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Q: visa drama with my 乡巴佬 employer
I'm working for a company which supplies teachers into public schools in a major Chinese city.
I transferred over to them from my previous school and I gave them all of my documentation in February to renew my working visa which will expire on Monday.
For all of the last two months I kept asking the employees as well as their supervisor to renew the visa because it will finish in the middle of the contracted period and I will have to leave China and the school won't have a teacher anymore.
It wasn't until two days ago that they told me that I must sign for another six months and agree to stay with the company in order to have my visa renewed. Obviously this is blackmail. I was told by a lower level employee that it was the leader of the education bureau who insisted on this. Later in the day I asked the leader about this and he denied all knowledge. He then told me that the supervisor of the company said to him that I was planning to quit. In other words, the education bureau guy didn't know that I signed on for six months and was deliberately given the news that I intended on quitting mid-contract. He genuinely didn't know. He is completely clueless and didn't know anything about how my contractual arrangements or legal matters work despite being employed in a position requiring more than just a rudimentary understanding of that field of knowledge.
It was only today that I was fully able to put together this puzzle. I had a conversation with another foreign teacher who's been contracted to the company for the last 3 years. He told me that the supervisor is the son of two former government officials who'd laundered loads of money into the Canadian housing market. He owns fifteen properties in the city and tries to get the teachers to rent a property owned by himself or one of his family members. Because of his substantial, albeit ill-gotten wealth, many of the local government workers who contract services out to his company will never question his competence or his sincerity. This guy posts all sorts of pretentious quotations and vignettes related to literature on wechat regularly. He also claims that he has a masters degree in computer science and economics from the University of Toronto which he completed in record time. I tried talking with him about Steve Keen's criticisms of the dynamic stochastic equilibrium model and he just said, "yeah, yeah, I know..." one other time he posted something about the Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. I tried to begin a conversation about existentialism and whether it had much of an influence on Chinese people's outlook. All I got was, "yeah, yeah, Camus (Cammuss) won Nobel Prize then died right. I know!" Money well spent on an education, huh?
So anyway. I asked this guy repeatedly about renewing my visa. My girlfriend has had three heart problems, all of which she's fortunate to have recovered from. I am right on the brink of overstaying my visa and he just sits there on his peasant nongmin arse espousing pretentious bullshit which he doesn't understand while showing off in front of impressionable rote learned farmers who used guanxi to get jobs where they just sit all day and look at cat memes and play video games. I told him to please keep me informed and if he needed anything to let me know so I could always tell my girlfriend in order not to get into a situation where she is faced with high levels of stress. Here we are now. Thanks a lot, arsehole.
I spent years getting an education, I work hard, I always try to improve and I can prioritize important matters and arrange to have them done, anticipating most potential contingencies before they occur. Can anyone explain to me how on earth anyone here can delude themselves into thinking that this country is a meritocracy? More like a klepto-gerontocracy or pluto-ineptocracy or maybe I should just pander to the general comprehension level of most of the influential Chinese and say that the place is bloody backward and not looking like it's going anywhere anytime soon. "You no love China! Go back to your own country, dirty laowei!" How dare I try to introduce basic standards and even have the temerity to suggest a visa should take less than four months to process! Those are the kinds of pernicious western ideas which are going to undermine the country, I guess. Bring them on!
6 years 49 weeks ago in Visa & Legalities - China
Crystal clear, if they lose you it's their loss, as simple as that.
A common consensus among Chinese (ethnically that is) who had the wisdom of leaving prc before the communists took over china in 1949, of those who are still living (mostly in their 80s and up), is that just about the only thing you can do with prc is let the psychos rot. They are already rotten at the core.
Those are folks who have walked the great plains (which is what you are doing), living in Canada, USA, Australia....etc., nurturing their grand children, having class reunions, taking cruise trips to Florida, northern Europe, enjoying their hard earned golden years.
Of course the topic about low lives filled prc comes up in their daily chats. Most common diagnosis is, 'nothing you can do, except wait till they rot to the skin'. Among them are highly educated, prominent doctors (western medicine), retired of course. They are using the analogy of incurable, unoperable malignant tumors. In short, until these warped souls go meet their maker there is nothing you can do about them. Well, except do your best in making sure they can't get anywhere near you and your family, at Home that is.
Enter 'safea' in search above and dial the Gov. in your Province.
If your visa (F, I guess!) sponsor is wrong, they will sort him out fast!
icnif77:
Did you try by calling SAFEA?
'Guanxi' has never been a cause that SAFEA wouldn't react at my complaint and my first call to SAFEA was when I was working with F. And some 5 times after that, mostly because of party A's Contract disrespect.
See my thread 'Helen' .....
icnif77:
The SAFEA's no. is:
'Enter 'safea' in search above and dial the Gov. in your Province'
There is thread with SAFEA's addresses and contact no. around China. That is Provincial HQ, so you will most likely encounter Chinese English speaker.
