MickL
- 2016-04-16
I just happened to see this thread while looking for something else.
In a nutshell, it appears that it does and will show up now.
Long story short, I left my job in China in February largely because of untenable working conditions and simply packed up and went home after sending a text and a cursory email saying I am leaving while I was at the airport already with my boarding pass in hand. I never received a reply to either.
I applied for a new job in early March, this new job being in Xi'an. I was in Hebei previously.
I had received a new passport because my previous one was almost full so I just applied as though I had never been to China before and missed out the previous job on my CV.
About 10 days later I got an email similar to that posted by another poster in this thread saying that the Foreign Experts Bureau have detected me to be already in their database and need to check something. Obviously I had a good idea what it was. The FAO then called me on Skype and said that they have connected two records together and as I am still on the books of another school I need to get them to cancel things. He was also quite pissed off that I had wasted his time and not told him.
My old school still until this day have not cancelled anything, my old RP and FEC are still active and I am literally in limboland until both are cancelled. I cannot apply anywhere else. I tried emailing my old school but they are not replying.
These documents don't expire until October and therefore I don't know what to do short of going back to China on the hope I will be admitted on this RP and knocking on their door.
I firmly believe that everything is much more linked these days. My advice is first hand, get your release letters sorted or you will be screwed.
San Migs
- 2016-03-31
Hi,
I don't think he "hates' China, like me (when visa rules were easier, and the people more amenable) he probably liked it very much. But China now is not China 2004-2006. Those were the proverbial good old days. Post the olympics, year by year, it got steadily worse due to increasing nationalism and xenophobia, and more recently now the economic slowdown. As he has said many times, a lot of the old china hands in the south have gone to Thailand or elsewhere. I used to like Shenzhen but even they are now cracking down, the HK visa run is no longer doable, and now they are saying they want rich and professional people to settle there (ie. not FT's!!!, in their language).
Add in a few mysterious deaths and the whole place is suddenly much scarier and less welcoming.
https://thenanfang.com/two-expats-dead-shenzhen-mysterious-circumstances/
avatar
- 2016-03-31
the fact is, we really have no idea who wrote that. If a Chinese said they were part of a superior race on here what would be the response? I have been reading this board for three years. If anyone says anything "bad" about China it is always this Silverboy character to blame. Is he the only foreigner who hates China?
Bleh Blah
- 2016-03-30
Chinese are takers ,and also an inferior race
Wow, a moderator from this site actually read that and thought it was okay!
Amazing.
Silverboy, the racist Australian, strikes again.
San Migs
- 2016-03-30
It was then a full month before I received the invitation letter in Washington state before I could apply to go back to China.
And for those FT's without a permanent home in presumably the USA, as you mention Washington (the state), short of staying with family/friends or a hotel (which the chinese will not pay for!), that is a hell of a ballache for a chinese FT salary, unless it's over the 20.000 rmb mark. But then if the chinese are going to put you to all that trouble, why not go to South Korea, Taiwan or the KSA...all of which pay better? When the visas were easier I could understand it, but now, they are as strict as the KSA in terms of actually obtaining and renewing a working visa...yet the salaries remain static. Thanks for your post though, it's a shining example of what is wrong with that place at the moment.
Mr Aussie
- 2016-03-30
You should not listen to anybody on this board who tells you that you have some obligation to your school. You don't, you owe the Chinese nothing, neither does any other foreigner. Just leave if you are unhappy. China is not the only place where you can teach English. Private tuition is the way to go if you want to stay in China. Just marry some woman from the countryside for a visa if you want to stay in China. Give her 2000 or 3000 rmb every few months. I know several guys who have done this. The Chinese are takers ,and also an inferior race, don't feel guilty about using them. You can just do private tuition and f..k your students.
amused
- 2016-03-29
The question is, is
if I go home and reapply from fresh is the fact I left going to show up on any database.
I don't know.
Your tentative plan is to fail to honor your first contract because your are "sick of it".
The "position elsewhere" that you've "accepted" will not receive your release letter so they cannot hire you.
With your new passport you hope to find another employer that you can deceive.
If you are fortunate one of the other Australian FTs that litter this site will help you game the "corrupt Chinese" system so that you can return and continue to provide your students a virtual display of virtuous Western culture.
Lawrence
- 2016-03-29
I was in a similar position before Chinese New Year.
I didn't run away as such, I just simply told my old school I was leaving and went back home.
I replaced my passport as it was due to run out next year. The new passport had a new number markedly different from my old one.I had heard some people say it will work and some said it won't.
In my case it was the latter. I was formerly working in Jiangsu and had applied for a new job in Beijing. All was going well until I received this email from the school I was going to work for.
'We have submit your application online to the Education Bureau and have receive a message saying your file is to be manual review and must wait for their news before we can go ahead'.
About a week later I received this message:
'The Education Bureau have refer your file back as you are already in SAFEA system in Jiangsu and have linked your application together. You need to ask them for a release letter and expert certificate cancel letter as we cannot continue without it. We can see the detail of your old school. If you want we can ask for it.'
So clearly the systems are now linked to distinguish between passport changes. It maybe that Beijing is super strict but given the inability to continue I am sure it has been rolled out nationally.
What I ended up doing was both me and my new school asking them for the documents. They gave the release letter begrudgingly but would not give the FEC Cancellation notice. However it appeared they did cancel it online and then I was able to move on with my new school. They found some method to override that bit of the equation.
It was then a full month before I received the invitation letter in Washington state before I could apply to go back to China.
I would try to work it out with your school.
I was wondering if any of you have advice or experience about this.
I will keep it short and to the point but I am coming to the end of a contract which I am quite honestly sick of and am thinking of just leaving and going back home. Its only three months left which at a push I could do but I am not entirely convinced my school would play ball and either skim my bonus, not give my release letter or a combination of both.
I have accepted a position elsewhere for the next academic year.
My existing passport finishes in September so I have to renew it anyway. The question is, is if I go home and reapply from fresh is the fact I left going to show up on any database. Someone told me that without a release letter and some other document I would be screwed either way because of the new online system.
Does anyone know if the new system matches passport numbers to names and date of birth? Aussie passport numbers change with every reissue.
Thanks in advance.
Jay