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Q: Could this be explained by anything but lazieness and incompetance?
Before I start, I will say that I realize that this is in part my fault because I did not stand over this idiot woman-child better yet, do her job for her. I understand how Chinese 'work', but I was dealing with personal things at the time, and rather hoped that this waste of carbon could carry out a cookie-cutter task without me nagging her to do it every step of the way.
6 whole weeks ago I turned in my passport to my university's visa officer to have my permit transferred to the university and then extended. Today, this woman calls me and says that I cannot transfer my permit, and have to leave the country to get a new work visa. My current visa is up in 3 weeks.
I am not angry about the policy, I am angry that I have waited in China for six weeks while this stupid broad had my passport hostage for no apparent reason.
Before I raise high holy hell to my supervisors over this, I would like to ask any person who may know more about the current policies than I if there is any reason, any at all, other than the one that is obvious to me (which is that my passport was sitting in her desk drawer until she decided, last week, to finally do her job)?
9 years 37 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
If is took 6 weeks for that woman to tell you that, it is sheer laziness.
for you it was 6 weeks you could not travel
Visa policies seem to be dealt with in an ad hoc basis from employer to employer in China. In a university you are surely not the only FT they are dealing with, so they should be familiar with the current visa requirements, if they are doing their job properly.
It has been my experience that Universities find the FT's an unfortunate inconvenience.
Having worked in an International office, briefly, in a University at home, these issues are dealt with promptly, as being without a passport for such a long time is a major inconvenience.
RachelDiD:
That is exactly what I thought. It is true that I did drag my feet getting some documents to her (getting my insurrance was a pain), but I figured that two and a half months left on my visa was plenty of time. I have not been able to see my sick mother and dying dog all summer, plus, I spent about 1500 rmb of my own money on documents for a process that can apparently not be done.
I might even lose my job, because according to her (which means it is probably not true) the process to get the employment license and fec will not be completed before classes resume. I have no plans to go quietly into that night.icnif77:
Is Employment license Working permit? If yes, it took School in Fujian some 2 weeks after I exited China to HK, to get WPermit. If you still have time on your RPermit, School can apply immediately, and you'll stay in HK a week the longest.
Ask them to pay cost for HK, and they might move faster.
For Medical insurance, I had to full fill Medical form about my health, and that's all I did. School took care of it. I even think, School in China is required by Law to get you Medical Insurance. FT doesn't need to do anything, but fill up the form.
Ask SAFEA (FEBureau) about it (whole story). There's post here with FEB addresses in any city in China. Hit 'SAFEA' on the search above for address and contact numbers in your city.
If is took 6 weeks for that woman to tell you that, it is sheer laziness.
for you it was 6 weeks you could not travel
Visa policies seem to be dealt with in an ad hoc basis from employer to employer in China. In a university you are surely not the only FT they are dealing with, so they should be familiar with the current visa requirements, if they are doing their job properly.
It has been my experience that Universities find the FT's an unfortunate inconvenience.
Having worked in an International office, briefly, in a University at home, these issues are dealt with promptly, as being without a passport for such a long time is a major inconvenience.
RachelDiD:
That is exactly what I thought. It is true that I did drag my feet getting some documents to her (getting my insurrance was a pain), but I figured that two and a half months left on my visa was plenty of time. I have not been able to see my sick mother and dying dog all summer, plus, I spent about 1500 rmb of my own money on documents for a process that can apparently not be done.
I might even lose my job, because according to her (which means it is probably not true) the process to get the employment license and fec will not be completed before classes resume. I have no plans to go quietly into that night.icnif77:
Is Employment license Working permit? If yes, it took School in Fujian some 2 weeks after I exited China to HK, to get WPermit. If you still have time on your RPermit, School can apply immediately, and you'll stay in HK a week the longest.
Ask them to pay cost for HK, and they might move faster.
For Medical insurance, I had to full fill Medical form about my health, and that's all I did. School took care of it. I even think, School in China is required by Law to get you Medical Insurance. FT doesn't need to do anything, but fill up the form.
Ask SAFEA (FEBureau) about it (whole story). There's post here with FEB addresses in any city in China. Hit 'SAFEA' on the search above for address and contact numbers in your city.
yeah, your laziness. When you hand someone your passport you hawk over them, ask them at least once per day how it is going. In China nothing gets done without "supervision"
Next time, just ask Q: 'Do you want me to call my Embassy?' after few days without book, and School rep. will move. If School is not that nice, change your Q to: 'I called my Embassy, and told them you're holding my book!'
