Shit went downhill fast -_-

So after being here a week and getting sick of the school circumventing the contract on top of hating the job I've decided to leave. The school is telling me that my passport will be back thursday but because I signed a contract that says they reserve the right to withhold 7000rmb if I break it, they're saying I have to pay that to get my passport back or they will give it to the police station who will then decide if I can have it. How is this legal? Is my passport not US property?

I would just go to Beijing and get another one at the embassy since I gotta fly outta there anyway, but now I can't get on the plane. Do I need it to take the train to Beijing??

FML. Please don't judge, I came here with good intentions but it's turned to shit and I just need to go home and am in a very bad situation now. Please HELP. I'm in contact with the US embassy in Beijing right now too.

Getting another passport won't be done as quickly as you might be thinking. Can't you (pretend to) work things out with your school until they give you back your passport?  Tell them after talking to your friends you've "reconsidered"? 

No, they can't keep it but they can make life difficult for you for awhile if they want to.  Maybe should not have told them of your intentions until after you were given your passport back, but that's all ancient history now.

What did the embassy tell you?

I'm waiting for the embassy to get back to me. Ya, I should've waited till I had it back, but too late now. I don't even care if it takes awhile to get another one in Beijing, I'll stay in a hostel or something. I just don't wanna be here, these people are sketchy as hell.

Just so you know, you can't take a train without your passport...

Threaten to call the PSB.  If they still won't give it back to you, call your local PSB and say your school won't give you back your passport.  Go from there?

Just so you know, you can't take a train without your passport...

Threaten to call the PSB.  If they still won't give it back to you, call your local PSB and say your school won't give you back your passport.  Go from there?

IS the PSB the police? According to them if I don't pay this extortion money they're gonna give my passport to them anyway.

Well, that threat is pretty much empty because unless you've broken a law, the PSB (yes, that's the police) can't hold your passport and the school knows it. You can call their bluff on this if you're feeling ballsy. Unless you're in the shittiest 17th tier city in the entire country with the most corrupt police force known to mankind, the school is 100% full of shit.

Calling the PSB pre-emptively is a good idea. Tell them what you've told us here. Likely the PSB will try and mediate between you and the school. This is generally what the PSB will do in any situation like this. The police are not the arbitrators of contract disputes and ultimately they have no authority to keep you in China against your will or hold you to your contract, but they may try and convince you to pay the school some sort of compensation for their troubles. In probably 95% of disputes like this the police try not to take sides because their goal is to get both parties to agree to some sort of compromise and leave them out of it. The police abhor extra hassle, and detaining a foreigner in China over some dispute with a pissant training school is much much much much more hassle than it is worth to them. So relax about that.

Keep a cool head. You're in an unfamiliar country and I know everything is probably overwhelming, but as long as you have the funds to get a plane ticket home (if home is where you want to go), no one is going to keep you here against your will.

Well, just got off the phone with an on-call officer from the Beijing embassy, he took down their names and numbers and told me them giving my passport to the police isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I made it clear to her when I was at the school that they can't extort money from me for my passport because it is US government property. And I think the Beijing embassy is going to make this clear to them. These people need to learn that a job contract is an agreement, not a secured loan.

Well, that threat is pretty much empty because unless you've broken a law, the PSB (yes, that's the police) can't hold your passport and the school knows it. You can call their bluff on this if you're feeling ballsy. Unless you're in the shittiest 17th tier city in the entire country with the most corrupt police force known to mankind, the school is 100% full of shit.

Calling the PSB pre-emptively is a good idea. Tell them what you've told us here. Likely the PSB will try and mediate between you and the school. This is generally what the PSB will do in any situation like this. The police are not the arbitrators of contract disputes and ultimately they have no authority to keep you in China against your will or hold you to your contract, but they may try and convince you to pay the school some sort of compensation for their troubles. In probably 95% of disputes like this the police try not to take sides because their goal is to get both parties to agree to some sort of compromise and leave them out of it. The police abhor extra hassle, and detaining a foreigner in China over some dispute with a pissant training school is much much much much more hassle than it is worth to them. So relax about that.

