Job Discussion Forums

[Englishpal]

i signed a contract with a school and they since have supposedly mailed an invitation and work permit. I would like to go with another place as the first school has amended their original offer. The new school that I would like to go with is in a different province. Can I jump ship on the first one, and have the second place begin working on a work permit and invitation? Will the second have difficulty obtaining the documents from the government groups?

[chinatimes]

The invitation letter would be taken with your passport to a Chinese consulate outside of China. This is my understanding and how I did it. Then you would get your work visa. Until then, you don't have any ties with the school, but you might still come up as "in the process" if you were to try to apply in the same province. This last part is just speculation based on what I have read in the past 2 years here.

The work permit, if actually processed and not a lie by the school/recruiter to keep you tied to them, is nothing more than something they need. I ran into this issue and found out that I did not have a FEC (foreign expert certificate) with a couple previous schools, yet they had something which seemed like the FEC. In fact, Beijing would not accept this and the school (in another province) I understand had to give that to the PSB.

Perhaps the limitation is that if you don't have an FEC, you can only work for the school which holds your work permit. However, the FEC might be used for multiple schools. So, you would want to keep the FEC if you plan on doing this.

Since you don't have a work visa and no FEC, I would say your chances of being tied to one school in China is unlikely. Do you have your passport? Try to get that back if you sent it, you shouldn't have if you are not in China because you need that when going to the Chinese consulate in your home country. They should only need copies as far as I can tell.

When you get your passport back (if you gave it), then tell them something came up and you can't work for them. They will then cancel whatever steps they took.

After all that is done, you will also have a residence permit to deal with. I just recently got mine (Wednesday) and the new school tried to get my passport earlier. They were told if we couldn't wait longer then I couldn't work for the school.

If that is any sign, China likes to drag things on (about 2 months to get all this done and I am in China, and I had to go to the police station 2 times and PSB). They would rather not have you not hired than hired it seems.

[choudoufu]

[vikeologist]

You can probably go to the other school as long as its in another province. I suppose nothing is ever certain in China, and I'm assuming that you're not swapping 2 schools of the same franchise.

Ethically one should stick to your commitment to the school that's paid for the invitation letter, (and I feel very strongly about this) but I also agree with Choudoufu on this. If they change the offer, in any meaningful way, then there's no contract anymore, legally, ethically, verbally; nothing.

If you tell the school you're not prepared to change the contract, then there's not much to stop them agreeing, and then changing it once you're here anyway.

Anyway, you asked if you can switch, not whether you should, so probably my discussion of ethics is irrelevant. The thing that's in your best interest is to lie to to the first employer and say, unfortunately I can't come because <insert convincing reason such as sudden serious illness of relative>.

[zactherat]

go on - what was the amendment?