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killian
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 937
Location: fairmont city, illinois, USA
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 Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 8:16 am Post subject: visa run to...america! |
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they say i must go back to my home country to get my work permit! not just another country but my home country.
any advice which chinese embassy in the US: LA, SF, NYC, DC is will be the least hassle? |
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Ariadne
Joined: 16 Jul 2004
Posts: 960
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| Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 9:03 am Post subject: |
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The least hassle would be using a visa service once you get there.
Fly to whichever city has the cheapest flights and where you have a place to stay.
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North China Laowei
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 419
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| Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:22 am Post subject: Re: visa run to...america! |
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| killian wrote: |
they say i must go back to my home country to get my work permit! not just another country but my home country.
any advice which chinese embassy in the US: LA, SF, NYC, DC is will be the least hassle? |
I am surprised at this. Hong Kong is still issuing the Z visa with no problems; when your school request your visa, etc., etc., did they not ask you where you want to pick up your papers?
Are you working for a government school or university or a private training center? This smacks to me of a private training center but perhaps I am wrong.
In terms of the Consulates, New York is the largest and probably the most knowledgeable. DC is fine and LA tends to be slower with the new information from the mainland. As for SF, I don't know one way or the other.
Perhaps if you might be kind enough to share some more information I could give you a better answer.
Thanks. |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:34 am Post subject: |
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new York City has always been good. The consulate convenient to the main bus terminal
But ... who is "they"? i feel like I am in the classroom pumping the student to give more information. The school? Some 22 y/o girl working the first job ever in the FAO office? Or the local PSB? Everbright visa service?
I wouldn't trust or mistrust the statement of the official at the school, but most of them don't know what they should know. Or why do you need to do this in the first place?
Who is going to pay for this trip? If it is you, I would be making some enquiries to ascertain for myself the truth. Of course you could be gutsy and send the passport back home to a friend (not that I am recommending it)
Of course, if it was my school, and I had to pay for a plane trip to my home country because they didn't give me a z-visa to begin with, I think I would find a new school.
Reason 1,001 to come here on a z-visa |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:51 pm Post subject: |
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| Best and cheapest way to deal with that is send your passport to visa agent in USA, then take a train to hong kong and back to complete the exit and entry formalities. |
what I actually meant. These agents go to the consulate with big bundles. Last time I was in the states used a Chinese company to buy my ticket, and they did my visa free of charge. It would still scare me to send my passport overseas
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| PS> Its really amusing reviewing all the posts, and seeing the users that advised folks to come here on a tourist visa starting to backpeddle |
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Moon Over Parma
Joined: 20 May 2007
Posts: 819
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| Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:28 pm Post subject: Re: visa run to...america! |
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| North China Laowei wrote: |
I am surprised at this. Hong Kong is still issuing the Z visa with no problems |
That is correct. A coworker just returned from a successful HK visa run. He has his working visa and was back to work on Monday. |
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Moon Over Parma
Joined: 20 May 2007
Posts: 819
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| Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:30 pm Post subject: |
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| arioch36 wrote: |
| new York City has always been good. The consulate convenient to the main bus terminal |
The Port Authority bus terminal. Spend the morning and afternoon reading a book and sipping joe in nearby Hell's Kitchen. |
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North China Laowei
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 419
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| Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:53 pm Post subject: See Below |
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| Moon Over Parma wrote: |
| arioch36 wrote: |
| new York City has always been good. The consulate convenient to the main bus terminal |
The Port Authority bus terminal. Spend the morning and afternoon reading a book and sipping joe in nearby Hell's Kitchen. |
It's still quite a hike from Port Authority on West 42nd to the Consulate which is way over by the Piers and it is surely not in the most pleasant of neighborhoods. All that being said, there is an MTA bus from Port Authority almost to the door of the Consulate.
Like Arioch36 said, you really need to check this one out carefully. Before I would fly home on my dime, more like my USD 2,000.00, I would find another school.
