Medical to get invitation letter/work permit? Yes? Or no?

I wonder if there is anyone who can clarify something for me.

My college has employed a new teacher.  He is in the UK, and is now starting the process leading up to applying for a Z Visa.

He has looked on the website of the Chinese Embassy, and it seems that he does not need a medical exam to apply for the Z Visa.  However, the college are saying they need a medical certificate, and I am thinking that maybe this is for them to apply for the Foreign Expert Certificate/Work Permit, whatever it is that they get issued, in order for us to apply for a Z Visa.

Can anyone give me any clarification on this.  I am of the opinion that the website is correct, in the information given about not needing a medical examination in order to get a Z Visa, but that you need a medical examination, in order to get the paperwork you need first, to apply for the Z Visa.

Not sure if this makes any sense, but I hope it does, and that someone can give me some information, about the issue.

Chinalin, Zhaoqing, Guangdong.

 

Hi chinalin.

I've got a job at a uni in Shenyang and I've been asked to get a medical before I get my invitation letter too.

Is the main question whether he needs to get the medical check in the UK before beginning any of the paper work rather than doing most of the paper work, arriving in China and then getting the medical check just before everything is finalized?
If so, I am interested too. I have read some job descriptions that say the applicant must supply a medical certification and others that say a medical exam must be carried out once in China. I would much rather do it in China, it would have to be a lot cheaper.
I have just started talking with an employer and we haven't gotten to the medical yet, fingers crossed he forgets all about it 

The medical is usually required for the FEC, not the Z visa.
If he does get it done in England there's a good chance he'll have to do another one in China anyway.

It's frustrating. It's also the same in Australia, you DO NOT need to show anything medical when you rock up to apply for the visa. But the colleges I've worked at didn't seem to believe me and insisted on getting medicals. Thankfully I've been able to get them in China and have them sent to the colleges, or transfered visas.

I don't know why colleges do this, it creates so much confusion. As mentioned previously, they need it for the residence permit, which you can't get til you're IN COUNTRY anyway!

I wasn't required to have the medical beforehand. I had the job lined up, had the z visa, then when I arrived my school arranged the medical for the FEC.

Perhaps asking you to have one prior is just their way of making sure you don't get over there and fail the medical (in China) thereby putting them in a position where they have to "grease some wheels" in order to get you the FEC and residency? (Maybe?)  Sort of an insurance policy for them. 

Perhaps asking you to have one prior is just their way of making sure you don't get over there and fail the medical (in China) thereby putting them in a position where they have to "grease some wheels" in order to get you the FEC and residency? (Maybe?)  Sort of an insurance policy for them.

I have myself pondered the same possibility. Maybe some university bureaucrats are capable of that level of cunning. I think it's more likely that we experience the varying interpretations of "guidelines" by different people at different levels in different organizations interacting with each other as those people naturally move through the job positions over a period of time. Looking from the outside into this process, it seems like chaos. But it's not.

Six years ago, I was in the United States, ready to begin working for a university in Hubei. The school ranks consistently in the top twenty in China. The FAO at that time was a sharp guy (later went to Florida, where he received a doctorate). He insisted I undergo a complete physical and fill out the Chinese medical form, signed by the doctor and notarized. "Why should I do that," I asked, "when I will just have to endure the same physical again after I arrive in China?" Not so, he replied. He swore that the PSB would now accept the results of my US examination. I had doubts, to say the least, but I complied and underwent the physical in the United States. Fast forward a couple of months to the beginning of the new semester. Sitting in my recently acquired lodgings in China, I receive a phone call. Be ready to go for a physical at 3:00 p.m., says the FAO. OK, say I, with great effort stifling an "I told you so". His English was good enough to detect a sarcastic tone. I waited for the appointed hour. Then, lo and behold, about an hour before time to leave, the FAO called to say that the PSB had relented. My US physical was acceptable. I can only wonder what machinations preceded that decision. 

It's frustrating. It's also the same in Australia, you DO NOT need to show anything medical when you rock up to apply for the visa. But the colleges I've worked at didn't seem to believe me and insisted on getting medicals. Thankfully I've been able to get them in China and have them sent to the colleges, or transfered visas.

I don't know why colleges do this, it creates so much confusion. As mentioned previously, they need it for the residence permit, which you can't get til you're IN COUNTRY anyway!

