In your posting, Yi, you only referred to a contract that had been signed months before. You also said that on arrival you were not accepted by the college and were left destitute etc etc.

Now you suddenly say that invitations were received. If those invitations were issued by the Chinese Foreign Affairs Department and if you were travelling on either an 'F' or 'Z' visa, then how come you were dumped by the college immediately on arrival? If the invitations were not issued by the Foreign Affairs Department then they were worthless.

It is also a fact that although six months is the maxiumum allowable, it is usual Chinese practice to issue an 'F' visa with only 30 days validity. If a longer period is needed, the issuing Embassy need to have a written explanation of the reasons why from the sponsor of the applicant. The Letter of Invitation issued by the Foreign Affairs Department is valid for only a very short time indeed - I think around four weeks, if that. Thus if you did have such an invitation, you would, of necessity, have been involved with both the College and your Chinese Embassy within a week or two of your departure.

Yet in your original posting you referred only to the signing of your contract "months" earlier as the reason for your departure. In a complaint such as you were then making, how come you did not cite the issuance of Letters of Invitation and subsequent entry visas shortly before your departure as your justification for travelling to China? If this had been the case and if you did have all the proper documents, then the Chinese authorities would not have allowed the college to get away with the behaviour you claim. Thus I believe my initial assessment was quite reasonable having regard to the incomplete information you gave.

It is therefore unfair of you to to accuse me of making incorrect preumptions when the information that would have obviated me making any presumtions at all was deliberately supressed by yourself.

Moreover, whilst I don't doubt that you signed an employment contract, did you get one original back from the college duly signed and sealed by them? If not, then the contract document signed only by you was worthless. Also, did you complain to the correct authorities following your arrival in China? They would have come down very hard on the college. They would have required them to accept you, if only for as long as it took for them to send you back home again. After all, if what you now say is correct, the college was your sponsor and they are not allowed to abandon their employees in the way you claim the college did. Therefore something must not have been in order from your side to have enabled them to act in that way. Be they right or wrong in not accepting you, they must have had a specific reason. Why don't you tell us what it was? You did mention that they said you were not sufficiently qualified to teach, so perhaps they were unable to justify your eligibility for consideration as "Guest Lecturers"? This was mentioned by one of your colleagues as being your declared status for the purpose of an 'F' Visa.

Moreover, I point out to you too that I am not exonerating the college here, for changing their mind so late in the day. Nor am I castigating you for complaining about such an abrupt change of plans on their part. However, if they were able to ignore you with the impunity you implied in your first posting then there must have been something obviously wrong somewhere, otherwise they could not have got away with it.

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To Mr Richard Prouty - I insist that a "guest" visitor is officially unpaid beyond his reasonable expenses. Though having said that, some countries (though not all) accept that a "Guest Lecturer" can be paid a "Honorarium". This is only for legitimate guests however, whereas Yi & Co were not really "guests" they were entering as teachers being paid a salary. You know that, the teachers concerned knew that and I know it too.

I too have been around a lot in the last 30 years, Mr Prouty and have in that time visited many countries for short-term purposes connected with my job, where I too delivered lectures and presentations. There are ways to deal with the matter of legally paying the 'guest'. However, if your host cares to thrust a bundle of banknotes into your hand unofficially instead, then good luck to you but under general "guest" status protocol that is not allowed as it makes you a paid employee whether you agree with it or not.

My initial posting in answer to Yi did not stray off topic at all and I stuck quite rigidly to my case, which still is, that from what Yi had said, he had evidently not travelled with the appropriate visa and more importantly had failed to check up on the validity of a contract signed months previously.

However, he has now responded with another posting in which he implies that everything had been done properly after all and invitations had been received. If that was so, how come he was left high and dry on arrival if he had had a proper invitation and thus the right visa? This would have been far greater justification for his complaint. So, I wonder why he didn't say this at the start.

John