Job Discussion Forums

[backtochina2017]

"Check to see if your degree needs to be authenticated by the consulate too."

This comment keeps coming up. Why are you mentioning consulate? Consulate gives the Z visa, correct?

This is at the end of the process, correct?

I would be going to the consulate, waiting 4 days for the Z visa to process or have some courier service you mentioned.

Either case, it is at the end of the process. Why would there be a need to check if the degree needs to be authenticated by the consulate?

If you go to the consulate to get your Z visa, and they say what you are saying might happen, "Oh you need to get the degree authenticated at the consulate" I would say, "Ok, I am here, you are the consulate, authenticate it"

Why do you need to tell me now to authenticate it? Is there a waiting period for consulates to authenticate a degree? Can they not authenticate it when someone goes to the consulate thinking they are just getting the Z visa?

If the consulate needs to authenticate the degree (or diploma) I would think that could be at the time one goes for the Z visa.

Instead of suggesting half ideas, please spell out why one would get the diploma authenticated by the consulate at this stage where the working permit and invitation letter have not been obtained yet. No school or recruiter so far have required a consulate to authenticate the diploma. I have talked to over 20 recruiters so far and interviewed with 10 schools wanting to hire me.

Please be more thorough in your replies OhBudPowellWhereArtThou

It is hard to corroborate what you are saying unless there is a site or something which says "Go to consulate, get degree authenticated, THEN send that to recruiter or school"

Do you have something that states that? Specifically, not just a web address.

"If you don't have a school lined up"

This shows you are not even reading the thread. There is no need to "IF" this thread. I have a school, I have a recruiter, I have sent all my documents I feel 100% done. The thread was started AFTER I had a school lined up.

If you have something specific to share regarding this, please share. Otherwise, please stay out of the thread and let others contribute here. I am tired of your scare tactics.

[OhBudPowellWhereArtThou]

I read the first two lines of your latest post then I stopped.

I apologize if I repeat myself. I don't re-read every one of your entries every day as if I were a personal counselor. I don't know what you have actually done. I have merely read what you have reported.

I've given you advice. Take it or leave it. I'm out of this discourse at this point.

Have a nice day.

[rocket man]

I'm actually going to be a nice guy and try and be simple here as this thread has gotten confusing

Did you:
1) follow these procedures? http://www.chinaconsulatechicago.org/eng/ywzn/qzhz/gz/t1241404.htm

step 3 seems a little confusing in a nutshell if you are NOT sending it to Chicago since you said your diploma was from M*ch*g*n (sorry Ohio St fan here, I can't spell your states name) as they have jurisdiction over your state or the document is a FEDERAL document YOU DO NOT NEED to send it to the US Dept of State. If you were sending to Houston for example then it would need it.

If you did, you should be fine. I would though given you are a long way from Chicago find an agent to get the diploma to and from the consulate. You said an agent wanted $1000 for this? thats BS, I had mine done for $100 when I was living in Austin and dealing with the Houston Consulate, do a google search. I found this on my own: https://www.oasischinavisa.com/authentication/ here is another one: http://www.chinavisaforyou.com/

the consulate DOES NOT ACCEPT MAILED IN APPLICATIONS NOR WILL THEY SEND IT BACK!!! I assume you do not the time or the money to drive/fly to Chicago, sit around for 3-4 days waiting to pick it up.I figured I saved a couple of hundred bucks by using one figuring in the cost of gas to drive 600 miles (2 round trips to Houston) plus losing 2 full days of work getting it These agents know what they are doing, use them!!!

Good luck!!! Hope once you get this done and get your invitation letter you don't have the problems getting the visa I had. Houston rejected my invitation TWICE!!! Once because they couldn't scan the barcode on the letter, the second time because the letter said in Chinese "To the EMBASSY of the Peoples Republic of China" not CONSULATE, that rejection cost my school $500 in plane ticket change fees. Hopefully Chicago won't be that bad

[backtochina2017]

[Osiry]

You're asking for advice and getting mad when it doesn't line up with what you want to hear. You need to get it authenticated at the Chinese Consulate so that you can send it away to China to get your invitation letter. You then use the invitation letter to apply for your visa. Two different processes. Two different trips to the Consulate.

[hz88]

backtochina2017,

At the risk of sounding confrontational, you do have a tendency to dismiss what people say as someone who knows all the answers.

We give our advice based on what we know. A previous post on another topic in which you gave multiple tomes of answers proved this. What I said was correct from the beginning.

[backtochina2017]

"You're asking for advice and getting mad when it doesn't line up with what you want to hear. "

I am questioning what I see. Up until your post, I haven't found a reason to go to the consulate before I get the invitation letter and work permit. Now, someone, you, have stated I would need a consulate trip in order to get my invitation letter and work permit. Up until now, that hasn't been mentioned or listed on the sites I have gone to. The schools and recruiters I have talked with have not stated they needed a consulate visit before applying for the invitation letter and work permit. Now that you have raised this, I will need to talk with them in a couple hours when they sign on and find out if this is indeed the case. I have had recruiters tell me if I don't have a TEFL certificate I can't get a job, but there are some schools that state TEFL is not needed depending on location. I feel what you have stated might be in the same category.

At the end of the day, I am not mad at anyone. I am just trying to get facts. If my school can get me an invitation letter and work permit without what you are saying is needed, then I will bring the diploma to the consulate when I prepare for the Z visa to make sure. Thank you for the heads up in this matter.

This makes me very HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY, JOY JOY. Not sad, not mad, but HAPPY!!!

"You then use the invitation letter to apply for your visa."

Well, I'll see what the school has to say about it, because so far they accepted what I gave and may or may not come back with a request to get it authenticated through the consulate. It seems rather absurd to need it authenticated twice. If they do it once, that should be good enough.

