Job Discussion Forums

naturegirl321 · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 9041 Location: home sweet home

If I finish my contract, and want to come back to China to teach in the future, will I need a letter of release?
Basically, I will finish in August 2004. Want to leave for a year or two and then come back to China.

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

I personally would say no, though I have no idea of the actual regulations. But the reality is you will be starting all over again, new invitation letter, new residence permit!!! etc. The problem of not having a release letter seems to only happen whne you are switching jobs not leaving China, on the same residence permit.

So if you are gone from China for two years, when you come back it will be like your first time, in their books. Still, doesn't hurt to have one. Basically you write it yourself, if you want (just like the recommendation letters from Chinese professors that are written by the student. Have the leader stamp it, and it is something nice to have.

Basically says

Suzie was a devoted teacher who pu her full effort into her job and completed her year of teaching in good order. or some stuff like that

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

The only reason you need a release letter is to transfer your Z Visa, Residence Permit, and Foreign Expert Certificate from one granting institution to another...ie if you change jobs without leaving China. If you leave the country without a re-entry permit, your visa automatically expires and no transfer letter is needed.

MT

traveller · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Posts: 100

So, it's safe to assume that every time I change jobs in China, I need a release letter. Well, it's good for a newbie to know this...

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

may I chip in with some "new" information gleaned today from my FAO/
New timetable, new classes, first day of first week after the national holidays, and my request to please, please proceed with the application for my work visa...
"Yes, yes, yes, but you MUST give us TWO letters of RECOMMENDATION!"

Letters of RECOMMENDATION?????
I have one very helpful letter of recommendation, but they insist it has to be TWO, and no ordinary RELEASE LETTERS!
Small problem, not a big one - I can ask at least three recent employers to furnish me such a paper.
But if you have no "friends", it might be hopeless!

This is Guangdong - hopefully in other parts of the country they are less exacting!

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Traveller-
Yes, you need a release letter to transfer a Z visa and its accompanying documents from one place to another. And if you don't have a Z visa etc. you're getting screwed over anyway...

If your split from your last employer is, uh, less than amicable, you still have the option of sliding down to Hong Kong (ASAP, before the rat b*stard can cancel your visa), getting a cheap tourist visa, returning to your city in China, and starting over with a Z visa from your new employer. No need to grovel to school owners at outgoing jobs...however, just to be safely legal I would prefer to send them 5 2x2 photos of my hairy, naked white butt if I did this. Twisted Evil

Roger-
are you somehow getting a Z visa yourself, not through an employer?!? I think they always need various "letters" to get a Z but the employers usually excrete something for you...

MT

noodles · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 67

Can a reference letter also double as a release letter?

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

No, I am not obtaining my work visa ON MY OWN - wouldn't know how to go about it anyway!
I do currently have a business visa, but for job stability's sake I want a regular work visa. The school insisted they need two recommendation letters (maybe "reference letters" would do too - provided, I suppose they have been sealed by the PSB).
I asked about "release letter" - that would not do here. Am perplexed!
The issue is a bit more complicated as I quit my last job, causing my then employer enormous loss of face. She is still in a huff, and I can't get her to write up any nice prose about me.
On the other hand, I was reported on in local newspapers, and that had a positive influence on my new hirer.
That's why she wants me to get a second recommendation letter...
I have negotiated with a training centre I have worked for over three years. they will do it with no further hassles.
But I will have to travel to their premises.

gerard · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 581 Location: Internet Cafe

I am on my 2nd Z visa of this year and have not had to provide any letters.My first school asked for them but actually got the docs before I had the letters in hand. 2nd school did not even ask...But I guess it may be a case of the rules being different in each province.

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

Not so much the rules being different, but the people in charge being different. Sometimes the person doing the paperwork in the government office will be a stickler for details, ither time he will be lazy, or sometimes guanxi, and the FAO is friends with the guy.

It reminds of the guy who wrote and said...oh you don't nd your z-visa to be current to leave the country, or they didn't take my residence permit.

Well all that is true sometimes, but it isn't the rule or law. I don't know whether I am happy or not, but I suppose over time, as governments modernize, "the good old ways" will change. I actually find myself reminiscent over how thing were the first year I came here.

clomper · Joined: 07 Oct 2003 Posts: 251 Location: Beijing

Roger,

I'm in Guangdong province as well. Zhanjiang City to be exact. They only required one Recommendation Letter.

Claudine

yvechina · Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 20

I am in Shenzhen and have resigned from my job, done all the "right " things about repaying recruitment and visa charges and they are telling me it takes two weeks to get a release letter as it has to come from a Government Department. I have a z visa with multi entries that I was hoping to have re activated by my new employers. If the current school plays silly buggers, can I go to Hong Kong and get a Business visa or something, then start again? Or do I have to get this current z visa thing fixed up??????

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Why did you refund them "recruitment and visa charges"? Did you quit early?
Even so, they should issue you with a release letter on your last day, with no delay. If they are stalling, that's because they don't care about you.
Your current work visa does not entitle you to work for another employer. You must get it cancelled, then be reissued with a new one.
If you go to HK, you can only get a tourist or business visa if the PSB will cancel your current work visa. I guess they will not cancel it if there is still some time on it and you have no release letter.

yvechina · Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 20

Yes I am breaking the contract. Last month 2 teachers just ran away. I am certainly wishing I had dont the same!!! With no surprise...it is an EF franchise