School Insists on L Visa??

So... Long story short.

I accepted a contract with a school in Kunming (I know, shocker). During the contract/discussion process, they confirmed they would pay for a Z visa. I sent all my forms to their visa guy in Beijing (pdfs via email at this point). He is requesting that I mail him the original copies of my medical form and my certificate of no record (he already has the pdf). I sent him my flight itinerary, and mentioned that I was nervous that my visa would not be ready in time for my flight at this point (he was on vacation all last week). He sent an email back with an attached letter of invitation (to visit him in Beijing, NOT from the school) and asked, surprised, that I hadn't applied for an L visa yet. Um... no? (a) no one told me to (b) I thought he was processing the visas, why else would he need the forms? and (c) I'm supposed to be getting a Z visa, not an L visa.  This stinks.  

Luckily, I had already arranged to fly to San Francisco 4 days before my flight to China so I could visit some friends from college. There is a Chinese consulate there, and one of my friends who is fluent in Chinese (ABC, but speaks Mandarin at home) is willing to go with me in case I have to jump through extra hoops. Denver doesn't have a consulate, so technically I'm supposed to go through the one in Chicago but most of my friends have used visa services in NYC, so it doesn't seem important WHICH consulate you go through.

So, my instinct is this: Keep my original documents with me, go to the consulate in San Francisco on Monday, apply for a Z visa (not an L visa), pay the rush fee/bribe an official or two.

As far as I can tell, I have everything I need except a proper letter of invitation. A Chinese (National) friend has offered to write one for me, but I need to find some kind of template for him to follow. I am about to email the school to ask for one, but I'm not holding my breath at this point.

A friend who taught near Chengdu last year is telling me I'm making too big of a deal about it, and should just go over on an L visa. He says only one teacher from his school actually had a legal work visa... But I REALLY don't feel comfortable with that.   If I absolutely can't get a Z visa, I'll have to go that route, but I am NOT happy about it.

What are your suggestions, oh sage ones?  

Edit: It appears I need to have the work permit before I can get the work visa. "Confirmation Letter for Foreign Experts from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of the PRC" - They clearly haven't sent me this yet, either. Is that what he needs the original documents for? I don't know!

They don't have a licese to hire foreigners, so are using an agent to scam the system. When/If you get a Z/Work Permit it will say Location: Beijing on it, and technically is illegal. People often do that though anyway. Personally I wouldn't have even bought a ticket until the visa was processed. China isn't going anywhere.

You can't get a Z visa without an official letter of invitation, which isn't something your friend can just write up using a template. The school issuing it has to be licensed to hire foreigners.

It is unclear to me whether your school is able to procure work permits/visas for their foreigners or not. If it is simply a matter of not having enough time to get things processed before the school year starts, I could see that, but I wouldn't agree to work on an L visa. For starters, your L visa is going to have a maximum stay of 90 days. Assuming you don't run into any other trouble (which is a big if), is the school going to pay for your visa runs?

If the school has promised you a work visa/res permit in the contract, then I would reluctantly agree to go ahead and come over, provided they make arrangements for you to do a visa run to HK for your proper work visa ASAP. If they're saying, "don't worry, just work on a tourist visa" you need to be looking at other schools.

You definitely need to confirm that the school can and will pay whatever is needed to get you legal residence and work permits.

I suggest keeping legal even if it means passing over this job opportunity and losing a non-refundable ticket.

Otherwise, if you come on over anyway and try on working on an L visa anyway, your China adventure can then expand to include:

1.  The school letting you know that all current obligations they have under contract are moot.  You'll be the one punished if the local PSB finds out, not them.  Hello extra long work week for half the promised pay.
2.  An all-expense-paid vacation at the local PSB holding facility.  Free entrance, free food, free love with your fellow inmates of the same gender, free remolding through labor, and so much more.  Of course, there will be a sizable fine gratuity expected at the conclusion of your stay.
3.  Expulsion from the country, along with a very long time (perhaps permanent) on a visa blacklist preventing you from returning.
4.  A genuine entry in your criminal record.  Maybe no one will ever see it, but the internet sheds a lot of light on things that used to be easy to hide.  Imagine your name and passport info showing up in a publicly searchable database of illegal foreign workers.
5.  Permanent contempt from legal expats who know that illegal workers are making their lives harder.

As much as I enjoyed my own time being remolded at the Guangdong #7 Center for Naughty Foreign Teachers, at least I wasn't there for breaking labor laws.

I hear about this sort of stuff happening a lot in Kunming, luckily the school I work for, Shane, don't mess us around with visa's.

What school is it, out of interest.

Personally I wouldn't have even bought a ticket until the visa was processed. China isn't going anywhere.

Yeah I waited a very long time to buy my ticket, and actually only got it last week. At the time I was under the impression that the "visa guy" in Beijing was processing everything to get my Work Permit.

I'm currently drafting an email to my English contact at the school to try to clarify whether or not they're actually providing a work permit/Z visa upon arrival. If not I'm out of there.

What are your opinions on going over to Kunming on the tourist visa, but then applying to schools that would be willing to sponsor a legitimate work visa? I had a hard time getting schools to contact me back while in the US, presumably because there's already a pretty huge laowai population.

My other option is to just cancel my flight to China, couchsurf with some friends in SF until this all gets sorted out/I find another job, and then go to the consulate again.

I'm lucky to have saved up enough money that the flight and/or a visa run won't break me -- I want to do this right. Unfortunately, I already broke my lease in Colorado so I'd just prefer to get over to China (legally) as soon as possible.

To clarify, I do NOT feel comfortable nor was it ever my intention to work on a tourist visa. I'm just trying to figure out how to make the best out of a   ty situation.

