Hi, D, Two points in your post to address:
1) I was required to have a criminal background check in 2008 as part of the E-2 visa process in Korea. The document must also be notarized AND given an apostille. My CBC was of course, done locally, but now I hear that Korea is now requiring the CBC to done at the state level, making the process much slower. For a country in such dire demand of more and more FTs, they seem to devote so much energy to concoct new and ways to make the visa process more inefficient, annoying, and expensive.

During the time I was in Korea, a few of my colleagues whom had been teaching there for a 2-3 years with no incident, had to submit to the CBC (from their home country) in 2008 for E-2 visa renewal. Those that had even most minor of misdemeanors, and from quite a few years ago, were nevertheless denied a new visa, and sent packing. Insane.

It's believed that this wild overraection on the part of Korean immigration is largely due to the Christopher Neil case in 2007 -- the Canadian pedophile who was caught in Thailand but who had previously worked (and allegedly molested young boys) in Korea prior to fleeing to Bangkok.

2) One of my colleagues in China, a fellow American, was there to avoid child support payemnts. He married a Chinese woman in order to keep his visa, and avoid returning to U.S., He knew he would have been apprehended upon arrival back home. He was the only one of dozens of foreign colleagues I had over five years, to admit to being in China in order to avoid a legal dilemma back home. He also loved the attention he got from Chinese women (as he was quite average looking and would not have turned many/any female heads back home), and cheated on his Chinese wife quite often -- something he would also confess to me ad nauseum. Real classy guy, and obviously, a fine father as well.