Job Discussion Forums

[vikuk]

[un]

RE:

[james s]

If u have to go, go. Remember that your foreign exper certificate is yours (unless the writing on the back inside cover has changed) and needs to go with you. with it, the school can take steps to cancel your visa. if you have it they can not.

a scool that i worked at in the past had this situation occur:

3 people, 2 american and 1 canadian needed to leave a situation

the 2 american left the expert certificate with the school. they 'could not transfer schools because of it'. the third, the canadian took his with him.

one of the americans turned over his passportfor photocopying to th school and 24 hours later he was in hong kong (do not turn over your passport).

one of the americans lined up another job at an exporting company. they told him to turn ver his passport and he did, visa was cancelled and new visa issued.

the canadian did not answer calls from the school or its affiliates again. a year later, new contract came up and he had to go to hong kongfor visa renewal. no problems with foreign expert certificate.

i am not sure if any of the rules have changed but one thing i am certain is that for the feds to cancel your visa they must have your passport to legally stamp 'canceled' on. i do not know of any complcations which may occur after, one may have to live in a different province...

[smellymelly]

i had to break contract - i was attacked by a man outside my apartment. my school didn't do anything to help me and i felt so unsafe - so i decided to leave and break my contract. i wouldnt have broken my contract if this hadn't happened --- i want to return to china now to teach in another part of the country and worry i wont be able to get a job anywhere now. i did hand over my foreign expert certificate. my visa from the job i broke the contract with expires in 1 1/2 months...would i be able to get a new job after that? am i really "blacklisted" and banned from teaching in china again? I am sooo frustrated!

[garbotara]

I think sometimes you have to think about your health. If the school is not treating you well get out. There aren't that many foreigners now in Beijing for example anyway. Maybe one day they will realize that treating foreigners badly is not the way to go.

[smellymelly]

do hong kong and china have separate visas in order to work there?

[therock]

[stillnosheep]

Smellymelly: You don't have a problem. As has been said by others if the school didn't have your pasport and use their guanxi to get 'cancelled'stamped over your visa atthe time then you are OK.

More generally: You are allowed to leave your job.

If you are leaving because of problems with the the school it may be worth asking your local consulate to check whether the school holds the necessary permit to employ foreign experts.

If it doesn't, even if uses guanxi to get permits for its teachers to work, then not only can you legally walk free without giving any notice, but you will be in a better position to negotiate a payout of a fair proportion of the contract-end bonus and air-fare home agreed at the start of contract.

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=65634

[Kirkpatrick]

Don't ever hand over your shit.. I f you do you will be on the next plane out of here to your detriment... Go to a new school they sort it out for you... Never ever leave the school in any kind of control..

[Teatime of Soul]

The Foreign expert certificate does not belong to the employee. It belongs to the Chinese govt. The school is the custodian of the document and the teacher is the bearer of the document.

The FEC explicitly ties one unique FT to one unique employer. When the FT changes employers, the FT surrenders the old FEC and is issued a new one by the new employer.

It is always preferable to attempt to negotiate a departure rather than burn bridges.

A run to HK will not remove the open sticker in your passport, nor in the database of the PSB. It may take some explaining as to how you need a new Residence Permit when you already have one open at another school.

Granted, not every PSB does the same due diligence check on issuing documents, but many in fact do check.

If at all possible, attempt a peaceable exit. Failing that, you'll have to use whatever means necessary and appropriate.

[evaforsure]

If you retain your old FEC then there is the opportunituy to transfer the FEC as opposed to getting a new one.

[Teatime of Soul]

[evaforsure]

From the experience that I have had recently.. possession of the book is imperative to the transfer of the FE status and if it belongs to the government as you have stated, which I also believe to be true, then by returning it to a government authority, you have not done anything that is not appropriate.

[arioch36]

Technically, in the FEC it says it is to be returned to the school when leaving. I kept one of mine for the fun of it, as many schools didn't care. In Henan at least they now keep a closer track of them then in the past. Will be a shame if I can't keep the new one, a nifty blue

[Teatime of Soul]

Actually, many schools, when audited, are required to show the FEC of former employees as part of the inspection process.

Since schools have a legitimate need of this document, and it is required to be returned to the school.

There would need be a highly compelling reason for an FT to take something that didn't belong to him and was needed by another party.

Don't FTs universally condemn it when a school proposes to keep a FTs passport?

By Evaforsure's logic, would it it would be okay for schools to keep FTs passports and later, at their leisure, return them to the FTs Embassy?

Evaforsure