Zethe:
My former boss had "guanxi" (uncle was a local police chief), yet couldn't do crap to me except give me the 20,500 RMB she stole from my checks.
All because I called SAFEA.
It does work, provided you're gathering proof and Chinese friends to help translate.
Find a new employer...
loudvillager:
I've found one. The problem is I have a contract till the end of June, my visa runs out in May and this crowd refused to extend it even just for a month. Of course I can't just go and do this myself. Everything here is set up to benefit crooked idiots with good relationships who I'm sure would be unable to change a flat tyre or repair a broken faucet. I'm sitting here hoping this can be done properly then I'll go to this new place and try to switch over during the holidays. A wad of money usually fixes anything in this country.
loudvillager:
Z visa. I don't want it to expire or I'll have to get it authenticated at the Chinese embassy in my home country due to the new visa criteria. It'll take a couple of weeks and I'll have to knock around here on a travel visa while I'm waiting. They should just do their job properly. Nongs with relationships are rife here. I thought they'd only be involved in the for-profit ponzi scheme training schools but their nonginess is all pervasive.
Put it this way: if China introduced a Nazi eugenics program the first people to be compulsorily sterilized would be the government officials and the business owners and the plan would fall apart on day one. Still at least they'll be able to say that something fell apart faster than a lot of things which were Chinese-built.
icnif77:
OK, at my RP end matter usually goes this way:
1. RP is never longer or shorter than the signed Contract. You are saying, your RP will expire before the Contract. That is impossible because it collides with Contract, i.e. you must be in the classroom on the last day of Contract .... and you must exit China on the last day of RP
2. A week before RP expiration, School's rep must take you to PSB, where you will get 30-days RP extension (which is mandatory for completion of the Contract). It is mandatory 30-days grant at Contract end!
The purpose of 30-days RP extension is either:
- travel around China and prepare for an exit from China!
or
- travel to the new employer's site (with Release letter and FEC cancel cert.), where new RP sponsor/employer will have enough time to apply for new FEC, new ME (if last ME is older than 3 months or if you are changing the Province, i.e. new ME is required!) and new Contract length RP at PSB as the last matter. All thingy is called 'RP transfer', i.e. no exit of China required!
Dial SAFEA and ask them for help and advice! Gov. will couch your employer quickly!
loudvillager:
Ok. Can you give me their number please. Your explanation for how to contact them is not clear to me.
icnif77:
I am Non-native English .... and everybody here complains on my written draft .... but with you I feel like I am from Bhutan ...
'Enter 'SAFEA' in search above and the 3rd thread from the top (not from your bottom) is this one':
http://answers.echinacities.com/question/address-safea-and-contact-numbers-different-provinces
How can I give you SAFEA's no. if you never wrote where are you located, i.e. in which Province?
Open the link and locate your Province, click it and 'SAFEA's address and phone no.' is displayed!
You see now ... you might have teaching certificate from Native-English-'Bhutan' 
.
Crystal clear, if they lose you it's their loss, as simple as that.
A common consensus among Chinese (ethnically that is) who had the wisdom of leaving prc before the communists took over china in 1949, of those who are still living (mostly in their 80s and up), is that just about the only thing you can do with prc is let the psychos rot. They are already rotten at the core.
Those are folks who have walked the great plains (which is what you are doing), living in Canada, USA, Australia....etc., nurturing their grand children, having class reunions, taking cruise trips to Florida, northern Europe, enjoying their hard earned golden years.
Of course the topic about low lives filled prc comes up in their daily chats. Most common diagnosis is, 'nothing you can do, except wait till they rot to the skin'. Among them are highly educated, prominent doctors (western medicine), retired of course. They are using the analogy of incurable, unoperable malignant tumors. In short, until these warped souls go meet their maker there is nothing you can do about them. Well, except do your best in making sure they can't get anywhere near you and your family, at Home that is.
you just need to 'Pull a Walter' on the douche who was supposed to re-up you!
loudvillager:
It's ok. A load of verbal abuse in front of subordinates chastizing him for his incompetence, pretentiousness and lack of class is worse than a cap in the head for a lot of the somnambulent face monkeys here in 农国
I am sorry, but it sounds like you might have a chip on your shoulder. In your rant, versus a real question, you place the blame on the employer for all of your whoas. You were well aware of your contract situation and your visa issues. To say that you could not have done the visa process yourself is not true, granted it is like walking through hell's gate for the process to be completed on your own. Since you have let this process continue to a point where time is against you, now it is the employer's fault. I agree that you should contact SAFEA to get assistance with this problem. You claim that you have found another job. If they are aware of your visa complications and still want to hire you, let them sort out the details with your current school. Never the less, the only person that looks out for an expat's interests are themselves. We have to be aware of the timetable for our contracts and other things. We must be forceful to make sure those timetables are met. Finally, back to your initial rant, there are always two sides of every story and the Chinese side of the story is not always the wrong side. Question for me is what truly led to this whole issue to begin with?
loudvillager:
Not a chip so much as I was really pissed off with their repeated incompetence snd lack of professional competence.