Just sent the following email. We'll see how it goes/what sunshine they try to blow up my behind.

Hi K_______,

Thanks for being willing to meet me at the airport! Since my flight gets in so late (early?), I didn't want to be an inconvenience.

Regarding the visa situation. I was under the impression that D_____ was processing the visas. In response to my last email, he asked if I had applied for an L (tourist) visa yet. I hadn't, first because no one told me to (I thought this is what D_____ was doing), and second because we had discussed a Z (work) visa. I also only just received a letter of invitation from him last night (yesterday your time), so there's no way I could have applied before that anyway. I don't feel comfortable mailing my original documents at this point, because if I need to rush a visa through in San Francisco, I will need to have them with me. I have no problem mailing them afterwards, of course, if he needs them to process the Z visa into a Residency Permit.  

To clarify, the school is willing and able to provide a legitimate work (Z) visa, correct? I am uncomfortable working illegally on an L visa. Like I said in my last email, I can go to the San Francisco consulate on Monday the 12th and pay the rush processing fee. There is no Chinese consulate in Denver, so I don't have another option - other than going through a private service which at this point could take longer. However, in order to do this I need to have a legitimate work permit. ("Confirmation Letter for Foreign Experts from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of the PRC").

Please advise me as to exactly what the plan is for work visas. If absolutely necessary, I can apply for an L visa to get to China, but only with the understanding that I will be receiving a proper work permit and work visa.

Thank you for your time,
S________________

Wait and see what your school says then.

It used to be really common to come over on a tourist visa and then the school would help you convert it, sometimes without even a run to Hong Kong.  That was a few years ago and things have tightened up a lot RE visas now.  But then Kunming is pretty far from Beijing where these edicts emanate from...

As for your friend who worked illegally on the wrong visa, again that used to be really common but it's becoming an increasingly risky option with very real consequences (detained, fined, deported) and the general consensus on here at least is don't do it.

It might all just be a communication problem.  It's amazing how bad schools can be at communicating vital information to foreign teachers, thus causing endless situations like this.

Like you mention, if you do come over on a tourist visa and the school seems dodgy, you are free to walk away and tout yourself around other schools in Kunming which as you point out might be more willing to hire someone on the ground (just please don't do this if the school still have your passport...)

That's a nice letter. No one at my school would understand it.

if all else fails, come on l visa, dont work, and wait for a job offer. you will get loads if your 'actually here'. then the reputable school will sort you out (i mean help you get the right visa, as others said). if you can afford to lounge about with no job in china, that is!

I may be a cynical grumpy-puss here, but if there is one thing I don't allow employers to mess around with it is my legal documents and, particularly in China, I take assurances of "everything will be fine" to be about as trustworthy as a dope fiend's promise to pay you back the loan he needed for his next fix. I personally would not jump a plane and hop to China to seek employment without that Z visa in my passport. Then again, I am cynical.

It is probably not known for certain if it is possible to go to Hong Kong to get a Z visa for people working in Yunnan, since each province is different. And there may also be a variable about each school being able to do it even if it's possible in that province.

As far as going to Beijing in order to do paperwork for a school in Yunnan, I'm surprised no one else has yet exclaimed how dodgy that sounds. Not me.

However, since you already bought the ticket, is it a return or one way? If it's return, I would buy the L visa in San Fran and go to Kunming for fun, make some contacts and look for another school, then come back to San Fran and do the paper work properly.

The school where I work regularly hires teachers on L visas and it usually needs to wait until the next winter or summer break to go home and process the Z visa, so they're technically illegit for a semester and the FAO says it's an accepted practice here in Guangzhou as far as the paper pushers in the govt are concerned.

And I'm with Stil on the email you sent. Perhaps you should rewrite all future correspondence as two or three bullet point communiqués, with points two and three repeating point one in simpler and simpler syntax.

I also think that letter you sent is too complicated and will go over the heads of most Chinese FAOs.

You certainly can show up in Kunming and look for work on the ground, but only do that if you're ok with not finding anything and have the means to get home if you need to, either to process the paperwork for your (legal) new job, or just because the job search was a bust.

I moved back to Kunming about 2 weeks ago and have been in Dali for a few days but I have a friend who is basically doing the same thing you're thinking of at the moment. His situation is a bit different in that he already had a visa and is moving, like me, back to Kunming from Beijing, but the job he had lined up fell through and now he's on the search. You will most likely not find a whole lot at this point at unis, primary schools or high schools, but you may find some training centers are hiring.

You seem like an adaptable person and it also sounds like you are not coming over here penniless and have the money to get yourself home if needs be. I'll go out on a limb and say I wouldn't change my plans at this point. I'd come over as planned, but bail if they didn't come through on the legal work papers and look for a job while on the ground.

PM me when you get to Kunming, maybe I could help somehow.

That's a nice letter. No one at my school would understand it.

Once again, the contact I sent this to is from England. Hence I trust her ability to speak English.

You certainly can show up in Kunming and look for work on the ground, but only do that if you're ok with not finding anything and have the means to get home if you need to, either to process the paperwork for your (legal) new job, or just because the job search was a bust.

... You will most likely not find a whole lot at this point at unis, primary schools or high schools, but you may find some training centers are hiring.

You seem like an adaptable person and it also sounds like you are not coming over here penniless and have the money to get yourself home if needs be. I'll go out on a limb and say I wouldn't change my plans at this point. I'd come over as planned, but bail if they didn't come through on the legal work papers and look for a job while on the ground.

Thanks. I think this might end up being my plan. Luckily I was already talking to a language school before I decided to take this job, so maybe they'd still be interested.

We'll see if I can keep my mother from having a heart attack when I tell her.