Get a teaching job in China
Part five
The school should send you documents in Chinese, which basically
officially invite you to China to teach and state that it has offered
you a job. The process for getting a visa into China varies by
country. In the US, take your documents to the closest Chinese
consulate. Fill out a visa application form (or download it off the
Internet and fill it in beforehand). There will, of course, be a fee
for the visa - prices change, so be sure you've checked the Chinese
consulate's web page before you go. Take your passport. If everything
goes as it should, you will turn in your paperwork and passport and then
get it back the next day with a nice Z visa sticker pasted inside.
There are visa services that will do all this for you for a hefty fee,
but if you live far from the nearest consulate, they might be
worthwhile.
Technically, anyone who is going to stay in China for longer than one
year needs to take a medical exam. I believe it is necessary to get the
medical in order to receive a residence book. Although some people
prefer to get the medical done in their home country, with their own
doctors, the Chinese demands for the exam are strange and picky. It is
standard operating procedure to make teachers take the exam when they
get to China, even if they have already gotten one done. My advice
would be to not waste your money - you're probably going to have to have
it done again when you get to China no matter what. Put down on your
visa application that you are going to stay for slightly shorter than a
year (August to July, for example) so you don't have to worry about the
medical form when you go to get your visa.
XI. Get your tickets - This seems obvious, but there are things to
consider here. Don't go crazy and think “I can get whatever I want and
they'll reimburse me.“ Schools will only reimburse up to a certain
point. Make sure you know your school's price limit on tickets - I can
guarantee you they will not reimburse a $3000 first-class ticket.
Also, going to China involves a LONG flight. There are, depending on
where you are coming from, at least one or more stopovers. Think about
your connecting flights - how long do you have to make them? If you go
from DFW to LAX and land at 2:30, with your next flight is taking off
for Shanghai at 3:30, you are going to have a very difficult time
checking in, going through international security, and making it to the
gate in time to catch your flight - and that's assuming your first
flight landed right on time, a quite iffy prospect. Do yourself a favor
and try to get flights that have 3-4 hours in-between. Trust me, you'll
need them.
Keep good records - Keep copies of all your correspondence with the
school. Keep a copy of your contract. Keep a copy of all your visa
paperwork. Keep your airline ticket stubs and your receipts. (You will
have to show these to the Foreign Affairs Office in order to get your
flight reimbursement.) If anything goes wrong, you want as much backup
and documentation you can.
By using your resources wisely, you can find a good teaching job and be
reasonably sure that you have prepared yourself for coming to China.
You could still be plagued by the unexpected, but if you do your
research and keep records, you can rest assured that you have done
everything possible to make your teaching experience a good one.
This awesome article was written by Amber Rollins. Please join us in
thanking her for a selfless contribution to
www.teach-abroad.net |
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