I had this exact same problem with my current employer before coming here. No matter how many times I explained that I didn't need a medical certificate to get the Z visa, he kept insisting that they needed one. My theory is that he wanted to start processing the paperwork for the residency permit (which can take a VERY long time, depending on your relationship with various stamp loving officials). Also, being in a small town means the local stamp wielders get to run things pretty much as they wish.

Of course, my employer couldn't acknowledge that the reason they wanted the medical certificate was for their own convenience. They had managed to get FTs to do it in the past and didn't see why I couldn't do the same. What they didn't realise was that getting all of those tests done at short notice would have been incredibly expensive for me in Australia and unfortunately, I don't have any doctor friends who would be willing to sign a piece of paper saying I'd had all the tests done (I've heard of people getting away with this).

 However, I was fairly dogged in my refusal to get the medical before coming here (I knew I'd probably have to get another one anyway). Instead, I had one upon arrival and had a pretty bad relationship with my FAO assistant for the first semester because I wasn't sufficiently greatefull for all the paperwork he had done 'for' me.

Long story short, you don't need a medical certificate to get a Z visa in Australia, but whether the employer demands one depends on who you're dealing with, how competent they are and how good their relationships are... Like anything else here, really.

Thank you all for your responses. 

I have found that the situation is just what I had thought it was.  You do NOT need a medical exam to get the Z Visa, but the college DOES need a medical certificate, in order for them to apply for the Foreign Expert Certificate, and to enable them to offer an invitation to you.  And these are the documents you need to apply for a Z Visa.

When I last had to get a Z Visa, to re-enter China, I went to the Chinese Consulate in Perth, armed with the relevant documents from the college, but they still insisted on seeing the health report too, so I had to go back with it.  I tried to explain that without it, I would not have had the invitation letter, etc., to show them, but it did  no good.

Thankfully, every time since then, when I have left the country, I have had a current Resident Permit in my passport, so no need for a visa to re-enter China.

The Foreign Expert Certificate is what they work on, prior to our arrival, and this is needed, in order for us to apply for a Z Visa.  The Resident Permit is processed once we are in the country, and is a follow up from the Z Visa in our passport.

Once again, many thanks.

Chinalin, Zhaoqing, Guangdong.

 

Just to concur with ChinaLin.
This is exactly the situation I have found with my school in Guangxi.
No medical for the actual z-visa BUT! medical is needed to get the forms you need to get the actual visa. (DRAT!...& DOUBLE DRAT!)

I asked the school "What exactly do you need?"...they said "you can download the form from the embassy website"...(Helpful!)
Well on the UK website there is sweet FA!....BUT!...on the USA site I found a medical form for (Dirty)foreigners (see attached). (This seems to be the RP medical form)

I basically went to my UK GP and he filled this in after much prodding & poking of yours truly. In the fields for the ECG, HIV etc he wrote "To be done in China", so I am going to have to go through the whole damn rigmaroll again to get the RP when I'm in country. (DRAT!!...& TRIPLE DRAT!!!!)
Got him to write in the end comments...(No Physical and mental problems found (Ha! fooled him good!!!)...Mr WastedYouth is fit for employment)

The major downside is this can't be done on our wonderful NHS and had to be done privately = £150!!! 

So we'll see if it all cuts the mustard or not!...not sure if this form has to be used but it is a bilingual form so that must be in its favour compared with a standard medical letter.

This is what it says on the loverly chinese embassy in Israel website:
" Z visa (for long-term working)
         (1) Documents mentioned in part A;
         (2) An employment license from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security or the State Administration of Foreign Experts of China;
         (3) A visa notification letter from a relevant Department of Chinese Government or a government-authorized company;
         (4) A certificate of physical examination issued by authorised hospitals or clinics (including blood test record),the blank form can be download here, Physical examination Form."
Does that mean the form can be blank???!!

by the way we did as suggested by WastedYouth above,local friendly GP next door filled in the form without doing any tests,but on the pace for the photo on the form it says "to be stamped by hospital".Are we screwed here ?

Well, maybe...your doctor is more screwed as he/she essentially falsified a health check...ask your GP if there is some way to stamp the thing.

My doctor just stamped it with the surgery/practice stamp.  Remember, in China, when you see a doctor, it is usually in the hospital, hence the need for a 'hospital stamp'

But where I come from, doctors work independently, or interdependently of the hospitals, so that is the difference.

Chinalin
Zhaoqing, Guangdong.

 

Exactly Lin it has her official stamp at the bottom but not on the place where the photo is.