Keep a cool head. You're in an unfamiliar country and I know everything is probably overwhelming, but as long as you have the funds to get a plane ticket home (if home is where you want to go), no one is going to keep you here against your will.

I have the funds to get to beijing and stay in a hostel for a bit. Then my family is flying me home in a week or so. I made the first mistake of coming here without atleast a grand in reserve to get back. This shit is gonna make for a great story.

Calling the PSB pre-emptively is a good idea. Tell them what you've told us here. Likely the PSB will try and mediate between you and the school. This is generally what the PSB will do in any situation like this. The police are not the arbitrators of contract disputes and ultimately they have no authority to keep you in China against your will or hold you to your contract, but they may try and convince you to pay the school some sort of compensation for their troubles.

This is a good strategy - the Entry/Exit PSB are normally very helpful.  Don't speak to the school about the PSB, go directly to them.  Do not be scared of them, they are your friends.  Also, don't let the school speak for you to the PSB - have your own voice here.

They may hold on to your passport - though they probably don't have much legal justification for this - if they suspect that you are going to break the terms of the Residence Permit/Visa which are governing your stay in China.  Basically, they might make things sticky for you if they think you are going to pull a runner from here and then go and work somewhere else illegally.  Which they have every sensible right to be cautious about.

They may also be able to detain you legally if you have unpaid debts in China - not sure about the exact nature of the law in this area but it isn't unreasonable and I know that there have been some reforms in this area recently.  You remain liable for the fine stipulated in the contract unless you can demonstrate why your employer has broken the contract - evidence is required.

Turn up at the PSB with documentary evidence of how your employer has broken the contract, request the return of your passport and if they waver then ask them for a written notice (in Chinese is fine) of why they are retaining your passport.  If they still waver then ask for the location of the nearest legal aid office and what recourse you have to authority.  

Don't be confrontational though - if you seem well organized they will help you to get out of China asap because it's the quickest way to resolve the issue and generally the right thing to do.  

It's impossible to be certain, but all this giving your passport to the PSB is nonsense. The PSB aren't going to be interested in all this crap. Perhaps their only concern, since you're not going to stay in your job, is getting you out of the country. They're not going to be interested in helping the school to get their money from you - unless of course they have good links with the school, and / or have received lots of generous donations in the past.

The school have to give you the passport, but as to exactly how you can make them, that's a tricky question.

The fact remains though that if you're not working, then the PSB will want you to leave the country. You can't do that without your passport, so in effect the school are causing you to break the law, and causing an illegal alien to remain in the country.

I think the PSB are basically your 'friends' here. I dare say that they will try to put pressure on you to pay the money before you leave China, but your easy answer to that is that you don't have the money. Your family and friends are refusing to send you the money. I'm pretty damn certain the US embassy aren't going to lend you the money.

I think the fallout of all this may be that you won't be able to get another job in China. It's possible, not certain. There are blacklists, although that doesn't mean there's a definitive one, or many people look at them or even know they exist.

So, I suggest that you tell your school that unless they immediately hand over your passport, you are going to the PSB. Tell them you'll send them the money once you're back in the States. Tell them your parents will send them the money once their precious little son is back safe and sound.

They won't want you to go round to the PSB and make a fuss. They're BS-ing you. What are the PSB / Police going to do to you? Nothing, except make sure you leave China.

However, make sure that you notify your embassy before you go to the PSB, just in case. It would certainly be safer to take someone with you/ Where are you, Xian? You've deleted a lot of your earlier posts, so I can't remember if you're the children's fortress guy.

You're not the first to be in this position. The fact is that sometimes a new job in a new country turns into a car crash. Promise them that if they let you go nicely and quickly, you won't say a nasty thing about them on the internet ever.

