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GuestBob
Nov 27, 2005

MeramJert posted:

FWIW I never had to do a health exam in my home country. I just did it in China.

Policies vary wildly and are subject to:

1: The requirements of your home county's Chinese embassies and consulates.
2: The requirements of your provincial SAFEA office (or other body responsible for issuing you a Work Permit).

and...

3: Whether your employer is aware of the information in points 1 & 2.

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Trammel
Dec 31, 2007
.

GuestBob posted:

3: Whether your employer is aware of the information in points 1 & 2.

It's amazing how often "No, it's not possible", actually means "No, I can't be bothered". My employer's done this many times before, but for some reason was incredibly unhelpful. Contacting somebody a little more senior, who I'd been out boozing and at KTV with, and all of a sudden, the impossible becomes, "Send us these documents please".

It's not guanxi, but it's funny.

Ailumao
Nov 4, 2004

I've also never had it done outside of China, thankfully. I think my gp eyeballed the form once and said even with insurance it would probably be well over $500.

GuestBob
Nov 27, 2005

In the UK the GP will just scribble in all of the boxes and then you take it to the girl in the front counter who rummages in her drawers for a stamp of some kind: "Sarah, Sarah! Do we 'av a stamp? This gentleman wants a stamp. Naw, not a postage stamp you silly mare, a stamp for his form. Naw, his medical form. He says it's for the Chinese. Naw, the Chinese. Not the one on the corner, the country! The country! Well I don't bloody know, do I! It's in the what? Ooooh, right. What's it doing in there then? He's asking if we've got any red ink, 'av we got any red ink?"

Throuhgout this scene, of course, a Welsh male voice choir gently serenades a portrait of Florence Nightingale whilst a homeless Kier Hardy, weeping softly over a bag containing the bones of the socialist welfare state, waits by a stack of Home and Graden magazines.

Ah :britain:

GuestBob fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Jun 26, 2013

william567
Dec 1, 2007
She was like a candle in the wind... unreliable

SB35 posted:

How much data did that get you? If you just started your account you probably had to pay the monthly fee too, so maybe 20 RMB. Right off the bat. At the very least pay as you go is pretty common in China, just head down to the nearest phone shop and put another 50 RMB on your phone.

Honestly, I treated China as mostly offline. My phone data was good enough for email, maps, and reading SA. Pretty much everything else, including RSS feeds I just downloaded over wifi and read offline. Granted I had China Mobile 2G data so it was balls slow and I'm cheap.

edit: where are you located?

I'm on Gubei Road, keen to hang out ! With regard to the sim card, I still don't know whats going on. I think they just recharged it initially with a crappy recharge plan.

angel opportunity
Sep 7, 2004

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Trammel posted:

It's amazing how often "No, it's not possible", actually means "No, I can't be bothered".

My job in the US requires doing visa stuff for Chinese people. You can't imagine how annoying this is for me. "Sorry, but the thing you are asking me to do breaks the immigration law in the US and I also physically cannot even make the document for you because the date has passed."

Then they email my boss, her boss, and the head of the whole organization saying poo poo like, "In china the visa process very troublesome, so I think you should help me to speeding up the process and give me my documents please."

fart simpson
Jul 2, 2005

DEATH TO AMERICA
:xickos:

systran posted:

My job in the US requires doing visa stuff for Chinese people. You can't imagine how annoying this is for me. "Sorry, but the thing you are asking me to do breaks the immigration law in the US and I also physically cannot even make the document for you because the date has passed."

Then they email my boss, her boss, and the head of the whole organization saying poo poo like, "In china the visa process very troublesome, so I think you should help me to speeding up the process and give me my documents please."

For a while I was the contact point between our company and a company in the US. This same tendency was annoying and embarrassing as no matter what I said, I would be forced by my bosses here to keep sending daily emails to this other company saying stuff like "I know our product doesn't meet your specification, and your approval process is clearly stated to take 7-10 days, but could you make a special exception for us and approve product X by Thursday? Our schedule is very tight. It should arrive in your office sometime on Wednesday. Thanks in advance." And of course I had to ask for these special exceptions to their process for almost literally every one of our products. They never granted a special exemption once, and we even started getting angry emails back, but my bosses kept insisting...

e: oh yeah, a favorite "tactic" of ours was to deliberately misread specifications and agreements and try to cite trivial "flaws" in their documents in hopes that they would somehow go "oh ok, you got us. Just go ahead and put our logos on whatever crappy products you want! No need for licensing!"

fart simpson fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Jun 26, 2013

angel opportunity
Sep 7, 2004

Total Eclipse of the Heart
At that point I would be tempted to go on my personal email and tell the person "This is a cultural difference, I am required to keep asking you to ignore your deadlines. Please just ignore all of my requests; I am required to make them by my Chinese superiors."

fart simpson
Jul 2, 2005

DEATH TO AMERICA
:xickos:

systran posted:

At that point I would be tempted to go on my personal email and tell the person "This is a cultural difference, I am required to keep asking you to ignore your deadlines. Please just ignore all of my requests; I am required to make them by my Chinese superiors."

Well, I also had biweekly mostly private phone calls, and while I never said anything explicit like that I think they basically understood.

GuestBob
Nov 27, 2005

MeramJert posted:

...but my bosses kept insisting...

It can be like chalk and cheese with people though - we have sent two members of staff to a partner in Malaysia and one of them came back with a hundred ideas and the other "didn't like the food". I have only ever met one "boss" level dude who had his head screwed on about working across cultures and he was great (I have his number in my phone still, in case I ever have a super serious emergency).

Finding a decent boss in China is as hard as finding decent foreign workers.

Trammel
Dec 31, 2007
.

systran posted:

My job in the US requires doing visa stuff for Chinese people. You can't imagine how annoying this is for me. "Sorry, but the thing you are asking me to do breaks the immigration law in the US and I also physically cannot even make the document for you because the date has passed."

When you are repeatedly told something is impossible, while watching the same person help plenty of other people do the impossible, it does lead to some skepticism. In the US, I imagine you can just outright say bullshit, and present the contrary evidence. But here, I'm afraid I still don't understand how much "face" is a convenient excuse, and how real it is.

fart simpson
Jul 2, 2005

DEATH TO AMERICA
:xickos:

Well sure but it can still be annoying to be in the middle when the two ideas clash.

New Coke
Nov 28, 2009

WILL AMOUNT TO NOTHING IN LIFE.

Magna Kaser posted:

I've also never had it done outside of China, thankfully. I think my gp eyeballed the form once and said even with insurance it would probably be well over $500.

Yikes. I had to pay $40 to my doctor, since apparently Canada's healthcare system doesn't cover visas, but I didn't actually have to pay for ridiculous tests they wanted me to do (bloodwork, chest xray, ECG) - he just wrote me the requisitions and and they didn't know what it was for.

waloo
Mar 15, 2002
Your Oedipus complex will prove your undoing.

SB35 posted:

Congrats man. I'll remove you. Wanna tell us how you did it? Couldn't hurt to have an updated account of the process.

Ours was a pretty by the book courtship as far as visas go. We had already been living together for a while in Beijing when we decided ( stupidly, in retrospect) to apply for the k1 fiancée visa. At the time we expected the time from application to living in the US to be shorter than getting married in China and applying for CR2 green card. Normally that is true but the hassles involved are such that I don't think I would recommend it, when comparing our experience with that of friends who got married abroad instead.

Anyway, a year or so later we got the visa, and moved to the US and got married. We have tons of documentation of our relationship and our finances are in order so it's been pretty straightforward throughout. We just got our green card interview appointment though are still waiting for her work permit to arrive.

If anybody has more questions about our experiences though I am happy to try and answer them.

Vulpes Vulpes
Apr 28, 2013

"...for you, it is all over...!"
Hello thread, a friend of mine has suggested I apply to the school he's going to be working at in the fall, and I was wondering if anyone here knew anything about it- Maple Leaf International School in Tianjin. I have a BA, BEd and teaching certification and am incredibly underemployed at the moment (not a lot of work for teachers in Eastern Canada) and am tempted to split to Asia and have a bit of an adventure, but I'm a little hesitant to throw in with a private school. I put in a couple years in Korea ending five years ago, so I have some idea what to expect with regards to living as a foreigner in Asia and working for a private school, though I do realize that China is a different beast than the ROK.

