Urgent Help Needed--Z Visa

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

I just got my Z-visa. The actual visa itself, not the invitation letter.

The only problem is it says that when i get into the country, i have 000 days that i can stay.

(Duration of each stay = 000 days)

(入境后可停留 000 天)

does that mean that as soon as i land, i have to book the first flight back to the states? Is there another hoop i have to jump through over in China? Is this typical?

What should I do?

B Red

[nomad]

Don't worry, your Z-visa is OK. This is typical!

What it means is that it is a single entry visa, and within ONE month (yellow sticker in your passport) you need to convert it to a residence permit by going to the your local PSB.

There should be a yellow sticker with this information on it in your passport-on the opposite page of your visa.

Don't do anything until you get to China.

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

thank you very much. Although there was no yellow sticker, i assume that i now dont need it? How do i go to the PSB? Can i mail in the passport? I will be in Harbin.

Thanks in advance,

B Red

[nomad]

You will go to the PSB in your area in person. You'll also have to do a medical check up. Your employer should be able to (must) help you with this once you get to Harbin.

[liuzhou]

You probably won't have to go to the PSB. Your school should do this for you.

[madizi]

One month?!?!? I assume that it means one moth after crossing the border, right?

Didn't know that. Thank you for info. Have to ask at my college.......

[leeovisa]

Within 30 days (not after 30 days), you have to convert Z visa to Residence Permit for work in local PSB.

Before that, 2 things have to be done:

1. Medical check

2. go to local Foreign Expert Affairs Bureau to obtain a Foreign Expert Certificate

For the medical check, you have to go yourself. It's a good idea if a Chinese colleague can go with you if knowing less Chinese.

As for the rest part, you don't need to appear as far as I know.

[liuzhou]

As I said before your school should do all this. (You will have to go for the medical!)

In 11 years, I have never been to the PSB or the Foreign Affairs Bureau.

[Rincewind]

The details of getting a residency permit seem to vary form city to city. I do have to go to the PSB, but only to get a photo taken, my assistant does all the rest. Only other thing that requires my time is the medical, which doesn't take that long either. Your school should keep you right about where and when to do things.

[bredmond812陈秉劲]

say, as long as i have everybody's attention, I have to bring some gifts for the director of the school, and for the agent that helped me find the job.

What should i bring?

B Red

[Rincewind]

Try to get something that is form your locality. I find this difficult back home as everything I look at has made in China on the bottom. But think of something that is Unique to your home area. Failing that, stuff with American flags on it or Harry Potter things for the kids.

[cdn_in_bj]

2. go to local Foreign Expert Affairs Bureau to obtain a Foreign Expert Certificate

What are the requirements for obtaining a Foreign Expert Certificate?

[liuzhou]

What are the requirements for obtaining a Foreign Expert Certificate?

1. The employer must be licenced to employ foreigners.

2. The foreigner must hold the required qualifications for the position. These obviously vary, but for teaching positions requires a Bachelor Degree as a minimum.

3. Ignore all the above if you can bribe the Foreign Experts Office enough.

[nomad]

Your school/ university... should (must) put together a package for you

It should include, your health certificate, a letter from your school (invitation to teach there?), visa and residence permit application, a photo copy of your foreigh experts certificate (little red book), passport, photos...

The requirements depend on your situation, if your teaching here then the school needs to put some documents together for you.

I just did mine this week, my university prepared a package (containing the above mentioned documents) and went down to the PSB. They'll pick it up in 5 days and pay the 400RMB.

[Rincewind]

2. The foreigner must hold the required qualifications for the position. These obviously vary, but for teaching positions requires a Bachelor Degree as a minimum.

A teaching qualification of some sort will do in place of a Bachelor Degree.

They'll pick it up in 5 days and pay the 400RMB.

Oh but only if it were that simple. You only saw that last bit of what the school did and paid to arrange all those documents. Now that I am in a management role I see the whole kerfuffle and it costs several thousand yuan and takes many trips to different offices and government departments to complete.

The good news is that as a teacher the school will do all of the process for you just as Nomad said. It is, however, your responsibility to check that the school has done everything it should have and got you the right documents.

[cdn_in_bj]

1. The employer must be licenced to employ foreigners.

2. The foreigner must hold the required qualifications for the position. These obviously vary, but for teaching positions requires a Bachelor Degree as a minimum.

I take it that the above implies that one must be employed by a University?

3. Ignore all the above if you can bribe the Foreign Experts Office enough.

Might be worth looking into, if it means that one is able to import a car tax-free.

Thanks.

[nomad]

No, If a school can get you a Z-visa, then they can also get the paper work for the FEC.

I don't think Rincewind implied that it had to be a university. I think its any organization that is licensed to hire a foreigner can arrange for the paper work.

[roddy]

Yeah, I've had a residence permit + FEC while working for a translation company. There's another route to the residence permit via getting a 外国人就业证， but I don't know anyone who's ever had one (I have a vague feeling there might be someone on here who has though, not sure) and I'm not sure when you'd want to go that route rather than the foreign expert one. It's mentioned here, though that's quite possibly out of date now.

Rincewind, if you have the time / inclination, I'd be interested to see a view of the process from your end - what hoops do you have to jump through, and how much falls out of your wallet on the way?

[cdn_in_bj]

There's another route to the residence permit via getting a 外国人就业证

That's actually what my company arranged for me.

[Rincewind]

I take it that the above implies that one must be employed by a University?

No that was not implied. Many Universities do not have licences to employ foreigners. They probably could if they wanted. Most employers are private "schools". I use the term 'schools' loosely as many don't actually have any students. Rather they act as agents. They employ the teachers and then contract them out to the local state schools or to Universities.

Roddy, I don't want to go into to much detail but suffice to say that obtaining the licence to employ foreigners and the foreign expert's certificate isn't a simple matter of getting the correct paperwork and paying the fee. You have to become "friendly" with the relevant officials. Last year my school spent a five digit sum on being friendly.

Obtaining the employer's licence and FEC last year required several trips to the provincial capital. It can't be done in just any city. I think allot of time was wasted because my assistant took the wrong paperwork. If your not friends with the people they won't even tell you what forms and documents you need to present. Now that we a friends, this year the FEC took just one hour to renew. However it was still a day long trip to the big city for my assistant and me. On the upside I got to go to Metro and stock up on some western food.

Before we went to the PSB for the residency permit, we had to register me at the local police station. I didn't do that last year but last year I stayed in the center of the city and now I'm in the suburbs. The local police station (which is a one room building right next to my house) made up a little ID booklet for me. It's red, about the size of mobile phone, and contains a small photo of me and details of my name, DOB, passport number and so on.

The health certificate in easy. Just go to the hospital early in the morning. Fill in the form, pay the month then go back a few days latter and collect. For the renewal of my permit I didn't need to redo the medical. Seems to be a once only affair. Though we did pay 200 yuan to the hospital. I don't know if there was some other friendly thing happening there that I didn't get told about.

Once you have all that you go to the PSB with all the documents. They took a photo of me which they attached to the forms. Last year it took a week to get the passport back with my residency permit inside. This year, for some reason, it took just over 3 weeks.

I have receipts for just over 1800 yuan but significantly more money than that was actually spent. Plus the costs of traveling and the time spent by my assistant running round all the offices.

For any teachers reading this, don't worry. The above is what your school has to go through not the teachers.