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anonymous
Q: Can visitors with visa category 'L' secure teaching jobs in China?
12 years 5 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
If you work in China with an "L" tourist visa, and because of that without an FEC, a work permit and a residence permit, you are in violation of the letter of the law, and subject to penalties, that could escalate all the way to jail time, deportation and denial of future visas depending on the particulars of the case.
It is relatively easy to obtain a work visa, and the other paperwork indicated above to be able to legally work, that it is really not worth to do it illegal, nor wise either.
dickeyman:
a company in china wants to engage my services and after consulting the local government here in China for my working visa, I was told to go back to my country and apply for a business visa instead of the tourist visa which I currently hold and return to china again before my 'Z' visa could be issued. Can someone explain this phenomenon?
Monsieur:
Absolutely correct. Why take the risk of being arrested, fined, jailed, and deported with a reentry ban when it is quite easy to get the invitation letter needed for Z visa? See http://chinascamwatch.org how and where to do everything legally.
HappyExPat is right, it's illegal to work here without a Z visa. If a job can't guarantee you a working visa, don't work there. There are many places that can. After applying for a job last year, and after sending all the paperwork, they took their time, and then told me they couldn't get me a Z visa. You know what I said to them? "I'm sorry, but I want a working visa." I found my current job a week later and all is well.
dickeyman:
a company in china wants to engage my services and after consulting the local government here in China for my working visa, I was told to go back to my country and apply for a business visa instead of the tourist visa which I currently hold and return to china again before my 'Z' visa could be issued. Can someone explain this phenomenon?
Jnusb416:
Most of the time you will have to go back to your home country to get a Z visa. Very rarely can you get an L visa turned into a Z visa without leaving China.
Dickeyman:
It is my understanding (I am guessing, it is not that I know), that if you have a still valid "L" Tourist Visa in your passport, and you request a "Z" work visa, when the "Z" visa is granted, the "L" visa will be voided. So, I do not see how you can go back to your country, request a "Z" visa, and return to China before it is granted, because the Chinese Embassy will have your passport with them until the visa is granted. And you can't travel without the passport.
Now, what I will say after this, it worked for me, but I am not telling you to do it, it will have to be your decision to take the risk if you do it. You can be in China, and still request a new visa abroad without a need to travel back home yourself. In most countries abroad, there are two ways to request a visa at a Chinese Embassy. One is by your doing it yourself, or delegating on a friend or relative to do it for you with a letter of authorization. The other is to use one of the visa agencies available for a fee.
On either case, you will need to fill an application for visa form, and provide photos, documentation required, a d paying the fee. If you use a friend or relative, you would hand over the package of documents to the person, who in turn will go over to the Embassy. If you use a visa agency, you will mail them the package, and they will get the visa for you and return passport to you afterwards. So, what does stop you from doing it from China rather than from your home city ?.
But you must also be very much aware that by Law in China, a foreigner MUST HAVE his passport, visa and Registration of Temporary Residence Form with him/her at all times. So, there is a degree of risk in doing it from here, but also there is a potential large savings, mainly round trip air fare, plus hotel stays and meals, besides taxies. So, what I did was to make a color copy of each page of my passport (very cheap in China), of course, clean pages were not copied) before sending my package FedEx overnight delivery to a friend near Washington, DC. He got me the new visa I wanted at the Embassy there, I paid extra for 24 hours processing (he handed in my request around 9 am, and pick the passport with the new visa at 2:30 pm), and returned it to me in China that evening FedEx 24 hours. The whole process took about 14 days without my passport here with me, and for those two weeks I made a point of staying at my apartment most of the time just in case. For me it was a calculated risk, and I took steps to minimize my exposure. But never the less, it was a risk. So, you do as your risk management mind tells you, do not allow me to influence you. But I figured I saved over $ 2,000 US dollars in doing so.
In either case, whatever you decide to do, make sure you do have all documentation required to get a "Z" visa with you or in the package send, so the visa you desire will be granted.
I'm a foreigner from Australia working for a visa company in Guangzhou. We have many visa options available for foreigners of all nationalities. If you would like an honest answer of what is and isn't possible, please feel free to contact me.
