Job Discussion Forums

svrart · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 3:26 pm Post subject: Z visa process

I am sure this has been discussed but i did a search and could not find the info. Please point me in the right direction if so.

I am in the process of applying for a Z-visa. Where can i find the relevant information? I went to the Chinese embassy and it says the process is outdated. Also i had read somewhere the i would need a health exam. But another site made no mention of it.

Thanks,
Sridhar

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Sridhar,

to get a Z visa you first have to have a visa application and Letter of Invitation from a Chinese institution authorized to issue them...for teachers this is most frequently a university or public school. Many private schools "partner with" (i.e. pay off) a university or a local official with enough clout to pull strings and get you the documents you need. If you don't have this then you won't get a Z visa...it amounts to having to alrady have a job waiting before you can come here on a Z.

Once you come in on the Z your employer will have to get you or help you get a Residence Permit and Foreign Expert Certificate.

To do all this your employer will need to have a copy of the information page of your passport, your resume, copies of your college diplomas or certification of graduation, and a boatload of passport-size photos.

To get the Z, at least at the time I got mine while abroad, you had to get certification that you were free of dread communicable diseases. To get the Residence Permit you'll get a more thorough exam here in China.

You can enter China on a tourist (L) visa, get a job and the documents, and then return to Hong Kong for your Z visa. Just remember that it is not legal to draw a salary from within China, or rent an apartment, on anything other than a Z visa. Any employer telling you otherwise is lying to you.

MT

svrart · Posted: Thu Jun 12, 2003 4:22 pm Post subject:

Hi MyTurnNow,

Thanks for the info.

I forgot to mention in the original post that i already have an offer, contract, FE certificate etc. from a school. Looks like the Z process is fairly straight forward but the permit more complicated.

Thanks again,
Sridhar

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Mon plaisir, monsieur. Glad to hear you are covered.

The Residence Permit is perhaps a bit more complex but it is vital. The visa lets you enter China and work here, but the Permit lets you LIVE here. Your school should have someone available to run interference for you and guide you through your part of the process of getting it. If they don't, demand to know why the hell not!

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

THe information provided by MyTUrnNow is correct although it strikes me as either new or not necessarily true for all of China that you will have to exit mainland China and get your work visa in Hong Kong. In point of fact, your local Public Security Bureau should issue you with a work visa, because they apprlove of hiring expats, and not consular staff anywhere.
You will need a Foreign Expert's permit to convert your salary into foreign currency, or else you will have to change it on the Black Market.
Those little booklets - residence permit, work permit and FE permit - are not always given because they have to be applied for separately (which is just a bureaucratic tick), and they cost extra, which, as you can well imagine, disposes employers to taking a short cut, i.e. not going to the trouble of obtaining them for you.
Also, some try to hold on to them because some expats want to keep them, which leads to some bureaucratic hassles when your term is up as you must hand them back, and the relevant authorities collect them back too!
So, it would be a good idea to ask your employer to offer you assurances that he will follow the legal stipulations to the letter!

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

Here in Guangdong I had a tourist visa before I was inducted into my new job, as had 2 Brits and 4 Americans.
My visa was valid for two months, but my western colleagues only had one month to go. Our school dawdled (as they are so wont of doing), and finally, we did get our medical exam followed by a wait of 3 days for us to get our passports back with a work visa stamped in them.
I am telling this because the school had to pay heavy fines for my colleagues' overstaying their visas' validity; if that was not a reason to deny them a work visa, then their status as tourists did not add any weight to it either. They all got a work visa.

But I will gladly believe that some provinces handle such questions differently.
Anyway, I am curious to know where in HK you got a work visa? ANd, where did you undergo the medical exam?
Of course, you cannot get a work visa from a travel agent.

MyTurnNow · Joined: 19 Mar 2003 Posts: 860 Location: Outer Shanghai

Roger, as of a couple of months ago the Kowloon office of China Travel Service was handling Z visas. None of their other offices deal with them.

I never had to take a physical for the new one. For the visa there was nothing...not sure if this was because I was already in China, a change of rules, or just smooth talking on the part of our especially babe-o-licious young FA person. I simply handed my passport, invitation documents, photos, and money to CTS and the next day they returned my passport with a new Z visa in it.

I also avoided the physical for the Residence Permit....the FA got 6-month temporaries instead of the Green Book and there's no physical required, at least not here.

MT