Job Discussion Forums

[JimmyJam]

For personal reasons, I applied for a month's leave from my school. I have my FRP (green booklet) and my FEC (maroon) but the thing is my reentry visa expired/lapsed. I'm still outside China. Both FEC and FRP are valid until September. Now, the school is telling me to submit this and that... blah blah blah... as if I'm applying for a totally new work visa...

they told me to travel on a tourist visa, to which I refused having in mind the risk of difficulties in dealing with immigration people and procedures... things which make me go bonkers...

can someone tell me, is there such a thing as renewal of reentry Z visa? or do I have to go through all the mess of starting from scratch?

thanks a lot!!!

PS

I left China end of December when immigration policies are just about to shift... so the visa stamp on my passport still has the old thingy...

[Roger]

You have to go by the rules, man, and do as they tell you. Once you quit the Chinese (mainland) territory on a single-entry visa you cannot return, the same as anywhere else in the world, especially in the ol' U.S.A. where some people think crossing the border into Canada and trying to return is possible on a single-entry U.S. visa. IT is NOT!

Yes, you are lucky in that your school is still sponsoring you. YOu have to submit all those documents again. YOu will be vetted a second time. Your various documents don't mean anything. Your visa does. ( suppose it is one of those work visa stickers in your passport with a capital 'Z' preceding the serial number?

[JimmyJam]

roger,

thanks for your reply..

its a clear letter Z on my expired reentry visa... oh boy... i have to go through the same formalities again... hahahaha...

I think I'm lucky to have the university where I teach now.. I've been working here for more than 5 years straight and it's the first time that this happened...

so the moral is, don't let it expire if you don't want to go through the same process of dissection again..

[Alex_P]

Dear Friend,

I know that this will be a small comfort to you given your present precarious circumstances.

Yes, you will have to reapply and be vetted again as Roger wrote. But additionally, the PSB will still have your previous file and you will not be a total strange to them, particularly after five years.

But this time you will more than like receive the new combined Z visa, residence permit, etc., etc., in your passport. This will allow you multiple departures and entries for the duration of the validity of the Z visa. Thus such a situation as you have just encountered most likely will not happen again.

Your situation raised a question that is interesting but moot at present. I wonder under the previous regime whether there might not have been a way to have the re-entry permit extended. But as I said, all of that is "gone with the wind".

Good luck going forward.

[quanxie]

Several years back I was in a similar pickle. I went home for the winter holiday, before I left I went to the PSB 10 days prior to my departure and was issued a reentry Z visa... The problem was that it was only valid for 30 days from the issue date... I failed to notice this important fact and stayed home for 25 days (35 days total)... When I got to the airport and try to check in they look at my passport and said sorry your visa has expired 5 days ago... But, all I had to do was go to the Chinese consulate and fill out a new visa application and pay the fee, no additional paperwork was necessary....They looked at my original visa issued date, which was valid for one year and said no problem just give us the cash....

Just my 2 jiao on the situation,

Good Luck,
Phil