As for the claim that there are two side to every story. Hmm, maybe, but 90%+ of the time you'll just hear a distorted version anyway.
I could have done it all myself but I was assured it could be done by the company. I assumed, wrongly, that it was in their interest to keep me. They get commissions for getting teachers, not for keeping them. That's just more nong lying. Seen plenty of it. I should have known better.
However there is one final point. They waited right up till the last day to get me to sign for another six months. They weren't even able to process the document properly so I had to leave China. I'm now back in the west breathing clean and just finished dealing with 8 different problems in one morning which would have taken 2 months each to solve in China.
In the future I will have a marriage visa, because as you might have guessed, the only reason I tolerate China is "for her". So long as I can get out of the place every six months then there's no real problem for me.
Ranting? I'm genuinely worried about anyone who lives in China and doesn't feel the need to rant.
icnif77:
Agree 100%! I always respect my signature and get up in the air only when Contract is violated by party A.
Condition for SAFEA's help is 'no Contract disrespect by party B' ... !
@loud: '6-months Contract is not legal (to obtain WP&RP!)'.
Contract to support WP&RP can't be shorter than 10-months and it's usually 12-months in length.
School must present your signed Contract to get FEC (WP) and RP (extension)! That is the reason, I was saying 'you are most likely in China on F (business visa)'.
They are BS-ing you with 'extend RP for another 6-months' or you are BS-ing us. Proper Englo out of your comments thou! he he
I think you just proved my point. You have taken absolutely no responsibility for your own actions. It is always someone else's fault. At no time have you claimed that you could have been at fault or could have done something a better way.
loudvillager:
They had a legal obligation to renew the visa, lied about it and let it expire. How dumb a lackey does a person have to be to end up writing the kind of obscurantist apologetic drivel that you churn out?
You can look this up on the SAFEA website. Employers have an obligation to renew existing residency permits two months prior to their expiry should they expire in the middle of a contracted period. They failed to hold up their end of a bargain on a contract. This is very straightforward and simple.
If you really are a foreign teacher, I'm sure as hell worried about you. The office of Court Eunuch was disbanded at the end of the Qing Dynasty. I hope the doctor who lopped your member off kept it in a freezer for when you might need it again after you get out of China.
Anyway, I'm back in the west and I got 8 things processed within three days, each of which would have taken 2 weeks in China, but a guy like you will probably say I'm not using a nuanced enough analytical perspective to evaluate these situations.
You reap what you sow. Keep shovelling shit. I need someone to laugh at to give me a frame of reference so I never compromise on my skills and ethics.
Loser.
Name and shame, so that no other foreigner will ever work for them. If you try hard enough and if their business model relies on foreigners the company may even en run out of business and that will be well deserved.
Now if you truly want to stay in China I suggest registering a WFOE and starting your own company, you will be able to sponsor your own working visa.
It is the nightmare of every Chinese that foreigners get off their asses and start competing with them. We are far more efficient and organized.
I started my company 5 years ago and I have long crushed every competitors in my field in my city, I have a monopoly city-wide, I'm just that much better than they were.
loudvillager:
Thanks for the advice, mate. I'll look into it. My girl is a local and we've had this kind of rubbish recur every year. She had a heart problem where I spent a lot of money and I told these people very early on to please help me out with any information and to let me know whatever else I needed to provide. It's why I didn't cut and run. That and I signed a contract for a rental and was worried that if I absconded I'd have my salary cut to cover "losses". They said everything will be taken care of and I was wrong to trust them. Here I am now.
It's nice to be home, though. You must feel the same way when you get back too. I'm spreading the news about them far and wide on Facebook. This company want 80 teachers to place in public schools and could only get 12. Even with 12 teachers being managed by a staff of 10 they couldn't handle our paperwork. The government officials who contracted them are really pissed because (without blowing my own horn) I can speak English properly, I work hard, I create my own plans to cater to the needs of my students and there's measurable progress in the students I've taught. The official in charge of the public schools knows how things are and they're sick of getting Lithuanians and Pakistanis because of the company's bottom line imperatives.
Sorry to blather on, but I've spent two consecutive years in that bloody place, and I always feel pleased to hear from people who're rational and sensible.
Thanks again. I'll make sure I fuck them over good and hard with a proper sized appendage. Name and shame plus competition which will cut them down in an instant. They won't know what's hit them when all their clientele is stolen as they're working so hard watching a Pixar movie, scoffing some offal and listening to My Heart Will Go On through headphones before their 3 hour lunch break and nap.
