englishgibson
- 2010-02-19
the F visa is in fact an alarming trend. it really looks like it's about the responsibilities on the part of some chinese employers. offering the job and then taking it away from you based on their own evaluation system might as well be one of the reasons there. chinese officials and some of these employers are getting increasingly worried about how we teach and what we teach. if your lessons aren't agreeable, even though they are academicly pro and greatly helpful for students, you are out of the door on that F visa quite a bit easier than on the appropriate work permit. and, they are kinda off the hook on any reimbursements such as flights, bonuses etc.
now, i too have been on mainland for quite a few years and have worked on the appropriate work permit and i too am seeing the same kinda trend as our OP. having worked on Z/RP, i do actually not feel as comfortable with it anymore. i'd prefer to work on either F or spousal L (i am married in china) coz of so many unpro contractual agreements offered. chinese employers seem to want to own us as well as mislead us with their ambiguous wording of some clauses in. moreover, if you have to sign the SAFEA contract, you'll more likely will have to also sign another, the employer's contract as well which is in many respects contradictive to the SAFEA one. then, there are more and more SAFEA officials cooperating with the local employers more than with us. therefore, why would one want to bother? well, the main reason is to protect ourselves against being deported as on either L or F we could. however, if you are married, it's interesting. i'd love to see any chinese officials booting me, the only family provider, out of this country and leaving my son and wife to dry.
the bottom line is that the chinese foreign employment regulations and the work permits are unreasonable as your Z/RP is tied to one only employer that in fact enjoys "owning" you. it's the chinese way where you've got to show your loyalty to the employer that's paying you. it would really work a bit better if these employers were more educated, better qualified or experienced. then, if the SAFEA was to look after our interests more than it does, it'd also work better. just imagine that you quit in a pro manner and the employer you've got your work permit decides that you are "UNSUITABLE FOR WORK IN CHINA". currently, with this unreasonable system around, you face an uphill battle applying for your future work permits in many other places around the country. more and more chinese employers are aware of how much they could hurt you if you do not agree with their standards/practices.
cheers and beers to our F or L visas as well as our skills to stay away from troubles on these visas :)
I've been in China a lot of years now, and I am starting to see a new trend that I find very disturbing. Schools "wanting" to hire people on F visas. I am seeing this even in schools that are legally able to hire people on Z's.
I have been browsing a lot of job boards lately, and I am seeing more and more ads saying "F visa for first semester, then Z visa for second" or "F visa for first 3 months". IN fact, I have seen more jobs which are advertising offering F visas than I have offering Z's.
I find this perplexing, as well as a little disturbing. It used to be the majority of jobs offered, and wanted you to come here and work on a Z visa. It meant you were more obligated to be there, and they had some control over your visa status. Hence you could not so easily leave and find work elsewhere. You would also never see advertisements offering F visas. There were the schools that provided them because they were unable to offer anything else, however they were never blatant about it. Now, all this has changed. Everywhere I go, F visa this, and F visa that. Even if the job requires a degree, a large number of ads I see say "F visa provided". Some don't even offer a Z visa for the second term, only providing an "F" yet still require a degree and certification of some kind. Is it just me, or is this screwy?
Part of why there is a Z visa is to make sure there is some minimum standard of education among those applying for jobs to teach. It is also to protect not only the teacher, but the school as well from irresponsible, fly by night teachers. Why on earth would legal schools actually "want" an F visa? It is a crappy alternative for both parties, at least in my opinion.
I can see several reasons why legal schools would be offering crappy F visas. Firstly, money. It costs more money to get, and more of a time commitment. Getting a Z visa and working permit can take a fair amount of time. If a teacher is already in country, they often have to go to Hong Kong to get a new Z visa. This can incur a great deal of expense, which the teacher is not going to want to pay for, nor the school. I suppose looking at it in that light, the school sees it as a big commitment. If they have lsot a number of teachers in the past, perhaps they wish to protect themselves by not commitment more time and resources. If you ask me that's part of the problem.
This trend towards offering F visas is just plain stupid, despite any good reason the school might think they have. Any decent teacher worth a hill of beans will not accept such an offer, knowing it is illegal to work on such, at least in most cases. There is no protection, legally speaking, and any contract signed would not be legal. By working on an "F" visa, a teacher basically is an indentured servant, with no hope of reprieve if things go afoul. This can also be true even with a Z, but at least with the proper working papers, you have some options. An F visa offers none.
If you are caught working on such, you can be fined and deported. Though rare, this can and does happen on occasion. Schools themselves can also be fined heavily. It's very likely that schools offering such have paid off the local government, but it's just as likely they haven't.
I just don't get it. These school owners, the ones I have talked to, say they do this because of unreliable foreigners. In my view, this stupid trend will only worsen the problem. In their silly fear of investing too much in hiring "unreliable" foreigners, they are leaving themselves few options as to who they can hire. In truth, the only people who will take such positions with such little protection for the teacher are those who are highly unreliable and can't find legal work. Indeed there are some responsible reliable teachers out there who don't have degrees, and can't get employed legally. That said, without the protection of a Z visa the school is much more likely to have to hire the people they are trying to avoid hiring, unreliable drunks and or backpackers, who don't take the job seriously.
I find this trend scary, to say the least, as I myself have had to turn down a large number of what seemed to be very good jobs, only because the school itself "refused" to supply a Z visa. Imagine that, LOL. I checked these schools out, and many in the past required it, hence they can legally hire people, but are now opting not to. This seems like circular logic on the schools part, and akin to cutting their own throat. Those teachers who are most reliable want a Z visa, and will stay for the required time. As long as the school honors their part. In the end, that might be the real problem, as with an F visa, the school doesn't have to honor a damn thing.
I'd like to hear from others who have noticed what I consider a disturbing trend. If things continue in this manner, as they seem to be, finding a good job with adequate protections for the employee will start to become ever more difficult. To say I am concerned would be an understatement. To say everyone else teaching in China should be concerned couldn't be more true.
I know one thing, I would never work on an F visa, and to those out there who can get a Z and a work permit, never ever, in my opinion, take a job offering a probation period on an F, and then the school will get you a Z. Why would they? Never take any job offering an F visa the first term, then a Z the second. Why would they get such for you, once they have you there. We all know how good schools are at bait and switch, rationalizing, and selling us on how things were miscommunicated. I know enough to know that, if they get you to work on an F, they won't get you anything else, ever, why would they?
Just my two cents on this disturbing trend. Wondering if others have noticed, and are as concerned as myself.