This topic doesn't seem to have been discussed for a while so I was wondering if anyone has had any recent experience with all the new regulations?

I am currently in Nanjing and am intending to move to a new employer in the same province, which theoretically should be a relatively straightforward process but it is becoming anything but.

The new school in Yangzhou have informed me that as they are migrating to the new system, I now need to get my degree and criminal records check authenticated even for an inter province transfer. They said it is not just new people but even their existing teachers who are renewing are having to do this. Time is ticking on, my resident permit expires in early July and there seems to be no clear way as to how to get this done. I am from Ireland. I contacted the Irish embassy in Beijing and they obviously have had so many people asking the same thing that there is now an option on their automated switchboard which plays a recording saying that they do not authenticate documents in China and they have to be done through Dublin.

After a lot of faffing about, I contacted the Chinese Embassy in Dublin and they said that they can do this but they will not accept it unless it has been verified by the issuing authority first. The university said they would accept it by a third party or post but the Gardai (Irish police) say that I need to attend in person with appropriate ID for them to issue the verification.

This really is proving to be a royal pain in the a**e. The ironic thing is I was offered a job in Beijing and they said for transfers it is not needed.

Has anybody in Jiangsu had any recent experience of this? I appreciate being a small country, there are not so many Irish expats around but any advice about how to do this without the expense of having to go home would be appreciated.

Thanks.