And like MoonOverParma wrote, yes, Hong Kong is still open for the Z visa. You are really being mislead, or so at least I feel. |
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killian
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 937
Location: fairmont city, illinois, USA
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| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 12:12 am Post subject: |
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my position is a bit unique. i work at a public middle school in the middle of no where. but...i don't work for the school. i work for a huge foreign corporation that is building manufacturing facilities nearby. the foreign company is "gifting" the local school with foreign teachers. the company wants to be here for the long run and knows that having workers who can do a bit of english is a good thing, so...here i am.
the school pretty much leaves me alone and knows nothing about the visa process. the company leaves me alone but seemingly knows nothing about the visa process for folks from natioons other than it's home nation.
i am not paying for any of it. if i go to HK, fine. seoul, OK. USA? ok. just paid vacation to me. |
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North China Laowei
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 419
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| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 4:18 am Post subject: Not Quite What You Said In the Beginning |
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| killian wrote: |
my position is a bit unique. i work at a public middle school in the middle of no where. but...i don't work for the school. i work for a huge foreign corporation that is building manufacturing facilities nearby. the foreign company is "gifting" the local school with foreign teachers. the company wants to be here for the long run and knows that having workers who can do a bit of english is a good thing, so...here i am.
the school pretty much leaves me alone and knows nothing about the visa process. the company leaves me alone but seemingly knows nothing about the visa process for folks from nations other than it's home nation.
i am not paying for any of it. if i go to HK, fine. seoul, OK. USA? ok. just paid vacation to me. |
Killian,
In all honesty, this was another one of the posts that occur on Dave's wherein the OP in the original post provides far less than the real information necessary that would enable the other posters on this Board to make any kind of an accurate judgment.
1. Who told you to come to China "immediately" as you wrote? The school that doesn't know anything about the visa process? The company that doesn't know anything about the visa process? Or, as I suspect, an agent, whose sole concern is his or her commission...
2. Next, perhaps you are under the impression that you can just fly to New York or DC or wherever and apply for a Z visa. That's not the case. Not now, not ever.
3. With whom is your contract? Is your contract with the corporation? It definitely does not appear to be with the school.
4. Does the corporation, which if I appear to read your post correctly, have the right and the authority to employ foreign teachers? Have the Department of Labor and the Education Bureau of the provincial government wherever you are, given a work authorization to the foreign corporation to hire a foreign national to teach in a public middle school? That is a crucial question. No labor authorization, no authorization from the Department of Education, no FEC and thus no visa. All of those steps take at least 4-6 weeks for someone coming in the first time, particularly in an out-of-the-way place as you write.
5. If the foreign corporation for whom you work, I believe, has the labor authorization, signed and stamped, has the Department of Education authorization, signed and stamped, has sent you already for an in-country medical examination and you have passed this medical examination, and then has applied for and obtained a Foreign Expert Card for you, then they will need to issue an Official Letter of Invitation, signed and stamped. Once you have the Letter of Invitation, then you are on your way to Hong Kong. Don't even think about Seoul. You will not obtain that kind of a visa there these days under most circumstances.
6. Forgive me, Killian, but I don't buy the bit about the foreign corporation showing its largess to the poor indigenous peoples by gifting them with a foreign teacher. I believe that most likely these small rural middle schools in the middle of nowhere do not have the necessary paperwork to hire a foreign teacher and the foreign corporation is simple acting in an agent capacity. I have seen this little number many times before in China. And then the foreign corporation gifts you to the school, the foreign corporation pays you but what the foreign corporation doesn't tell you or forgive me, what you haven't told us, is that these small rural schools then pay the foreign corporation for your services from money out of their general ledgers with a hefty surcharge for your services included in the foreign corporation's invoice. That happens all the time around here.
7. Next, what your original post meant to say, it is clear now, is that neither you nor the school where you work nor the foreign corporation that holds your contract knows anything about obtaining proper papers for you. That is, I hate to say it, a lethal combination.
