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Getting fined in Beijing


grawrt

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Reminded me of what I had to deal with growing up, when a country was going through teething pains. Reminded me how first world's efficiency, even when its bureaucracy could be a sore in the butt, would be sorely missed when one encountered such fiasco. At least you could utilize hydro power, (presumably) because you are a woman and it is culturally acceptable. Imagine me a grown-ass Chinese-Australian male crying. They would likely call the police on moi.

 

破财消灾 At least it worked out for 'ya. 钱嘛,不就是身外之物,看开点。:D

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I always think the runaround is the main part of the punishment, they'd probably happily fine you CNY10 so long as they could send you to the locked basement of an abandoned office in Badaling only to be told you needed to bring it in triplicate and to go to Zhengzhou tomorrow instead.

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I'm really, really sorry for this; I had exactly the same experience, I was told I was being fined over 10,000 (there was literally NOTHING I could do about getting to the department to register either, I wasn't physically in possession of a renewed passport). I live in a small city, and I have done my visas with the same woman for the last few years. So, yeah, she looked at me and said with a pointy finger 'just don't do it again!'

 

end of story. :help

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Wow, looking at the story they did everything they could to dissuade you from going through with it.  You could have just taken a train to Mongolia or something.  It's not that far from Beijing.

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I got fined before too when I lost my passport and couldn't register . Further got detained, finger printed etc for overstaying my visa despite me reporting my lost passport immediately.

 

I asked them for suggestions as to how   I could actually fly out of the country without a passport. However I got blank looks.

 

Logic often doesn't prevail in China at times. 

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I've had a similar experience, although we were lucky enough to not be fined and the process was much quicker; we weren't renewing our passports or anything just registering at the local PSB. It's annoying when people on their end get it wrong but you're still held responsible for their mistake.

 

This kind of thing is surely a sort of left over from China's totalitarian communist past, where the political ideology mandated full employment, thus leading to all sorts of pointless busy work and redundancy. That being said, I suppose China is still quite authoritarian and it's useful to have so much dirt on people just in case you ever bad mouth Winnie the Pooh. I was quite perturbed when I had to fill out forms about my parents' jobs and even provide their phone numbers. 

 

Now it's one thing to be like this at the police station. But why is it that bank forms have to be filled out with the utmost conformity to the sacred rules of the central bureaucracy (Hermes Conrad would be proud), down to the point where you must use the bank's pens or risk having to start all over again (yes, this really happened).

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1 hour ago, LiMo said:

I suppose China is still quite authoritarian

Compared with what it was like in the mid 80's, when I was a student, and notably in the period of this century before Xi Jinping came to power, it's hard to see it as anything other than a lot more authoritarian. The current economic prosperity has come at a heavy price. It didn't need to have done.

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Police station housing registration seems to be getting a bit easier. I’m renewing my residence permit now and they don’t need my temporary residence permit as it’s all online. You can check your own status technically (if you know the site- I don’t!). Last time I went to the police station register after coming back into China, they told me I was already registered in the system so no worries. No temporary residence permit (white slip) needed. 

 

I’m still not sure why I was still registered if I’d left the country. Maybe they’ve switched it to being tied to your housing contract or residence permit itself. This would make sense. 

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22 minutes ago, ChTTay said:

Police station housing registration seems to be getting a bit easier. I’m renewing my residence permit now and they don’t need my temporary residence permit as it’s all online. You can check your own status technically (if you know the site- I don’t!). Last time I went to the police station register after coming back into China, they told me I was already registered in the system so no worries. No temporary residence permit (white slip) needed. 

 

I’m still not sure why I was still registered if I’d left the country. Maybe they’ve switched it to being tied to your housing contract or residence permit itself. This would make sense. 

 

 

Thanks CcTTay, what do you mean by the temporary residence permit. i assume you don't mean the usual 住宿登记表(accommodation registration form), i.e. the white slip with blue 1970's dot matrix printer ink :D

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Yes, the temporary residence permit you get from the police station when you register living at your apartment. The white paper. 

 

I’ve not needed one when I went to register (above story) and it’s not been needed during my current work residence permit renewal process. 

 

“Registration form of temporary residence” if you want the full English name!  Permit, form, whatever! 

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thanks, I thought i was missing something with the "temporary" part. I'm looking at mine at the moment and it just says "Accomodation Registration Form".

 

I renewed mine last Tuesday and had to hand in my Housing contract, Passport, old accomodation form and Workers permit card. The following day I had to go to 人力资源和社会保障局 to renew my Foreign Workers Permit card (外国人工作 许可证) and needed to hand it that Accomodation registeration form, so I think it might be useful to have a physcial copy. Maybe if i was registered on line, there would ne no need though. dunno

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I needed to be on the system when I did my residence permit late last year, think they would have been fine without the physical copy if i had showed up on the database OK but a forgotten hotel stay had stuffed things up and i had to renew anyway. No penalty for being technically unregistered for some weeks, mind.

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Actually i just noticed that on the back of form its says that the max fine is 2000yuan "not going through the formalities"  for any sort of visa change, change of address etc . Probably explains the OPs large fine.

 

As I said i registered last Tuesday and had moved last October, but no fine. I did this several times now, shouldn't push my luck! :nono

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2 hours ago, DavyJonesLocker said:

thanks, I thought i was missing something with the "temporary" part. I'm looking at mine at the moment and it just says "Accomodation Registration Form".

 

Maybe you are missing something. Mine have always looked like this.

 

I've registered a months late once due to a mix up and I didn't get a fine. The HR person on the phone did get an earful from the police women though. Otherwise, a few days or a couple of weeks and they don't usually seem to mind. Hopefully that doesn't change any time soon.

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Nah, the photo I uploaded is just one I’ve found online. I’ve lived and worked here for 7 years. Work residence permit 6 out of 7. 1 year on a long term X.

 

Remains a mystery. 

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