Writing in the English-language South China Morning Post, Jonathan Edwards, a partner at the Shanghai office of international recruitment company Antal International, says a work visa is the holy grail of visas for expatriates living in China, and that for this reason, people who have one and who wish to remain in the country indefinitely should “do everything you can to hang on to it”.
“It’s much easier to transfer it to a new company than to apply for a new visa,” he writes.
Those with student, spouse or tourist visas, meanwhile, may have to return to their own country as part of the process of transferring this to a work visa, Edwards writes, because “it is becoming more and more difficult to transfer to a work visa”.
“Clearly this can be very costly, so check if your potential employer is willing to pay for this before you begin.”
In a column headed “Being a foreign worker in China is not always smooth and easy”, Edwards notes that senior executives sent by their existing multinational to work in a mainland China outpost rarely struggle to get the correct paperwork.
But several groups of other expatriates, who together constitute a majority who don’t fall into the senior executive category, can often struggle, he reports. These include “people without two years of working experience or a bachelor’s degree”, who “will find it very difficult to gain approval from the Chinese authorities”.
Although many people often get by for years with the wrong visa – such as a tourist visa, even though they are working – Edwards says the days of being able to do this with little chance of running into problems are coming to an end.
“If you are working here without the correct visa, then begin to think about getting your papers in order. The current grey areas will not last forever”, he writes.
To read Edwards’s piece in full on the SCMP website, click here.
