Visa and some other advice for ‘Laowai’ looking to teach in China.

I post under the name ‘Dos’ on the eslteachersboard site. I have been in China for more than three years in a variety of schools as teacher and head teacher. Part of my duties as a head teacher in a couple of the schools has been to recruit new teachers.

As a fairly frequent reader of the eslteachersboard site I see the same old visa questions pop up over and over. I thought I would try to help by writing a short(ish) guide about the Chinese system. PLEASE NOTE: This is for China only!! I have no experience about visa processes for other countries!

Schools (and other businesses) in China must have a special license to employ non-Chinese staff. Most of the time non-Chinese will not be aware of this rule. I wasn’t when I first came here, I only learned of it after six months as my boss was boasting how the school had one and others didn’t. He showed me the license but to be honest, it could have been an award for soft toilet paper as far as I was concerned, having little to no Chinese at the time. Hence it is rather hard for non-Chinese to get confirmation if a school is legal or not, especially from outside of the country.

Without this license schools are simply not allowed to employ foreigners. They will likely not be able to get you a visa and you could well end up working illegally.

What visa types are there? Well, quite a few, but we can concentrate on two or three. The valid residence visa is called a ‘Z-class visa’. It usually comes in the form of a small green book**. Sometimes the officials will just staple some pages from the green book into the passport, which is not as nice or convenient, though it is still valid. A Z-class visa is usually valid for one year. You should ensure that your visa expires after your contract with the school does!!!!! Once you have this green book it supersedes everything in your passport. You will no longer need the visa in your passport.

Then there is an L-Class visa, which is a simple visitor’s visa. It usually lasts for about a month and is a single entry for tourists.

Finally there is a business visa, which is an F-Class visa. This is supposed to be for business people who may require a longer stay in China. These are usually three months long, but can be as little as one month or up to six months.

To work as a teacher legally in China you need a Z-Class visa!

How do I get a visa? (Legally)

Visitors visa: Go to your ‘local’ Chinese embassy or consulate. The form is generally quite simple (dependant upon country here). You could need a return ticket to China, your passport and a couple of passport photos. Again, this depends upon the embassy, your nationality and even what mood the embassy staff are in. When I came into China they didn’t even ask to see a ticket, which was just as well as I didn’t have one. The timescales can be as little as the same day if you pay a little more and costs around USD50, again depending upon country and how fast you want it. You can probably apply by post, but I am not sure.

Business visa: Usually requires an invitation letter from the business in China. For this they usually need a variety of documents, which could be as little as your passport and photo. You may to send a copy of a degree as well, depending upon province and the business. You send these documents to the business in China and the business goes to the relevant offices and gets an invitation letter for you. They send this back to you and you take it to the embassy with your passport etc and get the visa.

Residence visa: Z-Class. I am only writing about this from the perspective of school employment, there could be other ways of getting one, I don’t know about them.

Americans can only do this process in America or maybe Hong Kong, not sure about other nationalities.

Depending upon which province you will go to in China, you could need to send the school COPIES of the following: A resume (CV), TEFL certificate, Degree certificate, passport copy (picture and details page) and a medical check document. This is the most you will have to send. Don’t send money!! The school should pay. If they want you to send money, find another school. DON’T send original documents, you DON’T need to.

Some provinces may only need a resume and passport copy.Most will need the educational certificates as well; some will need the medical document. Below is the full process including medical:

Process: Go to your Chinese embassy and ask for the Z-class visa application forms, plus the medical check form. Fill them in!! Go to your doctor/hospital and get a medical check. (This involves an x-ray and blood check for AIDS and Hepatitis). Get the doctor to fill in the Chinese medical check form and sign it and stamp it with as many official looking stamps as they have. Fax or e-mail these forms to the school.

The school will then go to the Education department, the immigration department and the police to get your documents. It should then send you back a copy of the invitation letter. This usually takes about a week to 10 days. You take this letter to the Chinese embassy and they give you a Z-Class ENTRY visa. This ENTRY visa is NOT the green book!!!

It allows you to enter China, and is usually valid for use for a month or so after issue. Once you are in China it is usually valid for a month in China. Once you are at the school you need to give your passport to the school who will take it to the local police department and THEN you will get your Z-Class visa (green book). If you didn’t have a medical in your country (and sometimes even if you did!) you will have to go for a medical in the local hospital. Again, this will involve an X-Ray and blood checks. It’s a fun experience! Hahaha.

If the school is legal this process will be no hassle(usually). Sometimes there may be a holiday or the govt. official who holds the key to the desk with a stamp in will be away (honest!!!) which could delay things a little. HOWEVER, usually the process should take no more than a couple of weeks at most. If they start messing you around, be worried!! Stop working and demand your passport back! The visa can only be processed in the province you will work in. If they say they are sending it off to Beijing or some such, then you are being B.Sd, don’t hand over your passport and get the heck out of Dodge.

