Hiring a foreign expert who is already married and in-country

So as we fill in the last few gaps in our roster for the upcoming semester I managed to find a local American who a) has a bachelor's degree b) has a few years teaching experience in the American public school system and c) has been married to a local woman for about half a year.

He's been spending his time "helping out" at his wife's small business for the past few months, but they could use a more steady paycheck and he wants to return to some semblance of a schedule. Quite frankly he seems to be a good fit for our school.

So as I'm talking with him about all this, the FAO asks me to tell him he needs to return to the States so he can get a new visa.

So it's my understanding that the visa allows entry, which changes to a residence permit. The application for a foreign expert certificate allows eventual possession of a work permit.

Need one abandon their residence permit associated with a marriage, leave the country, apply for a Z visa, return to China, then reapply for a residence permit tied to employment? If so, how do the married Saloonies deal with this in an equitable fashion?

http://en.safea.gov.cn/2013-09/26/content_16996866.htm

Answers your question about who can get a FEC and under what circumstances at an official level.

However I'd get on the horn to your local SAFEA office and E/E PSB now to see if they would be willing to consider switching over the Residence Status.  You may wish to start with the E/E PSB because, in my experience, they tend to be a little bit more sensible and flexible in these kind of situations and you can use "but they said" to your advantage.

The chap may be able to do all of this through Hong Kong if the local SAFEA office is down with listing HK as a place of application.  Also, what kind of place are you?  Private school, fly-by-night training center or an A1 AELN holding public institution?  That's maybe going to have an influence on things too.

Resolution: We have signed him on, but he will have to return to American soil to complete his Z-visa application. Residence status cannot be switched over - or if possible they gave no indication how to go about it. We had our FAO and the man's wife call independently - the bureaucrats were all quite insistent.

I heard tell of folks being able to do a Hong Kong run for visa status, but it looks like this is becoming frowned upon.

Such things seem to quite literally depend upon where you are in the country, so city and province... So sometimes it certainly is possible... and sometimes they are just as much not simply not prepared to do it. Where they aren't prepared to do it... then there seems nothing will change their mind... But it is certainly not impossible everywhere. Not necessarily logical in terms of what can or can't be done. I have both heard of it happening and not happening at similar points in time in different parts of the country. A simple reality of life here in China, where some things are actually implemented in practice at city and provincial level in slightly different ways.

Most definitely, I did the HK Visa Run without a hitch.

When/where/who? The teachers at my current school all have to go back to the US to get a Z.