Job Discussion Forums

Katja84 · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 165

I am just panicking after realizing how expensive the visa medical checks are, and I have read the sticky on the topic but it has not helped me so if anyone happens to know the answer to the below questions I'd appreciate it:

1. Is the medical check form ONLY sent to the school, so that they can obtain the invitation letter, or do I ALSO need to send it with my visa application to the embassy in the UK? My university in China is advising me to send a forged or incomplete medical check form, and while I really do not want to forge it, I would be happy to send an incomplete medical check and hope that nobody knows enough English to realize that I haven't done the tests. But I presume this will only work if I need the medical forms only for the invitation letter from China.

2. If I only need it for the Chinese invitation letter, I would prefer to do the medical check and the blood works at my GPs (in the UK) and hope that nobody notices the x-ray and ECG is missing. But my GP doesn't have a stamp. Is this unlikely to work?

3. The second alternative is to do the basic health check at the hospital, but then it will be too expensive to get the blood work done. But they will be able to stamp the form. Would this be preferable to (3)?

What would you do? I will need to pay to redo it in China (350 yuan) irrespective of what I do in the UK, except if I go to an embassy-approved hospital, but of course I can't find any information about which bloody hospital is embassy-approved. And in any case the travel costs are likely to kill me if there isn't one in Birmingham or Cardiff.

Any advice would be much appreciated...

Katja84 · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 165

An additional question: What have other people who have done this in the UK had to pay? I am hearing figures in the range of several hundred pounds for the whole deal, which is why I am trying to find a way out of it, but if anyone's found a way of doing it for cheaper please let me know...

donb2222 · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 134

I did not have to get a medical before I left my home country, and my school paid for my medical here in China. (280 yuan).
Why do you think that you will have to be the one to pay for the medical in China ?
My end of contract bonus includes round trip airfare and the visa costs I incurred while still in my home country.

Katja84 · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 165

JGC458 · Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 248 Location: Shanghai

Katja84 your predicament piqued my curiosity as I obtained my Z Visa through the Chinese Embassy in London but was not required to have a medical. That was in 2007, so wondering if requirements had changed, I spent 1 minute to find out if they had. According to the Embassy's website, requirements haven't changed in that respect ( http://www.chinese-embassy.org.uk/eng/lsyw/chivisa/aa/t514397.htm ).

So it "looks" like you don't need to do a medical in the UK. If your school is requiring one then perhaps they aren't aware of this "fact".

donb2222 · Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 134

Your school should be the one to pay visa expenses once you have arrived in China.

AlexB · Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 28

I'm having the same problem at the moment Katja, for reference, these are the prices I was quoted the other day

Medical �109.25

Chest X-ray �92

HIV Test �31.63

Syphilis �33.93

Blood Group (you may already have proof of this on your GP records or if you are a donor) �37.38

ECG �28.75

Let me know if you find a cheaper way to do it!

JGC458 · Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 248 Location: Shanghai

Katja and Alex, if it's ok, please would you tell us who is telling you that you need to do (and pay for) a medical in the UK? Is it the school/FAO? Is it a recruiter? Is it the Embassy? Have you made it clear to this person/people that you don't need to have a medical in the UK?

By all means go to the trouble and expense of getting a medical in the UK if it will make you feel better. It's your time and money. But perhaps you should try to research the situation a bit more since the two Z Visas I got through London didn't require a medical (in 2006/7) and that doesn't seem to have changed.

As has been pointed out, you will have to do another medical as soon as you get to the school and this should be paid for by the school (or refunded to you when it's clear you don't have some nasty foreign disease).

One last thing, if you pay for and have a medical in the UK this will not affect you getting the Z Visa one way or the other. It might simply mildly irritate the member of staff at the Embassy/Consulate who will hand you back the medical report as an unnecessary document. Chinese staff are typically a bunch of box-tickers - if they don't need to tick it off their list, they won't want to see it and won't appreciate you upsetting their orderly little world.

