Changing Jobs in China AND Transferring A Permit

[Huina]

I haven't seen this topic before, so I figured it would be a good idea to provide some information for other forum-goers.

 

Background:

I am in an office job (consulting) with a legal Z visa. I do not have the Foreign Expert's Certificate because I'm not a teacher, but I have an Alien Employment Permit and the associated permit booklet (证明）.

 

I am going to a different company with the same job title, and luckily my former employer is happy enough to transfer my permit. There are a few steps to transferring the permit, so let's do the play-by-play.

 

1. Get out of the old contract. After getting out of the contract you will have two pieces of paper: A stamped notice of resignation/termination, a pink sheet of paper from the labor bureau, and your employment permit. My company snipped the corner of the employment permit to show that it was cancelled on their end. Photos of these and some additional examples to come soon. A little further down.

2. Get four passport sized photos.

3. Get a criminal background check. You can do this by going to your embassy and making an affidavit that you haven't committed any crimes. If you are staying within the same city, you can use your registration form (the white paper that you get when you register your address with the police) for the same purpose.

4. Hand this over to HR at the new company. It is the new company's HR responsibility to do the transfer.

5.?????

6. Your work permit has been transferred

 

I'm also signed up for my old company's housing fund, so I will talk about how transferring that goes as I get more info. There's almost 30k rmb in there so if it doesn't transfer I am so unhappy. An employer is not mandated to provide a housing fund to foreign employees, so my new employer doesn't. Apparently it is easy to transfer the housing fund and merely requires someone to look up the employee's passport number and change associated information.

 

This post is a work in progress, so please have some patience. I will update it as the paperwork progresses.

[Huina]

So I'll start with some information about the letters of termination. You are gonna get two letters. One is pink and says "外国人就业证注销 迁移证明“  and it comes from the local labor bureau, that's to show that on the previous company's end the foreigner's permit is cancelled/they have left their job. The second is the 离职证明，or your release letter, which shows that your company has officially said bye to you. It should have an official stamp on it. Finally, you get your Alien Employment Permit or Foreign Experts Certificate. Because the FEC/AEP is registered to the employer, they will have a big "cancelled" stamp on all the pages, and the tip of the booklet will be snipped to show it's no longer valid. That's ok. They don't own you anymore. The next place you sign to will.
 
Get your glamour shots! I submitted the ones I had lying around. I don't know if they will actually want new ones or not. I look like a mugger in mine.

[LinZhenPu]

So the Foreign Expert's Certificate is only for teachers?

I thought it was for any foreigner to legally work in China. With the principal being that the position you are holding in your company requires expert knowledge of foreign origin which cannot be adequately provided by or is in shortage within the local talent pool.

So what's the difference between a Foreign Expert's Certificate and an Alien Employment License? Is the Alien Employment License for those positions where the company could hire somebody from the local talent pool but are unlikely to find somebody with as suitable qualifications and experience as you, the foreign alien?

[Huina]

 

 

Here you can see what the documents look like. I edited out all personal information.

[Huina]

@LinZhenPu, I'm not sure where the line falls between foreign expert's certificate and alien employment permit. The FEC and AEP serve the same purpose, but if I understand correctly they are issued by two different labor agencies. All I know is that FEC is *normally* used for teachers and that the AEP is used for other "non-specialist" jobs. So you're probably right--ones where they could hire from the local talent pool but they prefer a foreigner/the skills would be hard to find. I was specifically told by my new employer that I had to be under an AEP for this position and that if I had a FEC I would have to do the visa application process again.

[LinZhenPu]

Could I ask what your job is?

[Huina]

@LinZhenPu I am an education consultant, I do basically a lot of things related to keeping the gears of a boutique consulting firm moving.

 

Anyway, to wrap this up (didn't get the chance to take pictures...)

 

When the paperwork to transfer the license is finished and your employer gets your new little book, you can go to the entry-exit bureau and wait in line for a while. You fill out the same form that you do for the residence permit, then hand it in along with the registration slip from your local police station. The clerk will check that everything is in order and stamp you through. The electronic system is updated automatically.

 

If you are getting a new residence permit, they will take your passport. If your residence permit is staying the same, they will not take your passport. Since the system is (again) electronic and automatically updated, the information shouldn't be a problem.

 

And that's it, I officially work for my new company! No word on the gongjijin, HR is trying to figure it out.

[LinZhenPu]

Sounds interesting, Huina. Would you care to go into more details in say a PM?

I'm interested in learning about the types of employment that foreigners have in China other than the run-of-the-mill English teaching positions.

[Parb]

Hello @Huina I already gave my resignation letter to my current employer and they accepted it. Luckily, they are not going to cancel my AEP and RP. Should I ask them to cancel my AEP or should I let my new employer handle it? Some say AEP only needs to be cancelled when changing city.