Job Discussion Forums

Joese · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 25

If I completed a contract in China, do I need to have a "release letter" or anything from my employer to apply for a new work visa with a new employer?

3701 W.119th · Joined: 26 Feb 2014 Posts: 386 Location: Central China

Short answer - yes.

hdeth · Joined: 20 Jan 2015 Posts: 583

Release letter and they should cancel your FEC after you finish working there.

Joese · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 25

Thank you for your concise answers.

dblkhqc · Joined: 26 Feb 2015 Posts: 34

The fact you are asking the question means you know the answer, you just have some issue that makes it that you don't have the letter and you're looking for a way to skirt the procedures. Release letters are required for anyone who previously had a job in China - you can't just let your FEC or RP expire and leave the country and come back. Unless you jumble your identity with new passport numbers and FEC numbers, etc. appearing that you have never been in China, then you can do it.

What's your REAL issue?

That being said, Release Letters are required to be issued, by law from your current or most recent employer.

Joese · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 25

I'm looking to skirt the procedures, am I? You're good, Sherlock.

I have only worked in China with one school, so I'm not sure what the procedure is to go back. I thought the release letter might just be necessary for people who wish to change jobs without completing a contract.

In my experience talking to training schools, many of them don't know what extra documents are required if someone has worked in China before.

Joese · Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Posts: 25

This here is for all posterity!

I found out I do not, in fact, need a letter of release or anything else from my former employer to apply for a new visa.

This bit from the US embassy in China made me ask the original question.

If a contract is terminated early and the employee wants to work at another school in China, a “Letter of Release” from the previous school will be required.

(Source: http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/acs_teach.html)

Today the China embassy in the US tells me this:

You need get an official invitation letter and a foreigner's work permit from your new employer. Plus your U.S. passport, a visa form and one passport photo, you can apply the Z visa.

If I'm not mistaken, that 's the normal process to apply for a Z visa.