More Visa Trouble for the Foreigners
The process for a Chinese citizen to get a US visa is full of hardships, disappointments, and tears. Apparently, anyone wanting a US visa has to buy a phone card to call and schedule an interview, attend said interview in Shanghai or Beijing, pay a non-refundable 900 RMB application fee, and probably get denied, anyway. So I guess I should keep my mouth shut if I ever want to complain about Chinese visas. I’m itching to tell my tale of two laowais, though, and the troubles they’ve run into concerning the visa process.
The first laowai has come and gone a few times now. The last time he was in Changzhou, he said he only had 30 days to find a school to get him a visa. Get a visa? Don’t you mean renew a visa? What? You don’t have a visa? Uh… I thought that was kind of important. I knew this was going to be a problem for him. Sure enough, as soon as he found a school willing to hire him, the school noticed he had no visa, reported him to the government, and he was quickly shipped home. It’s amazing they even let him in the country. Whoever was manning the red stamp that day wasn’t paying attention.
The second laowai did have a visa and had been waiting patiently for his school to renew it until they dropped an entirely different bomb on him. The police station denied his visa, forbade him to teach anymore, and gave him a 30-day grace period to get the hell out of China. It’s difficult to believe anything a Chinese school says, but their excuse was that a new rule (like, two weeks new) stipulated it was illegal for a foreign teacher to work in China without a bachelor’s degree. No bachelor’s degree, no job, no visa, no negotiations. How could they just spring this on someone mid-contract? And why is it always my friends who get deported?!
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Responses to “More Visa Trouble for the Foreigners”
Comments RSS Feed – All CommentsJR — 3 November 2009 @ 7:17 am
I take it this means the school can’t do anything for him. Will they at least help with his airfare?
Clark — 3 November 2009 @ 7:49 am
Yeah, they’ll pay for his airfare and let him stay until he’s ready to go (which will be in a few days).
Tyson Francis — 3 November 2009 @ 3:22 pm
It sounds like some serious BS to me dude. It sounds like a financial thing with the school, and the school not wanting to loose face thus blaming it on some new “law.”
Clark — 3 November 2009 @ 9:50 pm
The principal did sit in one of his first classes and wasn’t too impressed with what she saw (first classes are rough, by the way). I’m wondering if maybe, when it came time to renew his visa, the school decided they didn’t want him to stay and played the “oh, it’s out of our hands” card.
Tyson Francis — 4 November 2009 @ 1:30 am
That sounds very likely. Sorry to hear that it always ends up being your friends that this happens to.
Clark — 4 November 2009 @ 2:45 am
I’ve got some pretty bad luck that tends to rub off on others. The best advice I can give someone who wants to come to China to teach is to avoid associating with me!
Chinamatt — 5 November 2009 @ 5:06 pm
They’ve had that rule for a while, just that most areas overlook it (though not the major cities). Of course, most schools would print up a fake diploma to get the foreigner a visa.
Clark — 6 November 2009 @ 9:36 am
But they only print up fake diplomas for the teachers they like!
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