Job Discussion Forums

myesl

Would anyone know of a good visa service in Washington, DC? My school, on the advice of their provincial FAO they claim, has advised me to do my visa through DC even though NY is closer. Problem is this particular province (supposedly) refuses to give even my school the original documents that the the NY consulate claims are a must. So, they're faxing them. They claim other consulates have accepted it this way.

So, looking for a good visa service in DC who I can mail my stuff to. Thanks.

Keath · Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2005 7:58 pm Post subject:

Hi, I have extensive experience with this.
New York is tough but all the consulates have been advised to enforce the new visa regulations. Basically unless your school can expedite the original documents: 1) Loc al government Invitation Letter 2) SAFEA Invitation document You will not be able to obtain the Z visa to work in CHina. These days it is safe to say you wont be able to enter China on a travel visa and expect to convert it to the Z visa. It just isnt going to happen. If someone tells you otherwise don't believe it.

Which province are you seeking to teach?

Keith
www.journeyeast.org

Yu · Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 1219 Location: Shanghai

I googled visa services and ended up mailing mine through DC... I have not heard of people having problems with visa services... just give it a try.

mlalahoi · Joined: 03 Jul 2005 Posts: 54 Location: China

I used www.visarite.com fast, friendly and not too expensive.

myesl · Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2005 7:33 pm Post subject:

Thanks all. I was off the board and ended up finding world-visa.com via Google. So far they've done a great job for me. As for the visa, I don't know yet. I am starting another post about the rest of the story.
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?p=307612#307612

Volodiya · Posted: Tue Sep 27, 2005 9:00 am Post subject:

Keath wrote:

jg · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 10:26 am Post subject:

The last school I worked at offered to convert my L to a Z, I declined but other teachers took them up on their offer with no problems. This was about 5 months ago. No blood was shed, just exercise common sense.

Volodiya · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:35 am Post subject:

jg, if you don't mind, which province was that?

Keath · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 8:16 pm Post subject:

Volodiya,

You're attitude embellishes the reason why more and more people are flocking away from this site. It used to be a friendly exchange, but now flamers like you have to light fires to fix their ego..

I give my time and advice for free, and in this situation due to enforcement of the new visa regulation IT IS NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE TO CONVERT a L or F to a Z VISA IN CHINA! This is since July, 2005. Schools and teachers used to be able to convert the L and F visas before; but it is not possible now for 95% of the schools and organizations that we work with.

Perhaps that will change, the one thing for sure is that things in China always Change. However as of present moment unless you have those two documents BEFORE you enter china, you wont get a Z visa in China unless you get those two invitation letters and head to Hong Kong.. BUT you wont b able to do it locally in about 95% of the cases.

My company processes visas and deals with the government on these isues every day. We've been doing this for nearly 6 years.

So, whatever the experience of countless folks including myself and our company in the PAST, the reality of the PRESENT is what I am giving my advice on.. Pop your head out of your arse..

Volodiya · Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:36 pm Post subject:

Keath, I understand you to be a recruiter. I have seen you repeatedly assert on these forums that a foreign teacher must have a Z visa when he enters the country, if he wishes to work, and that this is the case, countrywide (as opposed to something that may vary from province to province). In this post, you assert that has been true since July, this year. You may be right. But, at this point, you are, to my knowledge, alone in your assertion that, it is not possible for an FT to get documented to work in China unless he has entered on a Z visa, and this assertion is at variance with the recent experiences of our posters.

Why is it that I don't just immediately assume you must be right about this? Because, in reaching conclusions on subjects regarding work in China, I've relied on a large number of sources of information. First, has been the law of China, coupled with the administrative rules, such as are available on the net. Second, has been the experiences of our posters, as reported on this forum. Insofar as possible, I've asked posters to provide full details of their experiences, in open forum, and by PM, when that was not possible.

Your posts represent only one additional source of information. I have, as with others, asked you to provide detailed, factually based reports of your experiences with this issue. To date, you have not done so. Why don't you do that now, tell us about specific cases in which you've been unable to get clients documented in provinces where, before July, it wasn't a problem.

In the meantime, I'll simply be awaiting further posts to this forum, and official reports, if any, of changes to the law.

GeminiTiger · Posted: Sat Oct 01, 2005 1:33 am Post subject:

NateM · Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 358

I would also like to second, (third?), the recommendation of visarite. More than just get it processed quickly, they answered a bunch of my questions I had about the visas themselves. However, I don't think they'll process it if you only have a fax of the documents, and not the documents themselves.

Keath · Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 2:30 am Post subject:

V-

Are you a moderator? I just went through a history of your posts and I cannot find anywhere where you or "others" as you claim, have made such a request.

Frankly, There is a lot of bad advice given here. For anyone to suggest it is better to go to China and teach on a L or F visa is irresponsible in these times. Especially for new teachers with limited international travel experience or small fixed incomes. The likely scenario is that they will have to burden the unnecessary cost of travel outside mainland China to renew their F or L visas every 90-days or get stuck in China without a legal job adding to the already large population of china-jaded Dave�s ESL addicts.

I'm open to constructive criticism but I have no tolerance for over zealous ignorance. Are you in China? Or do you just form your opinions based on everything you read here?

I manage a company that is licensed in the state of Connecticut and Chicago IL with offices in Australia, China Canada and the USA. We do business in all of China, not just one province and the advice I give is based on that experience. I've also spend considerable time on the ground in China, teaching and researching the market and I have more than 13 years international teaching experience in several other countries.

I've made many posts here under Keath and Journeyeast. You can do your own research.

Volodiya · Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2005 5:39 am Post subject:

Keath, I know you must be busy, but I may, nevertheless, ask you, from time to time, to tell us the basis upon which you've asserted, on a number of occasions on these forums, recently, that is impossible to get documented to live and work in China, unless you've entered on a Z visa- and that this has been the case, since July, this year (though it would seem to me to be a rather easy thing for you to do).

On this thread, I asked Keath to offer some further evidence of his claim, as follows: