Oh yes, in case you are unclear about the Zaid visa (or Zee) it gets cancelled anyway when you get the 'Residence permit' stuck in your passport, and of course you use that to exit and enter the country as well as to give you the right to live here. Providing that when you fall out with an employer you scarper from their immediate area and don't offer yourself up to the police or other authorities,giving them the chance to put a line through it, then you are not a fugitive and have the right to live in China until said (pardon play on words) permit expires- It cannot very easily be cancelled, unless the company have the ear of really big guns in Central Government- Yuming would want to keep away from that lot. I am sure Yuming has other teachers who stay on L and F visas- now that's a different matter and very easy for them to cancel those. One of the reasons companies like to keep the expert certificate is that it's redeemable for 800 rmb in Tianjin, I am told (that could be nonsense as Chinese boss told me that) Another reason is that they use it to buy things in your name. And of course to make your transition to another company more difficult. I have always thought there could be another reason, just a power thing to keep you in tour place as 'white monkey'
Now, if I were in the position of being finished with a company with good time left on my R-permit, I'd just clear off- all the other companies know of Yumings track record and would not consider you as risky if they did employ you unofficially until you could acquire another Z and cleanly go through the process again at a later stage.

Actually Tom that's a little incorrect. Because your residency permit is directly connected to the specific company you work for and not simply a residency permit that allows you to work for anyone you like, scarpering does not make any difference at all. All the company has to do is take your experts cert. to the PSB and fill in a form with them in the process and your residency permit is cancelled there and then, no one has to put any stamps or lines on it to invalidate it.

You get your Z and then your RP on the basis that you have come to China to work for the people who applied for it, your invitation letter states the specific company on it too, not just you have been invited or given permission to work in China. If a company plays ball, you can change jobs and have that permit and FEC transferred to a new employer, it does not mean you can leave and go from job to job on the same RP without going through the official channels.

My mate had this problem at Yuming last year. He said he wanted to leave due to not being able to earn enough cash there and they took offence. He did not have his FEC in his possession, only his passport. Yuming went straight round to the PSB and informed them that this individual was no longer working for them and handed in his FEC, end of story for Yuming. For the teacher however, the story was just unfolding.

Upon finding new employment he never gave it a moments thought that he would run into any issues over visas as the current RP he had in his passport was not due to expire for months. He took it for granted that having a valid RP allowed him to change jobs as easily as in a western country and had never seen or heard of the FEC.
He worked for the new employer for a two or three months and then, due to a problem and then visit from the PSB to this school, was targeted by the representative and the school was told that this teacher had to come in to the PSB later that day for a check, there was no reason they picked on him it was purely bad luck.

Upon attending the interview he showed them his passport and his valid RP. The person(s) conducting the interview asked where his FEC was to which his obvious response was he did not have one to his knowledge and did not really know what it was. They explained that it would have been issued along with his RP upon arrival in China and described it to him, he still had no idea. They left the room, taking his passport with them and did some checking. Upon return they informed him that they had discovered his RP, although showing validation for about 3 months longer had been cancelled earlier in the year and he was now classed as illegally staying in the country. He asked how and why, they informed him that his previous employer had come in to the offices and told them he had left the company and filled out some documentation and because RP's are specific to the company you are employed by it is therefore no longer valid. He tried to argue stating that he was not informed of this by his previous employer and that no officials had contacted him to let him know either. Their response was it was not the PSB's responsibility to contact him and inform him and they could not comment as to the actions and/or inactions of his previous employer.

He was informed he may be fined a significant amount of money for each day of the overstay and issued a short term 'L' visa to give him time to get all his affairs in order before leaving China. He received a nice big stamp in his passport showing he had been staying in China illegally and got a permanent computer record as someone who had broken the immigration laws.

This meant that even if he was to go home and get a new passport to hide the stamp he now had he would have trouble returning or applying for any future visas, be they for work purposes or simply a holiday. To put it simply, he was now banished from China for good as the record with the PSB will be there for good.

Yuming knew damn well what they were doing when they did this. They were banking on the fact that this teacher, like many others, knew very little about the immigration and visa process in China at the time and would drop themselves in it by staying longer than they should. Clearly their intention was to get rid of him completely and get rid of him they most certainly did.

Why they choose to do this to so many teachers I do not know, if they were not so cut throat in that way they would probably find a hell of a lot less bad publicity posted about them. I agree with what others have said regarding the teachers they choose not to screw around, this can only be to ensure that some of them read the bad publicity and then post up positive statements in perfect English, casting doubt over those who have posted in the first place. Its all a very strange affair where Yuming are concerned, Helen is one strange girl and not easy to connect with at all. She always keeps a certain distance as far as relationship is concerned with teachers. When I worked there I never felt comfortable with her, you just get that vice that something is not quite right with her and my suspicions came into fruition after trying to leave myself.

She is a nasty, selfish, devious, vicious and greedy two faced person who sucks up to her boss, or perhaps business partner o_O, and has no morals whatsoever. She knows damn well the things herself and the company do are outrageous and this is not a simple case of being to stubborn and not wanting to loose face as is often the case in China. They are crooks, plain and simple. They use the private education sector as some kind of hustle to exploit large sums of money from schools and use foreign labour like toilet paper.

Anyone who has posted positive statements here, or elsewhere that is a real teacher, you guys need to serious wake up. I do not care how long you have been there but from what I have read most have only been there about a year at most. The screwed teachers far outweigh the sprinkling of teachers that have had a positive experience there, I myself keep running into teachers all the time in Tianjin that are currently in a bad situation there or have just come out of one. Seems every time I speak to a teacher who is having a bad time with a company in Tianjin it turns out to be Yuming.

I know they are not the only set of shits in Tianjin but they have to be one of the worst, if not the worst. They certainly attract more attention than anyone else and not of the positive kind either.

Seriously people, do not work here. I know reading people moaning about a company on ESL sites often comes across as a hatchet job, but this place needs to be avoided if your care about staying here.

Oh yes, in case you are unclear about the Zaid visa (or Zee) it gets cancelled anyway when you get the 'Residence permit' stuck in your passport, and of course you use that to exit and enter the country as well as to give you the right to live here. Providing that when you fall out with an employer you scarper from their immediate area and don't offer yourself up to the police or other authorities,giving them the chance to put a line through it, then you are not a fugitive and have the right to live in China until said (pardon play on words) permit expires- It cannot very easily be cancelled, unless the company have the ear of really big guns in Central Government- Yuming would want to keep away from that lot. I am sure Yuming has other teachers who stay on L and F visas- now that's a different matter and very easy for them to cancel those. One of the reasons companies like to keep the expert certificate is that it's redeemable for 800 rmb in Tianjin, I am told (that could be nonsense as Chinese boss told me that) Another reason is that they use it to buy things in your name. And of course to make your transition to another company more difficult. I have always thought there could be another reason, just a power thing to keep you in tour place as 'white monkey'

Now, if I were in the position of being finished with a company with good time left on my R-permit, I'd just clear off- all the other companies know of Yumings track record and would not consider you as risky if they did employ you unofficially until you could acquire another Z and cleanly go through the process again at a later stage.

AGree wit everything posted here. Just finished working at this shithole. Not only are they advertising specific holiday periods and additional work available when on holiday, but I actually asked them both before I came to China and after I got here. They assured me that I would be on holiday no longer than 6 weeks this summer, probably less. When the holiday came I got a piece of paper telling me I would be on holiday for around 3 months, I still haven't returned to work.

I have been doing some part time work to make up for the loss of earnings as they could not give me sufficient classes to cover. I have told them I am leaving as my contract is only 6 months so I am due to renew. After reading some of the stories about those who could not get a transfer of employment sorted out I fully expect to get messed around, no doubt they have cancelled, or will be canceling my visa. I intend to go to the visa office in Tianjin and inform them that I want to change employers and see what they say, perhaps that may stop them but I bet it won't.

I am going home for a holiday anyway so if need be I will just start over, there's nothing they can do about that. At least I can post up here and other sites and keep people aware that they are STILL continuing to screw their staff around.

Oh and another thing people may find quite interesting. When I started working here I was informed that someone was causing trouble for the company and trying to loose them business. That in order to help protect my employment there, would I mind posting up a review on the internet that helped make Yuming look good. They said that if they had to close I would obviously have no job and also my visa would be affected too. I was given a badly written piece of paper and asked to make comments on some of the items listed on it, I never actually got around to doing it, glad I didn't knowing what I know now.

Read some comments about foreign experts certificates too, can't remeber if it was here or somewhere else, I asked them where mine was after reading about it and told them that I had been stopped by the police and asked to produce it. Even after saying this they still denied any knowledge of its existence, which I know is bollocks because apparently if you have a residency permit and the right to work they issue one, the post I read said something about one does not come without the other.

They then told me that if there were any problems with the police to give them the office number and they would deal with it for me. In other words, they would show the certificate to the police on my behalf so they could keep hold of it.

I also have to agree with the things said about never meeting other teachers too. I didn't work with anyone else in my schools, whenever I went to the office I was always the only teacher in at the time. I was never given the chance to meet anyone to make friends and only met a couple of teachers, one by chance near the office who I spoke to and one by chance on a night out somewhere and discovered we worked at the same place when we were talking.

I never got the chance to take part in any of these free courses they talk about. When I asked about them they kept telling me "Maybe" you can start them soon or "I will ask for you". I gave up in the end and started learning Chinese from a tutor I found.

So all in all, my 6 month contract turned out to be a 3 month contract due to the holidays, they had no extra work for me and have probably already been and cancelled my visa, I will find out soon enough when I goto the visa office.

Oh one more thing I forgot, my health insurance. I can also confirm that I never signed any documents that relate to health insurance either. The only health related matter I had was when I first arrived and Helen took me along the street to a near by mini hospital place for a health check. This is a requirement for the visa and everyone living here from abroad has to have one. Apart from that I have seen and heard nothing about health insurance, I even asked once when I was ill and had to go to the hospital because of food poisoning. I called Yuming for help and they did nothing, I had to find and make my own way to the hospital and luckily there was a very nice Chinese woman who spoke English that helped explain what was wrong. I paid twice, once for the doctor and then for the medicine. When I asked about the insurance at Yuming they seemed like they were trying to avoid the matter and gave me the impression they did not understand what I was talking about, I think they knew very well but just wanted to pretend they didn't.

As things progress with the visa situation I will post further details. Don't mess up by working for these horrible people, they have made my first experience of China a lousy one and I almost feel like throwing in the towel and heading back home for good.

No offense, as I am neutral to the whole YuMing thing... but the posts that put YuMing in a positive light sound very suspicious. They read like they were all posted by the same person trying to hold onto whatever reputation is left of YuMing.

I was thinking of working with them, being in Tianjin. Luckily, I made other decisions. Chinese have to learn that you shouldn't shit where you sleep and then ask others to get into bed with you. If the source of your business is foreigners, why screw them over? Bad news travels fast.

I relish the thought of contributing to the destruction of a BAD English center.

MW

I have been here a year. I enjoy lving in China. And I've found that the easiest part of living in Tianjin is my relationship with Yuming. I have never had any problems. They went out of their way to make me feel welcome and have always followed through on anything that I have asked of them. People need to be realistic in their expectations when it comes to living and working in China. Luckily for me, I had worked in China previously in a different capacity and knew what to expect when I came to Tianjin.

I have just returned from a harrowing 2 months working for Yuming.

They lied to me over and over again. The contract wasn't honoured. You can't argue because the Chinese version will be the only contract taken into consideration.

I was told I would be in a city, where in fact I was in a village (for want of a better word) with no foreigners, teachers or otherwise). They promised me they would find me an apartment with internet, washing machine, fridge, microwave, telephone, etc. There was nothing when I moved in.

At first it was exciting. But gradually my health deteriorated, due to poor food. Everything had to be fried, or I could live on noodles and dumplings, which as a diabetic are not the best choices for my diet.

Anyway, the job itself was a nightmare. Each class had more than 55 children, who were incredibly badly behaved. Foreign teachers aren't allowed to punish the children, and whilst I would never hit a child, I wasn't even allowed to make the naughtiest children "stand up" at the front of the class. I was told to make the classes "interesting", but no one was prepared to show me how to use the machine to show overheads, video clips, etc. I was told to play games - but how do you teach a game to 60 kids who don't speak a word of English?? (Suggestions welcome btw.)