I'm actually an honest person, but in this instance, a bit of dishonesty may help them save face. Also, your staying in the job for a couple of weeks while they try to find another teacher for the classes may help them save face with the parents. Don't just give them 'zero sum' solutions. They need to save face and feel that they have in some sense 'won'.

I wish you'd posted about your problems on the forum before 'going nuclear'. Certainly I understand the kind of problems you may be facing. You should have given it more time. But I'm not in your shoes, and although I cried myself to sleep the first few nights after moving abroad, I recognise that mine wasn't as bad as experiences get.

There is a blacklist (it's on the SAFEA website and open to the public - although that may only be an example of a larger list elsewhere because it seems absurdly short) and as far as I know the only people who check it are the ones issuing Work Permits.

Letting the Embassy know was a good move but the local PSB really are your friends.  If you are in Xi'an then the local PSB officers will speak English (bloody good English) so get yourself down there with a bunch of information and explain yourself nice and calmly - they'll respect organisation and documentation.  

I want to add.

The school have no right to hold on to your passport.

However, they do have a right, both legal and frankly moral, to expect you to compensate them, or make some kind of recompense.

As bobrage says, it depends to what extent they have broken the contract. You said circumvented, and frankly if we're not allowed to circumvent contracts a little, well, what's the fun in living?

It's really in the best interests of schools to prevent these things happening, because you've cost them a lot of time, money and now embarrassment. Depending on your level of being more sinned against, considering giving some money to the school may be both a fair and expeditious thing to do. Staying at the school a while would be far more of a win-win situation though. The main reason they want the 7,000 is to save face.

Ok, here's the deal. I complained about not having hot water and the schools maintenence dude just came by and basically said too bad. Then they kept harassing me to come in and train and plan lessons during hours not on the schedule/s they gave me.

I talked to an officer from the Beijing embassy a half hour ago and he took down their names and numbers and said basically that I'd hear from the embassy when tomorrow starts.

Another foreign guy here was also telling me to go to the police but I told him I didn't know if I could trust them.

I am still in the school's apartment. The lady from the school I've been dealing with is supposed to email me tomorrow. I'm in daqing. According to her the principal of the school is in Harbin with my passport getting the FEC, I don't know if this BS or not. My passport could be in her hands for all I know.

Should I just sit tight until I hear from the embassy? If and when I go to the police should I just translate it on my iphone with google and show it to the taxi driver? I have no clue how many police stations there are here or where the nearest one is for that matter. And I'm afraid when I get to one no one will speak english. This is one hell of a clusterfuck.

I want to add.

The school have no right to hold on to your passport.

However, they do have a right, both legal and frankly moral, to expect you to compensate them, or make some kind of recompense.

As bobrage says, it depends to what extent they have broken the contract. You said circumvented, and frankly if we're not allowed to circumvent contracts a little, well, what's the fun in living?

It's really in the best interests of schools to prevent these things happening, because you've cost them a lot of time, money and now embarrassment. Depending on your level of being more sinned against, considering giving some money to the school may be both a fair and expeditious thing to do. Staying at the school a while would be far more of a win-win situation though. The main reason they want the 7,000 is to save face.

Well, I'm definitely not staying and I have nowhere near 7000 to give them.

Wait and talk to the principal. She probably does have your passport on her. (I'm not entirely sure of the ins and outs of FECs. Actually I thought schools got the FEC with the invitation letter).

Can I check something? Did you enter on a Z visa?

If the principal has your passport, then there's no point going to the Police until she comes back anyway. I don't know the geography to understand the Harbin thing.

The cold water thing sucks. One of the teachers at my school went without hot water for about 2 months (during winter) and I was furious when I found out. Completely out of order. But it's not winter now,  Wait a couple of days. Talk to people instead of doing the email thing. I think cooling the situation down a bit may result in slight improvements to your current situation.

Don't they have some kind of director of studies there? I know they're often losers who got a meaningless promotion simply by being too lazy or stupid to leave (talking about myself here) but some kind of middle-person may help.