Ask Headmaster Ken

Hello Ken,

As many have mentioned before me, thank you so much for such a wonderful and insightful website. We all appreciate the time and effort it takes to accumulate and organize so much information on the different aspects of teaching/living in China.

My question here deals with one of the documents necessary to obtain a Z-visa. On all the Chinese Embassy websites they state that you must have: "A Work Permit for Aliens issued by the Chinese Labor Ministry / Foreign Expert's License issued by the Chinese Foreign Expert Bureau." My understanding was that foreign teachers were always given the "Foreign Expert's License" document like the sample shown on the MKL website. However, today I received the documents from my employer and instead I got an "Alien Employment License" which was laminated. My question here is does it matter which document you receive from your school? Do they both serve the same purpose, or is one preferred over the other?

Any insights here would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

-Andrew

I have personally only dealt with Foreign Expert Licenses. I know some people who have received the "Alien Employment License" and worked on them for years with no problem.

My understanding is that SAFEA issues the Foreign Expert Licenses and the Labor Bureau issues the Alien Expert Licenses.

The source I spoke to told me his school did not have a license to hire Foreign Experts. Instead, they hired teachers via the labor bureau with no problems.

It seems to be an end run around the requirement to have a school license to hire Foreign Experts.

However, I have never heard of a problem regarding this practice and it is a vastly better alternative than working illegally.

In and of itself, I personally would not find this to be a matter of great concern. However, all things being equal, I'd choose a SAFEA licensed school over one that is not SAFEA licensed.