8. Finally, if they were a Chinese corporation, and a major one, even though you are a minor player in the scheme of things, they would have been able to fix all of this mess in about 3-4 telephone calls. It's a different endgame for a foreign corporation, particularly in the current climate, and I pray to God that your foreign corporation is not French, nor German, nor Japanese nor from one of those countries that has made such a ruckus about the Torch. In that case, kiss your remote village good-bye.
9. An eleventh-hour scenario would be that the foreign corporation tries to hire you as a foreign worker and pretends you are not a teacher, at least to the provincial government. That is doable and has happened in the past around here but if you are caught, and remember you are in the middle of nowhere where you cannot exactly hide your true occupation, then expect -- sooner or later -- a visit from the PSB and a little trip outside the country.
Frankly, forgive me, why didn't you just lay the real scenario out really clearly in the beginning? |
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flutterbayou
Joined: 01 Apr 2006
Posts: 244
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| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 8:26 am Post subject: visa |
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Thank you, last poster.
When an OP asks what he is to do, we can only hope the traveller gives us a factual scenario, complete and without half-hidden truths.
The fact is that although teachers must apply for their work visas in their home countries before they come to China, there are many government schools and universities which can get everything done after a teacher arrives. It is not supposed to happen that way, but often does.
I recall that this question was posed a few months back, say in September. At that time, I explained to the OP that no one can get the work visa in a country other than his home country.
The question is whether Killian will leave China with the invitation and foreign expert okay he needs to apply for the z visa, or if he is going to be held up somewhere without a means of getting things done.
To skip to the chase, Killian, find another school in a developed area that will get your paperwork done without you needing to leave the country. If you have your authentic and original diplomas with you, then you should have no trouble. |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 12:14 pm Post subject: |
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Arioch36
| Quote: |
| The consulate convenient to the main bus terminal |
Thanx for not busting on my Chinglish. I was celebrating May Day a bit early
North Laowai wrote a perfect post. All of my thoughts entirely. And even written in good english. Wino, Flutter. How often are we all in total agreement. Think that says something.
Who says Dave's ain't helpful.
But hey, if they are offering a free trip back to the States ( within the realm of the possible)
And are giving you a work invitation letter before you go (have my doubts) go for it.
The laws haven't changed. Hong Kong, for visa purposes, is not mainland China. |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 12:14 pm Post subject: |
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Arioch36
| Quote: |
| The consulate convenient to the main bus terminal |
Thanx for not busting on my Chinglish. I was celebrating May Day a bit early
North Laowai wrote a perfect post. All of my thoughts entirely. And even written in good english. Wino, Flutter. How often are we all in total agreement. Think that says something.
Who says Dave's ain't helpful.
But hey, if they are offering a free trip back to the States ( within the realm of the possible)
And are giving you a work invitation letter before you go (have my doubts) go for it.
The laws haven't changed. Hong Kong, for visa purposes, is not mainland China. |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 12:14 pm Post subject: |
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Arioch36
| Quote: |
| The consulate convenient to the main bus terminal |
Thanx for not busting on my Chinglish. I was celebrating May Day a bit early
North Laowai wrote a perfect post. All of my thoughts entirely. And even written in good english. Wino, Flutter. How often are we all in total agreement. Think that says something.
Who says Dave's ain't helpful.
But hey, if they are offering a free trip back to the States ( within the realm of the possible)
And are giving you a work invitation letter before you go (have my doubts) go for it.
The laws haven't changed. Hong Kong, for visa purposes, is not mainland China. |
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arioch36
Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 3589
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| Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 12:14 pm Post subject: |
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Arioch36
| Quote: |
| The consulate convenient to the main bus terminal |
Thanx for not busting on my Chinglish. I was celebrating May Day a bit early
North Laowai wrote a perfect post. All of my thoughts entirely. And even written in good english. Wino, Flutter. How often are we all in total agreement. Think that says something.
Who says Dave's ain't helpful.
But hey, if they are offering a free trip back to the States ( within the realm of the possible)
And are giving you a work invitation letter before you go (have my doubts) go for it.
The laws haven't changed. Hong Kong, for visa purposes, is not mainland China. |
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