Job Discussion Forums

[fortunatekooky]

This report comes from a financial website with a weekly webcast. I'm not sure how long the link will work because it may be archived for paid subscribers only.

http://www.financialsense.com/financial-sense-newshour

Scroll down to like the 4th segment or so , from 8-4-12 , the one with Erik Townsend in the sub-heading. The relevant clip begins at minute 43. It's about 5 minutes, not too long.

In brief, Mr. Townsend says his sources in Hong Kong are saying that many Americans are being denied visas at the consulate there. He says it is a sudden thing, and only affecting US citizens. In the clip, they talk specifically about English teachers having this problem.

Not sure what to think about this, so I'm just passing it along. Mr. Townsend is asking for people with more info to email him, and they plan to do a more in depth show -- perhaps ready next weekend -- about the beginning of what he sees as a cold war between US/China. He thinks the visa thing is part of it.

He says that English teachers are having trouble renewing visas. I wonder if these are actually teachers who started working without the zed, then tried to do a HongKong run and were denied? In one case, he says the teacher had an apartment in China already, and was refused re-entry, not even an L so he could retrieve his stuff.

I guess if this was an illegal teacher and they found out, I can understand why they'd refuse re-entry. I mean--if he had a legit visa already, he wouldn't have had to leave the country to renew it, yes?

If this person and whatever other cases Townsend alludes to do not fall into this category, then what is going on?

Anyways--not sure what this is all about. It was odd to hear about the plight of ESL teachers in a financial webcast, but there it is. Link for the show was still working at the time of this posting. Info might be more complete in Townsend's future interview.

Just passing it along.....

[sistercream]

[The Edge]

It's probably a load of nonsence.
However, diplomatic relations between the USA and China are not good at the moment and I have noticed a lot more anti-american sentiment knocking about these days.
As a British expat, the only piece of this that I occassionally hear is that your country just follows what America does.
Nothing anti-british about that in my opinion as it is a fair comment about the wagging tail of the big dog.

[GeminiTiger]

The Olympic games will settle this!

[samhouston]

Might have to do with that 100-day crackdown that I haven't heard much about since it began. The guy in the audio clip doesn't mention what type of visas were being denied.

[JamesD]

Could be the start of a Cold War, BUT he does preface his remarks with "My contacts in HK are telling me that suddenly there's a rash of rumors about American citizens being denied........."
Doesn't boost my confidence in his sources.

Could be something there but could also be a simple tightening of regulations affecting people who do not have proper paperwork.

If you're staying at the same job or changing and have your release letter a HK visa run to renew isn't really necessary. These denied visas could be people trying to circumvent the rules by buying an F or using shady paperwork to get a Z.

Anybody have firsthand experience in HK within the last few days?

[JamesD]

Found this which is interesting and may apply (though a bit vague).

http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/china-2020-legal-and-regulatory-develo-17781/

China Adopts New �Immigration Law�

On June 30, 2012, Standing Committee of the National People�s Congress adopted the Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People�s Republic of China (�the Law�), which will take effect on July 1, 2013 and supersede the Law of the PRC on the Entry and Exit Administration of Foreigners and the Law of the PRC on the Exit and Entry Administration of Chinese Citizens. The Law provides new visa policies for foreigners who wish to enter and stay in China, which include: (1) introducing a new type of visa for the importation of talents; (2) requiring Chinese domestic entities or individuals to comply with the requirements of overseas PRC embassy/consulate/other institution commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when issuing invitation letter to a foreigner and be responsible for the authenticity of the letter; and (3) clarifying the staying and residence period of foreigners in China. In addition, the Law requires the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs to formulate a catalogue guiding the employment of foreigners in China in consultation with the relevant departments under the State Council, and requires the Ministry of Education to take lead to launch a work-study program for foreign students in China and set forth regulations on job scope and time limits of the work-study program. Penalties imposed on foreigners who illegally enter, stay and work in China and employers who illegally hire foreign employees in China have been enhanced.

[fortunatekooky]

As I said in the original post, I don't know anything about the cases that Mr. Townsend is referencing, so it is hard to say if this is something different or just business as usual. As pointed out by JamesD above, Mr. Townsend refers to his info as rumors, although he has also intimated to have more direct knowledge about some cases.

I'm not defending the source, I just posted this because it struck a chord, and I thought it belonged here in case there are some people having this experience recently.

I took the liberty of contacting Mr. Townsend by email, and informed him that I had posted about his report here, and encouraged him to follow the thread and add more to the discussion if appropriate.

With his permission, I am posting the following reply.

Again, I want to be clear that I am not affiliated with him, or the financial website from which the interview aired.

I am just middleman-ing the info along to help discover if the rumors have any substance or not.

......
This is from Erik Townsend, the FinancialSense.com correspondent quoted in the base post:


Dear ESL Teachers,



My thanks to the OP for posting this link. I tried to register myself so that I could post a clarification to what has been said here so far, but it appears your forum is closed to new registrants at the moment.

I wish to clarify that I am only aware of about half a dozen cases, and I do not know whether this is really a �trend� or reflects a policy change. It�s entirely possible that several people in my extended network of contacts got kicked out for entirely legitimate reasons, and the coincidence of so many people having this experience � all Americans � all of a sudden, may be nothing more than that � a coincidence. The reason I brought this up in last week�s broadcast is that I�m seeking confirmation (either way) as to whether this is really a new trend or if it was just happenstance that several friends of friends of mine had this experience recently.

I tried to be clear in the broadcast that I do not know whether this is new policy or coincidence. My goal in asking for listeners to report similar experiences was to find out if this is just a few people I happened to hear about, or a reflection of new policy. My intention is to report in next week�s broadcast whether I hear of any further cases similar to those I�ve already heard about

As another poster mentioned, US-China relations are definitely a bit strained at the moment, and unfortunately I fear they will get a lot worse before they get better. A change in visa policy toward Americans but not other nations� expats would certainly be an important clue indicating that the situation is worsening faster than I expected. But again, I don�t know that yet � my call for information was intended to see how many others, if any, had experienced similar problems. My present sample base isn�t large enough to be statistically significant.

I hope this clarifies that it was not my intent to announce that a policy change has occurred. I�m only seeking more feedback to determine whether one may have occurred. I welcome any further information or observations readers here may have via e-mail to erik.townsend at financialsense dot com.


Thanks,

Erik