the necessary documents.

The ministry also held a hearing to explain details of the policy to foreign embassies in Seoul.
There are now around 16,000 foreigners who work as English teachers in Korea.

But over the past five years more than 800 foreign English teachers have been caught with fake degrees or for having worked in Korea without a proper visa. Some have even been found to have taught under the influence of drugs.

Many Korean parents welcome the government's tougher measures set to go into effect in mid-December.

Employers, namely those who run English-language institutes, complain that the hiring procedure will take up to five months.

Meanwhile, South Korean authorities are pursuing credential cheats across the country after revelations that public figures, ranging from a Buddhist monk to an actress, falsified academic certificates.

The crackdown is undermining confidence in university degrees in a country where more than 90 percent of teenagers say they plan to go to college.

Prosecutors say they have investigated 120 cases of diploma fraud since July news reports that an art professor secured senior positions with a phony doctorate from Yale University.

Former professor Shin Jeong Ah, 35, went on trial for document forgery this month after she was fired from Dongguk University and her position as director of the Gwangju Biennale Art Festival.

The military has also been dragged into the scandal, with 13 lieutenants and eight officer cadets indicted for faking degrees from a Philippine college.

At least 300 more South Koreans received fake diplomas purporting to be from the Philippine institution, it added.