This one comes to us courtesy of a comment on a post about background checks for English teachers on E-series visas:

If you're going to have FBI checks then the least the Korean Immigration could do is tell people what is/what's NOT acceptable. Problem is, they're too lazy or too stupid to read and understand the difference between an arrest, case dropped, or whatever else such as Class A, B, and C misdemeanors. Guilty felons aren't allowed to leave America anyway(they can't vote or buy a gun either).

I would've NEVER gone to Korea if I had to provide my own FBI check and I've passed a FBI checks conducted by my employers, worked airport security after 9/11 and have been a state employee. However, my criminal record is not clean. I was arrested one time but wasn't found guilty, for some reason I think Korea will disallow me from teaching because me CRC is not "clean." After all, foreigners are guilty until proven innocent ... in Korea and by Koreans. Many Americans who would've considered coming to S. Korea simply aren't going to take the do-it-yourself-FBI-check-step without knowing what is/isn't acceptable, there WILL be a decrease in American English teachers going to S. Korea to teach. It's all about Anti-Americanism - Congratulations Korea, keep on hating!

I'm not going to fisk this one. I wouldn't know where to begin, and I wouldn't be able to stop.

But I will agree that it's incredibly stupid and lazy of Immigration in the Republic of Korea to not know all the intricacies of arrests, misdemeanors, and what-not of dozens of state, provincial, and national governments in the Anglophone world. When they simply throw up their hands and say, "We just want people with a clean record," that's the ultimate anti-Americanism. But the joke's on you, hateful Korea: You'll miss out on great teachers like this one.

Now where's the "rolls eyes" icon on Blogger?

(Seriously, though, I read lots of complaints about people thinking and speculating that certain "innocent" things on a background check — and by innocent, I mean not guilty — will get a person barred from teaching in Korea, but I haven't yet read of actual cases. Anybody got some examples?)

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