Job Discussion Forums

[Double_Dragon]

Hi all,

My contract finishes in January. If I find a job in a new city/province, can I get the visa transferred and then go to my home country (Aus) for a week or so during CNY? I am not sure how all of this works and how the transition takes place.

Just to (try to) be clear, sorry, it's very early:

I am looking at getting a new job in a new city to start in February. My current contract finishes in January. I'm curious about the work visa transfer to a new school and how this may complicate a short visit to my home country between contracts.

For example, how does the transition usually take place?
Does it happen at the last minute?
Will the resident permit from the old job remain valid until its expiry after you leave the job that it's attached to?
Will I need to specifically ask the old FAO not to cancel the resident permit in this case?
Will a new z visa provided by a new employer from within China actually allow a reentry to China?
(I recall that the original z visa only allowed one entry, and I'm concerned that a new z visa organised from within China may not have any entries allowed at all)

Cheerio, chaps

[wangdaning]

You wont need a new visa, just a new Resident Permit. If you get that from the new employer before the holiday you will be fine to go home and visit. If you don't get it before the holiday it could cause problems.

[doogsville]

First of all you need a new job. Then you need to speak to the new employer and make sure they complete the paperwork to get your new resident permit in place in January, before you leave for Aus. In order to do that, you need to get a few documents from your current employer, not exactly sure what, but I'm sure someone here will know. You'll need to hand over your passport to the new employer at some point so they can arrange to have the RP put in it, so make sure you do it all in plenty of time. The biggest problem you might have, and many others have had, is getting the documents from your current employer in time. Some schools will drag their feet simply because they're not happy that you're leaving.

It shouldn't be too much trouble though, it would be the same process whether or not you're leaving the country over the holidays. Since the PSB closes for at least a week or two over the holidays you would need to have everything in place before Spring Festival anyway.

[Spatula City]

You can't get a clear answer from anyone because there are so many factors that it's impossible to say how long it will take... but I will tell you my story.

I did this in the summer and lost almost an entire month... so you really need to hound your current employer ahead of time and make sure that everything is ready to go when you need it.

I lost a week because my school didn't cancel my FEC, even though they had known I was going to leave for 2 months and I told them I wanted it done. And even after I told them, they STILL didn't get it ready until I did this stupid surprise 'leaving procedure' that they could have told me about but didn't. It took a while to get it done and they wouldn't cancel my FEC beforehand, even though they knew I was in a hurry. It takes 3 days to cancel the old FEC, so I had to do their ridiculous chore, wait for them to call the place to cancel it, wait for it to be cancelled, and then I think there was a typhoon and they closed the offices, so I lost soooo much time for ridiculously stupid but also very Chinese reasons.

Make sure you aren't dehydrated when you do your health check because the local immigration authorities can be really anal about certain things (especially if they're looking for a bribe). I lost another week because after the local immigration board saw the health check I did months in advance, they didn't like my ever-so-slightly elevated ALT levels, so I had to travel to do a second health check (just a small part of it), wait for the result, pick it up... and then wait some more to see if it would be okay with the board. This was all because I was a little dehydrated when I did my first one... and not from drinking alcohol, it was from not drinking enough water after running around trying to find the place.

The problem here isn't that it takes a long time, it's that you DON'T KNOW how long it will take because they keep surprising you with stupid @#$%, so you can't book anything in advance. In my case, I ran into so many annoyances and so much incompetence I couldn't book a flight, and finally tickets became too expensive so I just stayed here for the entire vacation.

You also lose another week or so getting it all processed... depending on how busy the immigration center is. It took quite a while for me to finally get my passport back... more than a week. But of course, this also depends on where you live, how busy they are, how lazy they are, etc.

The way I understand it, the resident's permit is what allows you to stay and the FEC is what allows you to work. The new FEC doesn't require you to leave your passport with anyone, but the new resident's permit does. You will still have the same visa, just a new FEC and probably a new resident's permit too.

You can leave and return if you have a resident's permit in your passport while they process your new FEC. Your resident's permit shouldn't be cancelled... but I think it's possible for your employer to do it if they hate you.

Of course you can't leave if they have your passport, or if your resident's permit will expire while you're gone. If there's a snag with your FEC and you're out of the country, you might not be able to get that finished either.

There's always a chance that it will go smoothly, but you can't count on that. I guess you can probably tell that I found it really frustrating, and I actually stayed in the same province... if you're changing provinces, it could be even more complicated.