Once the Green book has been acquired YOU should have it. It is YOUR visa and you need it for identification purposes. The school, no matter what they say, should NOT hold it for you. It even says this in the visa, which is something you can point out. Also bear in mind that passports are actually the property of your government, so they legally cannot be held by the school. (Though they will need them to get the visa, as mentioned above).

A fair amount of schools will tell you to come into China on a visitor’s visa and they will change it to a Z-class once you are in China. Technically this is not legal, but it has been, and still is, done quite a lot. Why might they ask you to do this? There are a few reasons:

One is that it is easier than the official process, it is faster and it is also cheaper for both the school and for you. Schools with all the licenses still prefer to do it this way. It also depends upon the province and the schools relationship with the relevant authorities. In some provinces it is just about impossible to get this done any more, and this will only spread as time goes by.

Two: The school doesn’t actually have a license to employ foreigners, but it can still get you a Z visa because the boss has a good ‘relationship’ with the authorities. This situation is a little bit of a gray area for you as a teacher if problems arise. (See later on)

Three: The school is telling total lies and they have no intention of getting a valid visa for you. Once you are in China they will pretend to get you a visa but end up giving you the runaround, and at worse not getting you a visa at all, leaving you illegal and in deep doo doo. Some may get you an F-class visa, or keep renewing your visitors visa. Be worried.

Finally there is another visa you should also get if teaching in China. This is called an ‘Expert visa’ and it comes in the form of a red book. The green book actually only allows you to live in China. It doesn’t allow you to teach there. The expert visa is the visa that you should have to teach. The schools are much warier about giving the teachers this visa, but again, you should have this visa, not the school, though in-fact you probably will never need it. If it becomes a touchy subject you could easily leave it without worrying too much. I have never had to show my expert visa in all the time I have been in China, just the Green book.

The school has good reason to be worried about the visas, as they are legally responsible for you whilst you are in China! Hence if you are involved in a crime or have a bad accident (or die!!!) they will be in a lot of trouble. This is why some schools try and limit their teacher’s movements, and why they sometimes try to monitor where you are all the time.

If a teacher died, for whatever reason the school would quite likely be closed down and the brown stuff would fly. You can see why some bosses would be worried.

When you have finished your time at the school the subject of visas will once again arise.

The Expert visa the school will probably want back. Indeed it says that it should be returned to the issuing body before leaving China. By ‘issuing body’ I don’t know if it means the school or the Education department, and this is still something I haven’t resolved.

This should be no problem for you. You don’t need this book to leave China.

The green book though you do need. Do NOT give it back to the school before you leave China!!! You will be in a lot of trouble if you try to exit without it!

If you are going to transfer to another school within China you should be able to get your current school’s name removed from the books so you can transfer it to your new place. You need to do this, as mentioned above, as long as the schools’ name is in it, they are responsible for you. If you leave without doing this they will likely cancel your visa. You may have problems leaving with it, and you certainly won’t be able to renew it.

When you leave China the exit process will involve you handing in your green book. Hence if you wish to go on holiday out of China you will have to get a re-entry visa. This is easy and cheap to do, shouldn’t cost you more than a few hundred RMB. This way you keep your green book on the way out.

The above advice is mainly for private schools, as these are the ones who may not have a valid license. State schools are usually all legal for hiring purposes.

How do you know the school you are going to is legal???

This can be a tricky one, especially if you have never been to China, and are thousands of miles away in another country.

Well, of course you can ask the school. Contact the teachers at the school already (or better still, teachers who have recently left). Ask around on bulletin boards, read the boards!

Some teachers I know are knowingly working illegally in schools. Generally they have no problems, but if things go south, then they will be in trouble. Some teachers have visitors visas, constantly renewed, and some have F-Class visas which, again, have to be renewed, though not as often.

If you are not comfortable with being illegal but don’t mind coming in on a visitors visa, get it in writing that the school will guarantee you a Z-class visa within three weeks of arrival. Don’t sign a contract until you are sure that they can provide a visa. Bring enough money to leave China if you have to.

If you want to be sure you are going to be legal insist on doing the Z-class entry visa process before you come to China. Really, that is the only way to be 100% sure it is all above board.

Remember: There are a lot of schools in China, finding a job is not hard. If you are not satisfied with the school, look elsewhere.

**As of Jan 2005 some provinces seem to have changed the Z-class 'Green book' for a sticker in the holders passport. I haven't seen one of these new stickers yet, but this information comes from several reliable sources.

Disclaimer: The above is all from my experience. It is advice only so don’t come crying to me if it all goes pear shaped. I won’t want to know!! I have written this Jan 2005, so remember, laws change and this may not be valid a year down the line!

Next in the series… Contracts!

Written by Dos. This document may be copied freely as long as it is not altered, emended or cut in anyway. It remains the property of the one nicknamed Dos. E-mail: dosdosdos @ mailbolt . com