Job Discussion Forums

[struelle]

I like China stories and could fill a book with them (that thought crosses my mind as, unfortunately, the days are ticking down when I'll be leaving for Canada for a long time)

But one that sticks out was last Fri morning when I had to slip in some quick business before work at the main Entry-Exit PSB division in Shanghai. The office hours are very limited: 9am - 11:30am, then 1:30pm to 4:30pm from Mon to Fri. If you have business with them, you MUST find a way to do it during that time window. I was lucky, in that I didn't start work until 10am, so it was possible.

Well, I had to do some very urgent business to say the least, as per the last thread I wrote. What happened was that I needed a visa extension but had recently picked up a new passport at the consulate since my old one was full (and now cancelled). My current visa was in the old passport, with a week remaining, and my consulate assured me again and again that it was still valid. But I had made an earlier trip to the visa office and got conflicting information from the police officer - unless I could produce a certification letter from my consulate along with both passports, I'd have to pay the max 5000RMB visa overstay fine.

Forget the consulate. They are slower than molasses and besides, waiting for them to move would push my visa over the expiry date. It would be an unquestionable fact that I'd have to pay 500RMB per day for this, including weekends, a horrifying thought. Whereas now, this 'certification letter' BS might change if I approach a different person at the visa office. Hence the urgency of this trip.

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So I get to the visa office at 8:30. Well, so do many, many, many, many, many, many, many other people. With such a narrow time window to deal with these guys, you can bet your underwear that it's busy. There are two entrances jammed with people ready to charge the doors at 9am, forget queues. I select the back entrance, which, at that time, was a good choice.

At 8:55am the police are ready to roll. So the attendant opens the large metal door. It opens upwards from the ground at an incredibly slow pace. Once the height approaches ducking range, a construction worker makes the first move and all hell breaks loose. People push and shove to get under the door. They all scramble for the stair well and lunge up. The guards shout "Dang xin! Dang xin! Dang xin!!!" But it is no use.

Meanwhile, I and about 10 others linger on the ground floor where a second door is opened to the main office. We scramble to the front desk, just as they have opened the 2nd door and it has approached ducking range as well - 50 more people lunge in. So, 60 people in total compete for the "take a number" system. I am very lucky - I MAKE NUMBER 7!!!!!

A short wait later, I get served by the officer. She says, not surprisingly, that because I don't have the cert letter I have to pay a 5000RMB fine. So I get sent to the back room for this. More luck happens. An American has to pay an overstay fine, but he has a sense of humor about it. The officer is in a good mood. Right at that moment I jump in and say "Wo you yiyang de wenti" and the officer chuckles. So I explain my case and he is gracious to waive the fine. Perhaps the American got lucky too.

I go back to the first officer and she puts in my visa extension application. Home free? Almost. There is only 30 minutes before class starts, and I'm far away from the subway. I bust it in a fast run, grab a train, then arrive 5 min before class all soaked with sweat.

A happy ending, but I wish for fewer of these days in the future, not more!

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[T_Lanc]

Nice story Steve ........ but I am a little confused.

[Roger]

Sorry to hear about your special plight, Steve, but methinks you got a special treatment...

I had two passports for a while, and travelled hasslefree across the mainland-Hong Kong or Macau border many times.
The first passport was with my old visa valid for another 6 or so months though the passport had just been cancelled by the consulate; the new passport had no visa but the immigration grunt put his entry or exit stamp in there. Every time I had to show both passports, though. One was to show them I had a valid visa, the other was to show that I had a valid passport. The old passport was full of stamps.

[struelle]

[echo2004sierra]

So how come you didn't have to pay a fine and got an extension of stay visa stamped into your new passport for free?


My understanding is that there are two methods when a foreigner abroad buys a new passport and cancels his/her old passport which has visas in it.

One method is to obtain a particular form for the purpose of transferring endorsements, pay a fee, and submit evidence of a employer letter stating the work visa is still valid. Then your visa endorsements are put into your new passport and you don't need to carry around your cancelled passport.

Second method, is buy the new passport, cancel the old one by cutting the corners of it, carry the two passports together and submit them both to immigration officials at exit/entry points. The immigration counter staff have to check details in the new & old passports, so if your name changed from one passport to the other you could have trouble like they might check you out as an imposter or someone with a stolen passport!

[Roger]

As I said before, the visa does not expire simply because your passport gets cancelled; echo2003sierra added a point that I forgot to mention:
By cancelling your old passport, they either punchholes into it (in my case) or cut corners - thus making it very visible that your passport is no longer officially valid.
Perhaps, Steve, the Canadian consualte forgot to do that?

[struelle]

The Consulate cut the passport corners all right, and the original police officer *knew* the old passport was cancelled - her argument was that because of this, my visa was also cancelled. Rubbish, I figured, probably a new cop on the job, because she directly contradicted what my consulate said after I asked them 100 times. The head cop in the back room, aside from being gracious, knew his stuff and so he waived the original request for a fine.

Anyhow, it has all worked out for the good, but this is just a bureaucratic heads up to others who want to change the passport in China. Very complicated!! On the other hand, for Canada at least, it is getting much tougher to apply for new passports. The rules are more relaxed abroad, I didn't need a guarantor, for example.

Steve