Job Discussion Forums

[Volodiya]

Some posters to this forum have reported entering China on other than a Z visa and, nevertheless, receiving a "Foreign Experts Certificate", and a "Residence Permit for Foreigners" (sticker, placed in their passport), in country- giving them permission to live and work as teachers of English, in China- since new rules, placing restrictions on this process, came into effect on January 1, 2005. The following tables are based on the information they provided:

(If you have had experience with this process in these or other provinces, since January 1, 2005, please add your information; or, if information you provided was used to prepare this table and you now have something new or different to report, please update, as necessary, to keep this information current.)


Those provinces in which you reportedly may not have to leave the country (to obtain a Z visa) before beginning work-

Fujian (jeffinflorida);
Guangdong (clomper; spiderman two, Sept 9);
Guangzhou (GZ, Sept 24);
Jiangsu (amanda_barrick);
Liaoning (Alex_P; cj750);
Sichuan (ekirving, phillipl);
Zhejiang (dyslexic_dcuk)


Those provinces in which there is reportedly a high probability that you will have to leave the country to obtain a Z visa before beginning work-

Anhui (randyj);
Beijing (Spiderman Too);
Hainan (talkdoc);
Heibei (nolefan, Sept 25);
Henan (Girl Scout, June 21);
Hunan (Nauczyciel);
Inner Mongolia (tw);
Shandong (deezy, June 13);
Shanxi (meggles5);
Yunnan (no_exit)


For further details regarding the experiences of the posters who provided the information on which the tables are based, see-
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=22363

[To those outside of China- this information is based on the personal experiences of the posters: it can only be used as a guide, not a guarantee, as to what may happen in your case, should you choose to come to China to work. (If no information appears here regarding a particular province, it simply means no poster has reported their recent experience in a manner which drew the writer's attention, and nothing should be inferred from the absence of information.)

Obtaining a Z visa before you enter China to work is your reasonable assurance that your that your prospective employer has obtained permission to hire foreigners; that you are qualified to teach, under the standards set by Chinese law and, that your employer has obtained permission to hire you.]

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Additional, explanatory material for people considering a job in China:

Both the Z visa, issued at a Chinese Consulate or Embassy abroad, and the Residence Permit for Foreigners (RPF), issued by the local authorities after you arrive at your post to work, are based on a grant to you of permission to live and work in China. The Z visa grants you permission to enter the country to work, and the RPF grants you permission to remain in the country to work. The Foreign Experts Certificate (FEC), mentioned in the first paragraph of this post, is a document which asserts that you are qualified to teach, according to the requirements of Chinese Law.

To enter to work in China, you are supposed to obtain a Z visa at a Chinese Consulate or Embassy abroad. Some people, however, have entered on visas other than Z visas, and found work. In some cases, if they met all the requirements, they have been given an RPF and an FEC, in country. Still others, having found work, have been required by the local authorities to leave the country, obtain a Z visa (which can be done at any Chinese Consulate or Embassy when the requirements for issuance of the visa are met), and return, often at their own expense; hence, the table, above, which is based on our posters' report of their experiences in their provinces.

Regarding the RPF
The holder of an RPF has the privilege to leave the country, and return, at will- anytime within the period of validity of the RPF. However, since the RPF is based on the grant to you of permission to work in China; and, that permission is, in turn, based on your maintaining your contractural relationship with your employer, should that relationship end, the FRP is subject to being revoked, at the request of the employer. Should this occur while you were out of the country, you would not be able to re-enter China on that RPF. You would, again, need a visa to enter the country.

Is the RPF a visa? No. Does it allow you to exit and re-enter? Yes. (It does that by giving you the privilege to leave and re-enter, without a visa.) The RPF is not issued at a consulate or embassy abroad. The Z visa is.
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[Everything I've written here is subject to revision, if future developments in the law, or the experiences of the posters to this forum, suggest it should be. I am indebted to the score of other posters who made the effort to familiarize themselves with the details of obtaining visas, and made their valuable technical and practical contributions to the information contained in this post- and will continue to do so, I trust, when they see something in need of correction.]

[Volodiya]

Deezy wrote:

"Shandong is unlikely to change Fs or Ls to Z's now...."

and, she wrote:

[Volodiya]

Deezy wrote:

[Volodiya]

Meggles5 wrote:

[Volodiya]

Elsewhere, Deezy wrote: