Ask Headmaster Ken

I was not sure who to send this to as it is about visas but Dr Greg lives in Guangdong and I am not sure if the issue is specific to this province, however all help is appreciated.

I came to China in November 2009 with a recruiter based in England. They told me to come over on an L-visa which would be converted when I arrived. I stupidly did this having failed to do proper research in advance and the whole thing turned out to be a scam. I then procured employment elsewhere. Since that original school, I then worked for another school, initially part time, and they then promised me that if I signed a full time contract they would sort out the necessary documentation.

Three of the other teachers there have the residence permit (last one got his almost 2 years ago) so I believed them. I have an original BA certificate, I had a medical exam in the expat hospital in Shenzhen, but then the school told me that my application for the working permit had been declined due to the following reasons:

1) The Asian Games were taking place in Guangzhou and the government had suddenly decided to toughen visa regulations.

2) My degree is not in education.

A few weeks after this, me and the FAO had an argument about this and other issues and I quit on the spot. Luckily I have money saved and also several private students to keep the rent collector at bay. Now I am looking for a new position but it is not easy at this time as it is nearing the end of the semester and I don't want to move out of Shenzhen as me and my fiancee are settled here.

One problem I am continuing to encounter is the fact that schools I approach (I am very proactive as I used to work as a headhunter) want me to already have a work visa, but do not seem to willing to do the legwork to get me one themselves. I have heard things such as them wanting me to pass a probationary period first which obviously I won't accept as I have been let down before.

I really don't know what to do from here. I don't want to leave China even though I dislike the private business culture they have here in their education establishments and I feel most people I encounter seem to be untrustworthy, and I have a real passion for teaching. I feel that maybe my best option is to get as many private students as I can and just work on L-visas even though I know its illegal.

I have 2 questions:

1) Does my previous school's explanation for being denied my FEC application seem plausible (assuming they even sent it)?

2) Do you have any advice as to what I should do moving forward?

I am sorry for the vagueness of this post. It's just my head is spinning and I am feeling quite bitter about living in China presently due partly to the Xmas blues and I also feel I can trust very few people. Thank you for your reply in advance.

Hello,

Firstly, you DO NOT want to try staying in China on an L visa. Sooner or later, either you will be denied L visa extensions or you will be caught, and face the possibility of being denied reentry.

I strongly doubt that your visa was declined because it was not in the field of education. It does not seem plausible.

You'll need to find an employer who will sponsor a visa. You may be encountering resistance because employers have plenty of applicants who come from abroad and there is no need to incur the costs of a HK visa run. You may need to "sweeten the pot" by offering to pay for the HK visa run yourself.

Since you are in the city where you want to work, I'd suggest you try finding teachers at other schools and learning firsthand how the employer operates. When you are satisfied with what you hear, apply to those schools.

Best wishes.

Hi Alex,

I don't have much more to add to what Ken has already advised other than to underscore your need to be very proactive about this.

When applying for positions, you need to be very explicit about how you are willing to pay for your own "visa run" to Hong Kong or, if need be, return to England in order to reenter China with a Z-visa.

I had a very harrowing experience with this very issue when I first arrived in Guangzhou back in August 2008. I was under the impression that my Z-visa had been extended when, in fact, it was converted to a tourist visa just prior to my moving out of Haikou (I trusted the "high-level government official" who was handling this for me and never actually checked the new visa until after my new FAO here pointed out to me what I had ended up with--believe it or not).

The FAO made it crystal clear at this time (of course, this was also right around the closing of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games) that there NO way she could convert this L-visa into a Z-visa. I was told in no uncertain terms that I would have to return to the United States and then reenter China with a Z-visa.

Fortunately, I had accumulated a lot of favor with a well-connected school owner in Haikou who was able to pull some "guanxi magic" for me. Flew down to Haikou and had a brand new shiny Z-visa in less than 48 hours—but it was a very close call.

I have a friend who's in a similar situation. She was promised a Z-visa from the States, but at the last minute the school said that there "wasn't enough time" to procure the visa before the school term begins. She had to get a tourist visa at her own expense with the promise of getting a work visa after she arrives.

However, instead of sending her passport off to her nearest consulate, she had to send it to two of the school's current teachers in another city (with whom she's had some prior communication), lie about her address on her application, and they will take hers and another new teacher's passports to that city's consulate to get tourist visas. It's all relatively shady, but the school is paying for the flight to China up front so they obviously intend on employing her, legally or otherwise.

My question is, because she has already signed a contract and the school has paid for her flight, but she's arriving on a tourist visa, if she finds that she school is a scam that will likely never give her a Z-visa can she legally abandon the school and find new employment? Are there any outs for her in this situation?

If the school has not hired her legally then the contract is worthless. It's like trying to enforce a sales contract for the Brooklyn Bridge.

The problem is she will likely have to leave China and return home unless she can find another employer to cure the defects with a visa run.

The fact that the school paid for her flight is VERY unusual and expresses an extraordinary up front commitment on the school's behalf. It would be lunacy not to follow through with her correct documents.

Your friend should inquire from other teachers what the practices are and if there is any history of visa problems.

The school may intend on hiring her on what I call a "Grey Visa", a not blatantly illegal but not fully legal workaround - like using another school's hiring license. It's too early to know what the school's intentions are.

Headmaster Ken,

My School here hired me and then told me I didn't have enough time to get the work visa so that I should just go over on my own, and then they would convert my work visa here by sending me to Hong Kong.

I arrived and they have reimbursed the cost of my tourist visa but I haven't gone to Hong Kong yet, and I've worked for two days so far. I have been in China for three weeks. Should I be worried about this company? Should I be worried about working without a work visa? They said that my paperwork has been approved, but I still do not have visa in hand.

Thank you,

Zkubin

By letting the clock run out, they are probably trying to get a one year visa for the price of a less than one year visa.

The problem in these situations it is impossible for an external observer to know if they are cleverly gaming the system, incompetent, pathological liars or all of the above.

I call this the Laowai Uncertainty Principle. You would ordinarily be correct to assume they are doing everything in their powers to have your documents so they can earn income from your teaching. And this is usually, or at least often, the case.

However, more often than we would like to see, an entirely arbitrary and tangential intervention occurs for reasons that you will never fully understand but in reality is due to incompetence, rivalries, mis-communications, shift in enforcement focus, change of loyalties, etc. ad infinitum.

My suggestion is to print hard copies of your email exchanges with the school and if the clock does run out, present them and yourself to the local PSB.

Best of luck.