Is a bachelor degree necessary to get working visa for any sort of job?

[Luomono]

Hi all, my name is Peter.

I live in beijing since 1 year and half and studied the language in BLCU.

I'd like to work for some import and export company but I don't have a bachelor degree.

My question is: is a bachelor degree legally needed to get a working visa in China?

I saw some job offers, not only as english teacher but different kind of works, which offer working visa but a bachelor degree was requested, so I wondered if that's legally necessary.

[Mouseneb]

Yes.

 

For a legal working visa you need a bachelor's degree. Some places will be able to secure a visa without it, but they are doing some kind of quasi-legal or outright illegal things to get it. Other places will claim they can get your visa without it but actually they can't get a visa, or the one they get is not a working visa, and you can't legally work with it. 

 

Best to avoid those kinds of situations.

[ZhangKaiRong]

A bachelor degree and 2 years of working experience can score you a working visa.

Getting a professional job is not easy even for Chinese university graduates who hold some kind of a degree - and they obviously don't have problems with the local language, which is an issue for most foreigners. In the eyes of a company, you can't really add any professional value to the organization without a degree - regardless of how creative or smart you are. Unfortunately, the Chinese job market is qualification-based, you are considered to be a good hire if you have degree(s) from reputable universities.

 

What you can do is to apply for a bachelor programme (there are scholarships available) at one of the universities in Beijing, and try working part-time at an organization (preferrably, an NGO) as an intern to gain some work experience.

[Simon_CH]

I second the above. Put bluntly there is zero demand for Chinese-speaking Westerners without very specific competences, qualifications and experience outside of teaching.

 

It's not impossible to score an internship, but most companies will simply tell you to work on a student or tourist Visa, which of course is illegal.

 

There have been several crackdowns on foreigners working in "irregular" jobs, and there's quite an exodus of young people in Beijing at the moment for that reason including two of my friends.

 

Your best chance is to get hired abroad by an international company with a presence in China who then sends you to China either on a business or work Visa.

But that again requires a bachelor degree, experience and skills. Language skills alone will not get you anywhere. I know a few locally employed foreigners with excellent Chinese but they too have managed to carve their niche and expertise and they are actually good at what they're doing.

[Matty]

Getting a visa as an employee requires a degree and 2 years work experience.

 

Depending on your skills you could look at establishing your own business and getting a visa as an investor/CEO/General Manager and your business (you) could provide services to other businesses.

 

You'd also have to consider what your skills are and and particular licenses that may be required before you can provide the services you wish to provide.