AlexB · Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 28

Its the school/FAO asking me it, they say they need it to get the invitation letter. I've even asked if I can just do it when I'm in China for a month in June and they say that won't be enough time. Infact, this is their full response to that (Tony is an American FT I spoke to on the phone about the matter):

"Dear Alex,

I heard from Tony that you will come to China at June, do you mean that you want to have the medical test in China? I am not sure you have the enough time to get your invitation letter and the working visa. Because the process is like this:
1)I get all your things, the signed contract, the copy of the passport, the copy of degree and the copy of the medical test, and resume to apply your invitation letter which will take near 1month.
2)After getting the invitation letter, I will post it to you, then you take it to the embassy to get your working visa.
3)when you come here, I need to finish all you documnets living in CHina in 30 days, it still cost at least 20 days.Then finishing all these, you are legal to live in China.

In conclusion, without it, I can't get the invitation letter for you. If you come to China to do it, then you will not have enough time to get the other documents.

Its all very well trying to tell the school I don't need it....but if they insist I do then it seems pretty futile

AlexB · Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 28

Its the school/FAO asking me it, they say they need it to get the invitation letter. I've even asked if I can just do it when I'm in China for a month in June and they say that won't be enough time. Infact, this is their full response to that (Tony is an American FT I spoke to on the phone about the matter):

"Dear Alex,

I heard from Tony that you will come to China at June, do you mean that you want to have the medical test in China? I am not sure you have the enough time to get your invitation letter and the working visa. Because the process is like this:
1)I get all your things, the signed contract, the copy of the passport, the copy of degree and the copy of the medical test, and resume to apply your invitation letter which will take near 1month.
2)After getting the invitation letter, I will post it to you, then you take it to the embassy to get your working visa.
3)when you come here, I need to finish all you documnets living in CHina in 30 days, it still cost at least 20 days.Then finishing all these, you are legal to live in China.

In conclusion, without it, I can't get the invitation letter for you. If you come to China to do it, then you will not have enough time to get the other documents.

Its all very well trying to tell the school I don't need it....but if they insist I do then it seems pretty futile

Katja84 · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 165

My situation is exactly the same as Alex's, except that I am not actually being asked to do the full health check - I have the option of forging it (which I am not comfortable with), or submitting an incomplete health check (which I would love to do, as my GP has offered to do it for 50 pounds), but I am worried that this will in the end not fulfill the requirements (or that I will need it again when submitting my visa application in the UK). I don't want to pay for two health checks (three if I include the one in China) just because it turns out a stamp is missing (my GP doesn't have a stamp) or because x-rays and blood work need to be done (which I can't afford).

I haven't got flights covered either so there's a limit to how much I can pay to get through all the bureucratic obstacles...

JGC458 · Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 248 Location: Shanghai

Katja and Alex, the schools in question don't need a medical from you in order to get the invitation letter - I mean it's not a legal requirement (hasn't been in my case (3 schools) and for many other foreign teachers). I can only assume that the schools are trying to make sure that you won't fail the medical that you WILL have to do once you get to China. Coz the truth is that the Chinese Government will NOT accept as valid a medical you do out of China.

I'd suggest forgetting about these schools. Look for other offers - preferably from schools that aren't pressuring you into committing fraud (knowledge of which they can later use to their advantage) and aren't so blatantly lying and trying to manipulate you.

At least go for an offer that seems more or less ok from the outset. It's certainly no guarantee that things will be ok, but it would be a much better start than what you've got here.

Katja84 · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 165

JGC458 · Joined: 30 Jan 2006 Posts: 248 Location: Shanghai

Katja, if you're convinced that that school is the one for you then you had better do as they say.

Good luck

AlexB · Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 28

My concern with your school Katja is that they're suggesting fraud and not providing flights....doesn't sound like the greatest gig in the world to me, although I admit i'm not the most experienced to judge that.