So….for years i have been so confused about how to get a proper work permit of visa in china…..
Its freaking complex! Last year i applied, had 1 summer intern use it as her project for 1 month, it was a fulltime job – going to one government office to another – china police station, tax bureau, foreign affairs office….and shenzhen is pretty far and wide – futian district, luo ho, nanshan, bus it back + forth…..but I believe the final step has been achieved, I just passed the test / interview with the Chinese police station.
Just to be clear for everyone, when visiting china you need:
Tourist visa – this is what someone coming on holiday would need, no matter if you come for 1 day or 1 month. I had never bothered with this, as normally i am in china on business. You can buy these pretty easily in hong kong and with rush service, receive next day to enter china.
Business visa (f visa) – what i started with when i first came in 2007….this is for foreigner who is coming here to visit companies, discuss strategic alliance, go to trade fairs. Also fairly easy to get, i got my first one (have been through 3 now) when i was still in usa, i used an agency, visarite.com. The good thing about getting this business visa when you are still in usa is that the length of stay* is 120 days and the life of the visa is 1 year. When you apply for a work class visa in hong kong, or outside of your home country, normally you can only get a 3 or 6 month length visa with a 30 day stay *.
Work permit – the good thing about a work permit is you can stay for up to a year without leaving China. But the bad thing is, you are taxed on income here. Another good thing, is you build credit history in china with income, can get a credit card, apply for a mortgage. Seems its is 1 step closer to becoming Chinese…..
* length of stay – on a passport visa, you will see this, this is not how long the visa is valid for, what its for is the amount of time you can stay in china before having to leave….not to your home country (you can of course choose that), but also just go to hong kong, macao, korea, phillippines, or other countries nearby china.
Which is also 1 factor i took into consideration when choosing the city shenzhen when coming to china! It borders hong kong, making it a 45 to 1 hour travel to leave china and get my visa requirements taken care of and my passport stamped in and out. Those friends of mine in beijing, shanghai, or xiamen – have to fly out each time.