Job Discussion Forums

[FlyingJames]

Hello, I have a bit of a situation.

An original document was required (a reference letter) by my school. This had to be an original hard copy sent by mail. I don't like the idea of sending a hard copy of anything original, but since I had a spare reference letter, I thought I would go with it.

This is required to get my letter of invitation from the government, which would allow me to obtain a Z Visa from my local Chinese consulate. This is needed for this particular province, although I believe this doesn't apply to all Chinese provinces.

I have sent this through Express Courier and I can track my document online. It will not arrive until after the Chinese New Year Period.

I have realized I have made a massive blunder on the written address. I have misspelled the suburb. Instead of writing 'Jia Zhou' I wrote 'Zia Zhou'. I know I have written the name of the school, the street address, city and postcode correctly.

My question is should I be worried? Has anyone had a similar experience mailing a document to a foreign country? It was my foolish mistake, I'm usually really careful with things like this.

[nomad soul]

I've never sent an original of anything to an employer; a scanned and emailed copy of the document sufficed. Once I arrived in country, I produced the original for copying. You may want to do the same (scan/email) with your spare document if you're concerned the mailed document won't reach the employer. But it's bound to get there despite your slight mispelling of the suburb; postal and courier services often see these types of errors.

[FlyingJames]

Thanks for the advice. I have been told by my school that the reference letter MUST be an original and hard copy. The government in this particular province have a strict guideline about this, and there is no other way around it. I can't get my letter of invitation without this However, degree certificates, passport copy, resume and contract can all be scanned and emailed, and have already been completed. It's strange, but that's China for you.

Well I hope you are correct about the spelling issue. The school wouldn't be happy if this required document doesn't get in a quick manner. Not to mention it cost about 60 bucks to mail express and I don't have a spare reference I want to send through mail.