Hola!
I am going to work for a University this fall and classes start on Tuesday. I am a little excited, but this excitement is tempered by the process of getting another visa.
My previous position was working for a well known branded kindergarten based in Taiwan, bt with branches in Mainland China. I worked at one of their branches in Hangzhou. The owner is a Taiwanese fellow named "Billy". (Names changed to protect the innocent and the accused)
At the time, I left another teaching position after a bad falling out, and Billy hired me with several months to go on my previous visa/residence permit. My visa expired in January, so around December I asked the boss that I needed another working permit, just to find out that he does "not have the right" to hire foreign teachers, more or less he doesn't want to pay for the license, but the main branch office in Shanghai could help me. Billy layed on this jive that he was Taiwanese, so it was difficult for him to get the license to hire foreigners (which makes no sense to me because he has a license to run a school) But he said that I can go to Shanghai to deal with this.
So after two trips to Shanghai, a medical exam, and going to the police station to set up my "temporary residence permit" residence in Shanghai, I went to the police station in Pudong, and about 10 days later, I get a new Residence Permit/Z visa from Shanghai. The new permit is valid until Dec.31. The school in Shanghai is actually much larger that the one in Hangzhou with about 10 foreign teachers, so I relaxed in the knowledge that this organization has taken care of me and I would eventually have to go back to them to get a relaease letter.
The school had another foreign teacher on staff, an Estonian man with a Chinese wife and baby. He was there when I was there and has been employed there for about 2 years. A friend of mine had the job before me, but she was on an F business visa. Before her was some Australian girl who worked there for 1 or 2 years. Only saw her once and never talked to her about the job. My friend with the F visa (given to her by a friend who runs an Italian company) went home. So the boss has never had to deal with this issue until me.
The Estonian was here on a Chinese marriage visa and not a work visa. One day the police did come and asked for our passports, mine was fine (although it's a Shanghai stamp and I am not in Shanghai) but the Estonian got carted off to the the police station and Billy had to pay a fine for hiring an illegal worker.
. The Estonian stayed at the school, but Billy reqired him to go to Shanghai for his work visa. (You got caught doing something illegal, so you do something else illegal to cover your earlier illegal action)
Worked for Billy and his kindergarten until August, when I told him that I accepted a new position at a University and myself needing a Letter of Release from his company. Billy at first tells me that he cannot do this, then blah blah blah, maybe he can, then OK, we will give you the letter
here to give as a document for the police. Then the office gave me a letter in Chinese, chopped with a stamp from their office in Hangzhou. I knew that this was not going to work, Because my visa came from Shanghai, not through his local company. I knew it was not going to work but they said it would, and I was crossing my fingers that the bureaucrat looking at my paperwork just would let it by. Nope. I need to get a letter from the company that issued the visa directly.
Got a call today from my FAO girl telling me that I need another letter and this one was no good because Billy's company could not legally hire foreign teachers (or "have the right"). So, I went back down to the school and told them that this letter was no good and I need the letter from the head office in Shanghai. He started in with this Chinese double talk of this letter is from Shanghai, it should be a good letter blah blah blah. I told him that the office in Shanghai must not how to give these letters, because their school is much bigger and established with a lot of foreign teachers. More blah blah from him (he does not speak English well, but gets better when the heat is on) More with the blah, blah, blah. I got mad. I told my boss this,
I want a letter by Monday that is legal. If I do not receive this, I will go to the PSB, speak with a police officer that we (I and wife) know and settle this. So his people get on the phone to Shanghai and came back and told me that they need my documents so they can cancel them. I got irate and demanded my letter. Finally, I and one of the girls from my school went on his company van to my new house a half hour away to get my Employment Permit, so they can do what I asked them kindly to do 2 weeks ago. I am not bluffing or bull-bqbqbqbqbq-ing about going to the police either.
On the way in his van to get a document that the Shanghai office needs, I explained to the girl (who I really like very, very much) that Billy was actually a cool boss in many ways, and he's actually a nice man. BUT, he has to follow the rules like evryone else. I told her I want to drive a car here, but I have to get a license. That's the law. Billy hired people without his license. He broke the law, and knows that he did (to save a buck.) Personally, I hate government bureacracy, and some little twerp kid who my college hired who is a China virgin and doesn't know shit here gets his "Foreign Expert's certificate, while I must run around, making threats to get a paper the twerp doesn't need that I do.
More to be revealed.
Senor