It is against the Law of any country in the World to keep foreigner's passport for longer than it is necessary to process the paperwork, what is a week the longest.
You'll get the same advice from your Embassy.
Now, Q in your example is 'Who will pay for new Z cost?'.
'Argue to death' with them to pay Z cost. You might need to head home because of her sloppiness, or HK (lower cost for Z), if you're lucky.
Make them issue Invitation letter with HK Z pick-up.
Good luck!
icnif77:
I'm sure, SAFEA will help you with the problem. That's their job!
Incompetence and laziness... I ran into the same situations myself.
Once they (foreign department at my school) even told me they were processing my passport and couldn't give it back to me when I demanded it. Then a week later, I am going to the PSB and she was trying to HIDE the fact she had my passport hidden... like am I am idiot.
Chinese have trouble actually attempting to admit foreigners could be smarter than them in MANY instances. She will come up with lame excuses... these excuses are usually acceptable in China but not for foreigners like... I forgot... my lock was broken (for 6 weeks) on my desk, I lost it and found it again.... stuff that a child would say lol.
Yes, the FAO's laziness. You could have checked up on her, but I don't think the blame lies with you. An RP etc takes about one or two weeks to transfer, so I would check every week. You just have a bad/lazy FAO.
I also don't think this is common. All my RPs have been handled efficiently.
She is an idiot...how else could 10 million Japanese soldiers shut down a country with 1000 million Chinese soldiers... always pissed them off...
Spiderboenz:
It was during a civil war, and there were many Chinese traitors/japanese spies.
Eorthisio:
I had the opportunity to work with some Japanese and it's day and night compared to Chinese. Japs are very professional, very organized, very efficient at work, they definitely deserve to earn on average 10 times what the average Chinese makes. Koreans are the same, maybe even more dedicated to their work and company.
My last RP extension from Fuk., Xinjiang story:
I finished Contract with Fuk. School on May 3rd, and I got 30-days RP extension, what is sufficient time for the new School to apply for new FEC.
I signed Contract with School in Taizhou, Jiangsu, on April 28th, 2014. As soon as I arrived to Taizhou, School gave me working schedule. I started to work, and I was waiting School will take me to the Medical Exam. Rep. told me, he applied for FEC.
After week of working, I asked Rep. when we'll go to hospice. He replied: 'We're waiting for agent (who connected me with the School) to give us guidance.
I told them, I can't work with kids till I don't have MExam.
2nd week, rep. took me to the Hospital, and I passed MExam.
2 weeks after that, I still didn't have FEC, what seemed fishy to me.
I called Jiangsu SAFEA, and officer told me Non-native English teacher cannot get FEC (WPermit) in Jiangsu.
I checked School, if they are listed as School authorized to hire FT, and they're not authorised to hire FT. School (and scum agent) hired me for two months (May, June) with very good 1-Y Contract and spacious housing.
In the end, they burned my valid RPermit, and I had to exit China on June 28th, 2014 to HK.
Got new Contract with present School in Fujian, which was able to get Invitation letter with HK Z pick-up.
I had to stay in HK 3 weeks, and I returned to Fujian two weeks ago.
If School wouldn't be able to get Z HK pick-up, I had to return to EU, and apply for Z in EU.
I had valid RPermit, extended since 2011, before I arrived to Jiangsu. How ridiculous is that?
I wrote that, so OP wouldn't feel that bad.
RachelDiD:
Damn, that blows. Misery does love company...if we were in the same city, I'd say we should drink together.
Both, definitely. I've met many people who don't have their positions because of qualifications or hard work, but they know the right people. In those cases, they aren't worried about having to work hard to keep their jobs, since they can scrape by with the bare minimum.
Likely, this person just doesn't care. You being put out by having to travel last minute doesn't affect her negatively.
TIC there is no laziness or incompetence in China only what is normal and harmonious.
Typical Chinese laziness, this is the same reason why in some jobs you don't get paid on time or get noticed about changes at the very last minute. It's not that they don't want to pay you or tell you things, it's just that they are soooo lazy.and selfish that they just don't care at all.
Working with Chinese managers can be a nightmare, even if you are trying to do your best at work they will do their minimum and during (pointless) meeting remind everyone how great they are. And if YOU start not caring about your job they will probably threaten to fire you, just how fair is that?
RachelDiD:
Yep. Every time I tell myself that I shouldn't look down on the Chinese, that this country and these people do have some worth if I could only engage them...some Chinese person comes along and says "No, RachelDiD, we DO suck! I'll give a glimpse at how lousy we can actually be! You never even imagined someone could be this worthless and still know how to breathe!"
