Job Discussion Forums

[amandapanda]

Are there cities in China that can process visas more quickly than others? For instance, would a smaller city have a more efficient bureaucracy than a larger one, and therefore get the process completed more quickly? I am really trying to go to Beijing, but I'm being told by an agency that Beijing is a big slow mess and that the school was unable to obtain a visa for me. If I will just run into a similar scenario with any other school in Beijing, I am somewhat reluctantly willing to go elsewhere. I had been waiting for this whole thing to go through since late July, and it has finally failed as of yesterday.

If anyone is knowledgeable about the processing times in different cities, if it indeed does differ from location to location, your help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

[BlueBlood]

I won't be applying for several months, but will let you know when I do (assuming thread is still active).

Based on the many posts I've seen here on Dave's board the past month, my suspicion is it's completely random. Fast and easy here; impossible there; horrendous wait time over there.

One board member said he was even able to complete his medical check himself. Another said he needed to pay $300 to have his completed (!). Then most say we have to do it all over again in-country, which frankly makes no sense to me.

TIC...

[Bud Powell]

This is how one gets a visa. This page will answer all of your questions if you are in the U.S.. You must not have paid much attention to all of the advice and direction given in this forum if you don't understand that an agent or a school cannot issue a visa.

http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/visas/adr/

This should help you too, bluebrood.

Good luck

[sui jin]

there is no such thing as an 'efficient bureaucracy' , only schools with the right authorisation to hire foreigners, and better or worse 'connections' (guanxi) with the bureaux. In your case it sounds like it is was the school/agency's problem and they shifted the blame to the 'mess in BJ' .

If you apply to a big private training school chain, or a public school in BJ, the visa should go through fine (but quickly or not , who knows?).

As a matter of interest , is there a particular reason you are limiting yourself to jobs in BJ?

[amandapanda]

I did some research on different regions in the country and I was the most interested in the southeast and Beijing. I like the arts and am interested in learning Mandarin, and apparently BJ is where you want to be to learn the language.

Thanks for your reply to my question. So you think that the story about Beijing being an inefficient bureaucracy is just a story? The thing is that I was contracted to work at a tony and expensive boarding school, which led me to believe that they would have government connections and influence. I guess I was wrong about that.

Feel free to recommend some cool places other than BJ if so inclined. I like culture and the arts, nature, and am not a huge partyer/talented drinker. This would be my first time living abroad.

Thanks everybody!

[DCHun]

[amandapanda]

Glad I made your evening.

Any other thoughts?

[sui jin]

I have never lived in Northern China, so to my ear BJ Mandarin sounds very strange and 'mannered' (maybe like RP or the Queen's English in England).

Probably for arts and culture , BJ and Shanghai are your best bet. Shanghai is less polluted than BJ and can be pleasant in the autumn/winter/spring. Summers almost everywhere in China are brutal.
For nature , maybe head west to Guangxi, Yunnan or Sichuan. Jiangxi is unspoilt but poor and backward. Personally , for cleaner air and more developed cities, I would stick to the eastern coastline , Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces, maybe Fujian. But down south in Guangdong (and poss Fujian?), fewer locals speak good Mandarin.
I would avoid the inland provinces like Shaanxi, and Shanxi, Henan, Hebei, Hunan, Hubei - but there are some good places there (Xi'an, for example).
I think many on this forum would recommend Dalian in the North, as a liveable, fairly international city with good schools.

[jimpellow]

You got caught up most likely in all the new visa laws. Beijing has been one of the strictest in terms of requirements and enforcement, so it follows that processing times have gone from ridiculous to ludicrous there. As a sweeping generalization, you will find that Eastern China has the toughest requirements and enforcement at this point, so probably best to avoid the region to respond to your first concern.

Hard to beat Beijing for Mandarin, but the southeast and the east for that matter generally have their own dialects like Wu which is fairly unintelligible to a native speaker of Mandarin. In my first smaller city which spoke its own dialect of Wu, the people in the eastern and western parts of the city even had a hard time communicating with each other. In my third city, it was considered Mandarin, but the second and fourth tones were reversed. Quite crazy! You can get a map which shows which dialects are spoken where in China. You will see that to the north of Beijing and to the west and southwest are predominantly Mandarin (at least in theory).

Also, the less developed parts of China to the north, west and southwest are generally easier for a visa. Being one who is never happy unless he is miserable, I have been thinking of leaving my nice little seaside resort apartment in the Philippines for another gig in China. Reputable school which pays well in Guangxi. Sort of amazing how little is demanded by the province compared to my last bitch fest on this list a couple months back about a position in Tianjin.

This leads to your second request. These less developed parts of China are GENERALLY less polluted and overrun with sprawl than the eastern seaboard (You haven't seen ugly sprawl until you witness the Chinese version of it). You can actually see the sky on occasion and more wildlife than just rats.

I loved Yunan when I travelled through there and have heard good things about Sichuan if you like a laid back lifestyle. I think Western China may be a bit of a challenge for a China newbie, but perhaps you are a natural adventurer.

The cost of living is less, so the wages will also be less. You need to keep that in mind, but not let them use that to take advantage of you. Believe me in that they will try. "In our poor city, you can live like an empress for 2000RMB a month!"

On an aside, if you decide to go for the less developed parts of China, get an offer and then ask on the list if it is an acceptable one. You may be new to China, but believe in your value when dealing with the Chinese and have a willingness to walk away from any contract that benefits them too much. Best way to avoid this situation is to stay away from Chinese recruiters, or pretty much any recruiter for that matter. There are so many jobs out there where you can contact the schools directly. Good luck!

[Bud Powell]

Everyone seems to have missed the opening question:

Are there cities in China that can process visas more quickly than others?

[chinatimes]

[Bud Powell]

Are you folks talking about processing letters of invitations from schools to which you have applied for employment or processing visas? THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

Pardon my ignorance, but as far as I know, changes in laws have not changed the fact that one must apply for a VISA to enter the country from the consulate in which one resides in his HOME country. You folks are talking as if you can obtain a visa from some government department within China.

"Splain it to me, Lucy.

[choudoufu]

hey, mr. babalu, you're missing that the post was started by a newbie with
only a few posts. no point in harassing the new guy yet. that comes later.

i'm sure everyone understands this person means processing the visa
invitation letter, or doing the paperwork to get the visa, and NOT getting
the actual visa.

chinatimes, however, is talkin' bout da rez permit.

[Bud Powell]

Ah, yes, Cho, that seems to be what they are talking about ,but none in the correspondence has taken the hint that their terminology is dead wrong. To allow such correspondence to continue without correction will lead others to believe that one can apply to a mainland-based Chinese city governmental agency for a visa.

Considering the widespread belief that the wumao have infiltrated so many FT forums, it's necessary to set their sails straight. No?

[chinatimes]