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[Fanyi]

Asked a question about this a month and a half ago, and finally got finished with all the applications, so thought I'd post an update for anyone who this might help.

Worked last year on a proper residence permit for teaching. I decided this would be my last semester teaching this spring, but still wanted to stay in China to go meet my fiancee's family. Problem of course was that my last day of teaching was June 27, and my RP expired June 30, meaning I had to work on another solution to stay in China longer.

I went to the local police station on June 19 to get a one month non-working extension of my RP, as the requirements online said to apply 7 days in advance and I wanted to be on the safe side. My school had to fill out some paperwork, put on their seal, etc. for this. When I got to the PSB, the lady was very nice and told me that the 7 day deadline was actually just to ensure that people didn't wait too long to apply and then show up on June 30 without the proper paperwork, and that since all my paperwork was in order I could come back later to apply. This was important because, as has been mentioned before here, the one month extension of a RP is for a month from the date you apply, not the date it is issued; if I had applied on June 19 my extension would have expired July 19. However, I'm not sure if this was just a case of a nice lady, or if this is true everywhere in China, so I'd still advise you to go early and check with the PSB about applying later.

I came back a week later, on June 26, and successfully applied for an extension lasting until July 25 (for anyone planning to travel, my passport was at the PSB from June 26 until July 4 I believe, so I wouldn't have been able to travel during this timeframe without additional paperwork).

Now here's where things get interesting. My fiancee also worked at my school, and she didn't finish work until July 10. We also had arranged with our landlord to hand over the apartment on July 25, meaning that I was going to need another visa to go meet her folks. We had been planning for a long time to go to Hong Kong together, and so left for and entered Hong Kong on July 11. The RP extension expires (at least this is what the PSB lady said) once you leave the country, so I no longer had a valid visa for China.

In Hong Kong we went to talk to a couple of agents after reading online that the China visa bureau in Hong Kong was no longer issuing tourist visas to those like me who had received extensions of their visa in China. The first visa agent we talked to said that it was possible that I would only be given a 14 day visa because of the extension I received on June 25. However she didn't sound very confident, so we went to visit CTS, where a lady who sounded like she knew what she was talking about said that I would not be given a visa longer than 14 days because of my extension.

This was obviously pretty frightening, as the other alternative seemed to be to spend 2000 dollars going back to the States to apply there, so we decided that rather than apply through a visa agent we would have my fiancee write a letter of invitation, explaining that we wanted to go see her parents, and that she would come with me to the China Resources Building (where the visa bureau is located) to help submit the papers. In addition to my documents, my fiancee brought the letter and a copy of her ID card. I got the idea for this from an ex-teacher at another school, who also obtained an extension from our local PSB two years ago (though this was before the policy on extensions was implemented last year), and then brought a letter with seal affixed from his school to the Hong Kong visa bureau stating that as he had worked at our school for 6-7 years he would need more time to collect his belongings/finish up his affairs, etc..

At the visa bureau, the lady went through all our papers quickly, then had my fiancee ( who was standing right there with me) write an additional statement and sign it. She then took the papers, and the next day I was given a 30 day multiple entry visa good for 6 months, which is obviously much better than a single entry 14 day visa.

The lessons to be learned?
1. If what the visa agents told me is true, it's really not worth doing an extension of your RP with your local PSB if you want to stay in China longer than 1 month after you finish your work. Both visa agents made it seem as if processing a longer tourist visa for me would have been possible if I hadn't done the extension
2. If you have to do the extension for some reason, and have a valid reason to stay in China longer, bring a note from your school, or loved one, etc. stating the reason. I really don't think I would have gotten more than a 14 day single entry visa if my fiancee hadn't brought the note (and been there personally to write the additional statement with information that we had neglected to give in the first letter). In fact, if you have a reason like this, I'd bring the note even if you didn't do the extension.
3. I've used visa agents in the US before, but never in Hong Kong. I'm especially glad I didn't use one this time, as I have a feeling that without being physically present it would have been much easier for the visa officer to turn down the application.

Obviously everything above is just my experience, and it's always possible that I've gotten parts of this wrong, or that things will change, but hope it's at least somewhat useful for anyone in a similar situation.

[Non Sequitur]

Thanks for posting.
Good luck to you both.

[JoeKing]

[kjkrause]

I applied for a visa in hong kong in June of this year and they told me because I had been in china for more then 4 months (residence permit) I was not able to apply in Hong Kong (Canadian passport). I begged to talk to a higher up and they relented and gave me a 15 day visa. So chances are Hong kong is not an option.

[mbryred]

I had planned on going home this summer, after teaching in China four years. But this is better in some ways than retirement: doing something usually enjoyable, seemingly helping many great kids, and the cost of living, wow!!! So, after getting permission to stay in my Guangzhou school apartment until my visa expires, August 8, I started looking for whoever would hire me, at 60 years old. No luck in Guangdong, but a few possibilities in Hunan. So, with 2 weeks left on my residence permit, the race was on: get the release and recommendation from my previous school quickly, hoping I can get a new RP before my current one expires. I was considering a HK run, if necessary, but now if it comes down to it, thanks to this posting, I'll try to get a letter from my new school explaining the situation, go to the local PSB Entry & Exit building, and see what happens. Thanks again for the possibly useful info!

[Non Sequitur]

The 'older job seeker' is a topic worth reporting on, so keep us posted.

[dongbei united]