I was then told that the school wanted me to give the students "homework". Yuming told me that they would copy what I wrote on the board, then show it to their parents. After about five weeks of this, I was then told that I shouldn't spend 15 minutes checking their writing because it was a "spoken" English class. FRUSTRATING!!!

Oh and in the end they didn't want to pay me for my last month's work. I had to sit in their office for hours, waiting for the money. They had to give in because I wouldn't sign the termination agreement. Oh and the journey to the office took two hours and two buses to get to, even though I was now suffering from pancreatitis due to my deteriorating health. Bear in mind that they repeatedly told me that I was in the "city" whenever I complained .....

Please please please do not take a job with this organisation. I realise that some people are happy there but they are very definitely in a minority.

They are very friendly and helpful. But sometimes slow to notify about roster changes.

Anthony, "EDUCATION" vs "PROFIT" is for a yummy discussion. It's quite yummy to say we forget an education is a business and then the business is for profit. you see we're getting away from the education in the sentence, aren't we? :) but sorry, i've got nothing on the YUMING EDUCATION.
Cheers and beers to making money while educating :LOL

I don't understand why there is so many negative posts about the Yuming Education Center. It seems that everyone forgets that they are running a business, and a business is run for profit (just like any Western world corporation) and not provide foreign visitors to China with their every want and desire. I believe that many foreigners come here with unrealistic expectations and for the wrong reasons. You will not make a quick buck in China simply because the economy is far less developed and the cost of living is much lower. Even though your income is very low compared to what can be made a home you can have a wonderful time here and in many cases enjoy an even more rewarding lifestyle.

I have worked with this company and would proudly say that they have lived up to their promises for the most part. There are some things that I am not thrilled about; such as my hours being on the low scale of the contracted amount. But seriously, what do you expect when their business is limited by the number of teaching hours each school subscribes to. Overall, I would recommend this company and suggest that any intelligent person not take extreme positive or negative threads about a company too seriously. Be aware of bias in an environment where you're able to keep your identity hidden and not be concerned with repercussions for actions.

Anyone who is interested in making a serious inquiry into working for this company please make a post in reply to mine.

This company is a joke and quite frankly should NOT be in business, and how much longer they can carry on, given the amount of BS they seem to cause each and every person that unfortunately goes to work there, is anyones guess, not long I would say.
They are liars, cheats and theives and cannot be trusted in anyway. About the only thing you can say with complete certainty is that you WILL get messed around and you WONT be happy there.
If you want a decent contract that is honoured and you dont want to end up having your Visa screwed, which may even end up you having to leave China all together then the answer is simple...
DO NOT WORK HERE - STAY WELL AWAY FROM THEM - YOU WILL BE DOING YOURSELF THE BIGGEST FAVOUR THAT YOU HAVE EVER DONE YOURSELF.

My computing skills are very basic to say the least.And I no longer have the attachment file on my e-mail address,as I re-signed on paper at the school,causing me to delete it.I don't even know the meaning of 'paste' re computing.I don't know how to do an attachment or an avatar!
Apply for jobs,either direct or through an agent.If you are well-qualified,ie white,holding a Western university degree,and a native speaker from one of the five major English-speaking countries,you'll get such contracts sent to you for your perusal.No problem.
Look for,you guarantee the quality of your teaching.If you are asked to amend it,you should be given reasonable time to amend.
Probationary periods or % of students to like your lessons or parents complaining,not the government contract!
Arbitration clause after all mediation attempts have failed,State Bureau for the Administration of Foreign Experts in Beijing,govt contract,yes!

Maybe another reader with such a state contract will do what you request,a person who knows a lot more about computing than me!

The standard state contract issued by the Bureau for the Administration of Foreign Experts is the only contract I'll sign.The translations are accurate,dismissal procedures are fair to FT's,and there is an arbitration clause.That contract is a powerful weapon in the hands of an FT with a justifiable dispute re its terms and conditions.
But as a rule TC's and private schools do not offer standard contracts.Unlike standard contracts,non-standard ones may be less watertight as well as compromising the employees' rights.More often than not,employers offering unfair contracts of that type are dishonest in other ways too. Don't sign.Instead,run,run,run!