Job Discussion Forums

[rioux]

My potential boss has gone back and forth 4 times as to whether or not the Health Check/Physical Exam should be done in the USA in order for me to obtain my Z visa here (in the USA).

Does anyone know which one I must do to get the Z Visa in the US?

[jaybet3]

In my experience, even when I got a health check outside China they had me do another one once I arrived.

I paid for the one outside. My employer paid for the one in China.

The fact that your employer doesn't know what to do would make me proceed with caution.

[Simon in Suzhou]

In my experience in changing jobs this year, there is MUCH MORE confusion/chaos for employers in figuring out what documents are necessary to obtain visas and work permits than in the past. Even the government workers don't know. I was told at our local entry-and-exit office that they are getting new memos every 3 months with different rules/standards/procedures. And every city is different. There is also no uniformity among CONSULATES in the SAME country. So I wouldn't see it as a bad sign that the employer is confused.

This year I learned the best way to get a job/change jobs in China is to get every possible document you MIGHT need, and then try not to be to angry when you find that you wasted an immense amount of time and money on unnecessary ones, as opposed to not having that one document that will prevent you from getting the visa. This is working in China now.

[teenoso]

this is a minefield, because as another poster said , employers, local FAOs, education depts and PSBs all have different requirements, depending on where they are and when you apply.
My current employer requires a foreign health check before it can issue an invitation letter (using for the health check the standard form found on the China embassy website in the USA);
other places have asked for a health check after the invitation letter has been issued, but before you apply for the z visa;
some other places only need a 'declaration of health' for the z visa , which is then later confirmed by a local health check in China...

so I suggest you wait for the employer to decide what it wants from you and when; if you do a full check with scans in the USA I believe it can get very expensive , running into hundreds of dollars, and you might not need it.

[Marinx]

My university contact at first said I did not need to get the health checks. May 2018.

Then, they said the health checks were required to get the invitation letter. June 2018.

So in my limited experience if your contact says they aren't, they will sooner or later come to find that they are - if they are completely above board and doing everything by regulation.