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AvogadrosNumber
Joined: 09 Mar 2008
Posts: 3
Location: Brooklyn
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 Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:28 pm Post subject: Visa Question |
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| I'm going to be entering China in July to travel around for a couple months before starting work in September. I plan to stay until next September. I know that I need to get a work visa, but should I also get a tourist visa for the July - September period? |
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lf_aristotle69
Joined: 06 May 2006
Posts: 546
Location: HangZhou, China
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| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:58 pm Post subject: Re: Visa Question |
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| AvogadrosNumber wrote: |
| I'm going to be entering China in July to travel around for a couple months before starting work in September. I plan to stay until next September. I know that I need to get a work visa, but should I also get a tourist visa for the July - September period? |
EDIT: I was going to put this on the Z visa and RP "Sticky" on this BBS, but it didn't quite seem like the right place.
So, I guess I'll post my 2 cents here after all...
If you can arrange the work visa and resident permit (RP) as soon as you arrive with your employer, then definitely do so. However, if it's your first contract with them (i.e. they don't know you from Adam) they are almost certainly not going to agree. You might say that you will initially pay all the expenses and wait until the semester starts to be remunerated, but I still doubt a new employer would take the risk that you would just use there visa to run around the country and find a job somewhere else during the 2 months.
Perhaps, if your employer has their own Summer school in July and/or August they might consider giving you the RP early if you also signed a contract for the subsequent Aug/Sep to January semester.
But, they're big maybes I think. Hypotheticals really.
I've only had to go to Hong Kong once in my 6 years here, I walked across from ShenZhen for a day trip.
If you want to save a few bucks it might be cheaper to stay in ShenZhen and get up early in the morning and walk across the border into Hong Kong, pay the extra money for same day visa processing and then go back across to ShenZhen in the afternoon. Unless you really want to spend a night (or two) in Hong Kong?
Good luck,
LFA |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 5:46 am Post subject: |
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Along the lines of aristotle, you can try to get the school to start your contract early, including three unpaid months for the purpose of cultural familiarization. One month, I think many schools would go for, three months??? Doesn't hurt to try, but if I was the FAO I would probably say no.
So what the other posters said sounds pretty sound! |
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HunanForeignGuy
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 989
Location: Shanghai, PRC
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| Posted: Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:39 am Post subject: The Visa Situation and Work |
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First, about the visa situation -- which as always remains fluid here in China -- I recently received an email from an efficient visa agent in Hong Kong which I have pasted below :
"Thanks for your email regarding the visa. If you need to renew your visa you have to come Mondays-to-Fridays. In April, the visa office will be closed on Saturday and Sunday. the visa we can offer is a 30-days 3 month "F" or 3 month "L" visas. If you want to obtain your visa the same day you need to come to our office before 9:30am then you can pick up your visa by 18:00pm. Application sumitted after 9:30am you will not get your visa till lunch time next day. "
This information applies only to United States citizens applying for visas in Hong Kong. What this means is that an L or F visa of a total duration of 90-days can be obtained in Hong Kong but the maximum stay on any one entry is thirty-days.
Next, regarding the Z visa, as others have said, that is the easiest route if you can find a school that is willing to do that. Many schools in China are loathe to process a Z visa before the teacher arrives given the vagaries that have occurred in the past. A Z visa is a single-entry vehicle that then metamorphoses into a residence permit good for either six months, eleven months or one year, depending on the wishes of the sponsor. This residence permit allows multiple exits-and-re-entries into the PRC for the duration of the visa.
HFG |
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bearcanada
Joined: 04 Sep 2005
Posts: 312
Location: Calgary, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 3:09 am Post subject: |
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It baffles me why anyone wants to deal with the visa agencies in HK when the best they can provide is a 90-day visa with a 30-day maximum stay.
Why not just go to the Chinese consulate in HK and get a one year visa with a max stay of 120 days? If you pay a rush fee, they will do it in one day.
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HunanForeignGuy
Joined: 05 Jan 2006
Posts: 989
Location: Shanghai, PRC
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| Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:00 am Post subject: |
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| bearcanada wrote: |
It baffles me why anyone wants to deal with the visa agencies in HK when the best they can provide is a 90-day visa with a 30-day maximum stay.
Why not just go to the Chinese consulate in HK and get a one year visa with a max stay of 120 days? If you pay a rush fee, they will do it in one day.
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Your information is dated and as I mentioned what I wrote applies only to United States citizens.
Previously, United States citizens had been more-or-less restricted to single-entry thirty-day tourist visas and single-entry thirty-day F visas in a tit-for-tit visa thing. That changed recently and now the 90-day visas have become available.
120-day visas are currently not available to United States citizens in Hong Kong and those Canadian citizens that I know personally that have received their visas in Hong Kong have recieved 60-or-90 day visas.
If you have other more up-to-date information than that which I received last week, it would be appreciate, I am sure, by all. |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 8:37 am Post subject: |
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HFG
| Quote: |
| Many schools in China are loathe to process a Z visa before the teacher arrives given the vagaries that have occurred in the past. |
This I definitely disagree with. Schools might not want to have your time start three months early. I have been here seven years. NEVER, NEVER had a school not give, or not offer me a z-visa before coming. SOP standard procedure. I know lots of laowai hee in Henan, all the schools, except shady or very inexperienced schools. Sometimes a very inexperienced FAO at a new language school doesn't know the procedure, and they say come on a L visa. And trouble results. Not debating if you should or shouldn't come on a z-visa (my opinion is obvious) Any school that balks at giving a z-visa, that is a sign of potential trouble. The invitation letter is cheap and quick.
So the 90 days visa, you must leave the country within 30 days? Seems a waste. leaving the country would be going to Hong Kong, Macau, and others places? What Chinese places are not China? I have forgotten. |
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7969
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 5782
Location: Coastal Guangdong
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| Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 1:42 pm Post subject: |
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| bearcanada wrote: |
| It baffles me why anyone wants to deal with the visa agencies in HK when the best they can provide is a 90-day visa with a 30-day maximum stay. Why not just go to the Chinese consulate in HK and get a one year visa with a max stay of 120 days? If you pay a rush fee, they will do it in one day. |
one reason is time. you can get the visa at the place in wan chai easily enough, but depending on how many people show up for visas that day, you can be waiting awhile. i sat there last summer and waited four hours before i got to the front of the line as they only had two wickets open, and one moron arguing with one of the clerks wasted nearly an hour on his pointless argument.
second, a lot of people dont know where that wan chai office is. visa agents are all over the place in HK.
third, people may only need a 90 day visa and a visa agent is easy to find and depending on which one you go to, just as cheap as the china visa office in wan chai.
by the way, one visa office in hong kong will currently offer someone holding a canadian passport a 3 month (thats 90 days maximum stay), multiple entry F visa for HK$500, 4 hour service if you arrive before 9am. |
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