A strike by Canadian foreign service workers is delaying visa processing, worrying students scheduled to go to the country for the fall semester.

The Canadian Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers, which represents some 1,350 non-executive employees of the Foreign Ministry, has been on strike over salary issues since last month.

Employees at 12 Canadian embassies and consulates, including those in Seoul, London and Manila, have indefinitely vacated their jobs, disrupting some services such as student visa processing.

“My son is scheduled to begin his studies this coming September in Canada. And even though we applied for his student visa in May, we still haven’t heard from the Canadian government,” a South Korean parent told The Korea Herald.

“Our family chose Canada because we consider it safer, culturally more diverse, and racially less problematic than the U.S. If we knew there was going to be a strike such as this, we would not have chosen Canada as our son’s place of study.”

Korean students may have to wait more than 13 weeks until final visa approval, according to statistics released by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

More than 100,000 international students study in Canada annually, contributing approximately $8 billion CAD ($7.7 billion) to the Canadian economy. Approximately 25,000 are from South Korea.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)