"At the risk of sounding confrontational, you do have a tendency to dismiss what people say as someone who knows all the answers."

I am not dismissing what people say, I am actually looking at it and saying, "ok, I have to go to the consulate twice? Really? Why?"

This is a reasonable question. I don't feel guilty for asking this.

Osiry has given a reason why, and now I will have to wait and see how applicable it is in my case. They might be 100% correct for a Beijing or Shanghai position, but I am going to a place in China that doesn't even have Baidu map photos. Normally, you get blue highlighted roads showing you can get street view. Well, where I am going there are no street view options. You can only get a road map view looking down. Perhaps, my school won't need it. If they do, now I know a reason why.

That's all I was asking. I am challenging people's replies so I can get a thorough response. I am not mad, and I am not trying to be confrontational. Now that I have a good reason why the consulate may need to get involved earlier I will question my school in a couple hours and find out the truth.

If I don't need to go to the consulate I will definitely update when I get my Z visa to let teachers know what exactly happened. This is how I roll. I am not mad, I am not confrontational, but I expect truth and honesty. I expect thorough knowledge and not just links to websites that have 60% of the information we teachers need.

I will go the extra miles to make sure. If you see it as mad or confrontational, it's on you. I honestly don't care. I do what I do because I am me. If you want to say I am a bit OCD on this, ok. I accept that.

I would rather challenge people on here and get feedback like Osiry is saying now than wait 4 weeks and find out, "Oh!! I needed to have that diploma authenticated through the consulate to get the invitation letter and work permit."

Now I know, knowing is half the battle. Rant finished. Let's get along and share what we know, if we don't know, it's ok. You don't have to know everything, but don't send out links thinking that is all the information there is. We teachers have experience, and we should share notes more than rely on what sites have listed. Especially with the changes, we are the ones who are in the know best.

“Schools cannot get approval for the invitation letter without the authentication proof. I don't understand why that is so hard to understand.“

It’s not hard to understand, Osiry just brought this up, and now I am going to look into it. Why is it so hard to understand someone wants that brought up if it really is an issue. Now that it is brought up, I will look into it. Thank you and Osiry for clarifying this.

“I am not American and am not familiar with the US system but several people have told you how to do this.”

I only saw it in Osiry’s post. For some reason it was short, concise, direct and it addressed what I asked. It wasn’t a link to another site. Perhaps, that’s the best way to inform people. I find when I know a process in and out, send people to a site with a lot of options, it just confuses them. If I already know the process, then a simple direct reply Osiry gave tends to get the point across. Quality over quantity.

“I appreciate you have been in China before but as I have said many times, things have changed almost beyond recognition in the last twelve months and are continuing to do so.“

That’s why I am asking, knowing about your teacher in Wisconsin helps to bring credence to this. I will ask my school and find out if it is really necessary or something I can validate/authenticate with the consulate after.

One thing that crossed my mind is that perhaps people in China can’t go to their university or have someone go there, so authenticating it through the consulate bypasses this need. Since I am in the states, it might be possible to use the university in lieu of what else might be needed or has been the new custom. Again, I will ask my school and find out. They are the ones submitting the paperwork now. Either it goes through or it doesn’t. If it is needed then I will go to the consulate. I see this as a common sense approach instead of worrying about every possible permutation and intentionally delaying things. Should I get a criminal background check? Should I get a TEFL certificate? Should I get extra immunization shots? Should I have a Master’s? Should I get it all appostilled through Washington DC? Should I wait until September and start the year then? Should I wait to see if teachers are leaving their school or apply earlier? Should I.....

I can do that, or sitting back as a realistic person, I send what I have now. If they say, “We need more”, I give more. If they say, “We have enough, you can go get your Z visa” then guess what? I go to the consulate and I get my Z visa.

No one is mad, no one is confrontational here. I am just trying to make sense of it.

“If we give you advice it is what we know from our experience.”

That’s great, and I will do the same. Right now I am not experiencing a recruiter or school telling me that I have done the process wrong. Perhaps I am. At that point I will rectify the situation and do what is needed. I can only provide what they are telling me they need and accept. I was told for a while I needed a TEFL certificate, and I delayed things because of that. If I had just applied like I am now, then perhaps this issue of a consulate diploma authentication visit could have been done in October or November. Sometimes, our experiences are crucial in some instances and sometimes our experiences are not necessary in other people’s experiences.

Let’s also look at things objectively.

[nimadecaomei]

I somehow doubt your school has actually went to the FEB, when they do expect new documents to be needed. Rule of thumb in China, always prepare more documents than people tell you are needed.

[backtochina2017]

[backtochina2017]

Here's another place that can do visa services, and they have offices in each city where the consulates are.

http://www.mychinavisa.com/china-visa/work-visa/

Has anyone used this service? Is there a way to verify they are a legit group we can send our stuff to?

[rocket man]

[backtochina2017]

This is an update on my work visa regarding the diploma. I am from Michigan in the USA. I did NOT have to go to 3 places before submitting my application to a China visa service in Chicago, http://www.mychinavisa.com/locations/chicago/

They told me earlier today that I can expect my Z visa on March 1. I did NOT send my authenticated diploma to them for the Chicago consulate to authenticate. The two places I went to were the university registrar's office and then the Secretary of State's office, current web address http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127-1638_48214---,00.html

You have to go to one of the main branches to get this done. Local ones may only handle car related issues.

I then sent scanned pictures to my new school in China before getting the work permit and invitation letter.

If anyone knows about the next steps in getting the FEC and residence permit, does the original diploma need to be given to the new school? I am going to bring it with me to China anyway, but I want to know what other people's experiences are in China.

[Mr. Kalgukshi]

If the "idiot" and like comments continue, this thread will not along with the makers of such comments.

[plumpy nut]

[rocket man]