The Great Autismo!
Mar 3, 2007

by Fluffdaddy
I know all about maple leaf school, you can pm me if you want, one thing is it is definitely not in Tianjin, it's a good hour plus outside the city. No one cares in this thread about some international school in TEDA so you can message me with any questions if you like. I'm on holiday in Thailand right now, so I don't know how available I'll be but I'd be happy to chat with ya.

Arakan
May 10, 2008

After some persuasion, Fluttershy finally opens up, and Twilight's more than happy to oblige in doing her best performance as a nice, obedient wolf-puppy.
I looked at their website and I hope you are applying for one of the academic teaching positions and not the ESL position since you have a teaching cert. For the love of god don't get paid 19k canadian a year if you have a teaching cert. Although these positions require you to be certified to teach in BC and I see you are from Eastern Canada.

Seriously though, don't take the ESL position, it literally pays half of what the subject positions pay, get certified in BC if you have to.

Vulpes Vulpes
Apr 28, 2013

"...for you, it is all over...!"
No, I would get certified for BC (apparently not a difficult prospect) and shoot for an academic position. I did enough low-end ESL in Korea pre-BEd. It's getting pretty tight, time-wise, but my friend is pretty enthusiastic about the idea, so I thought I would check here and get some information before going any further.

Deep State of Mind
Jul 30, 2006

"It was a busy day. I do not remember it all. In the morning, I thought I had lost my wallet. Then we went swimming and either overthrew a government or started a pro-American radio station. I can't really remember."
Fun Shoe
Come to Hong Kong as an NET. Live like a king. Synertia can tell you all about that. You'll get paid like 50 billion dollars and get a free ferrari.

Maybe not that hardcore, but you'll do a lot better than working at some mainland 'university' that doesn't care whether or not you show up for work. Also you can hang out with Hong Kong goons and we're cool. Plus all the benefits of not living under communist jackboots.

The NET scheme is tough to get into, but it sounds like you're a for-real teacher with real qualifications, so you should be able to pull it off.

edit: we should probably put the NET scheme in the OP somewhere.

hong kong divorce lunch
Sep 20, 2005

Bloodnose posted:

Come to Hong Kong as an NET. Live like a king. Synertia can tell you all about that. You'll get paid like 50 billion dollars and get a free ferrari.

Maybe not that hardcore, but you'll do a lot better than working at some mainland 'university' that doesn't care whether or not you show up for work. Also you can hang out with Hong Kong goons and we're cool. Plus all the benefits of not living under communist jackboots.

The NET scheme is tough to get into, but it sounds like you're a for-real teacher with real qualifications, so you should be able to pull it off.

edit: we should probably put the NET scheme in the OP somewhere.

I have seen borderline non-functional human beings hold a NET job for years. You WILL do fine and you get paid a good amount of money. Only losers driver Ferraris, though. Look into Mazeratis or Bentleys.

Trammel
Dec 31, 2007
.
I've got a bunch of colleagues (10 to 14) visiting Xi'an from Australia, and they all want internet and phone while they're here for varying periods from one to six weeks.

They all work in IT, all use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Skype, etc. Ideally, I'd be able to source or recommend a source for prepaid 3G SIM cards (China Unicom I'd guess), which they can just throw away at the end of the trip. But when I signed up with China Unicom 3G, there was a year long minimum contract + paperwork + passport involved.

In HK, it was easy. Walk up to shop on the side of the street. Buy SIM card packet with a big 3G + 1Gb sticker on it, and walk out. That's what I'm looking for. Can anybody recommend a shop, specific provider, taobao link, or something similar here?

caberham
Mar 18, 2009

by Smythe
Grimey Drawer
I always forget to bring my China phone or CHina sim card. For me you can just buy a regular unicom 3G card at the corner store and put money into it when you run out?

Arakan
May 10, 2008

After some persuasion, Fluttershy finally opens up, and Twilight's more than happy to oblige in doing her best performance as a nice, obedient wolf-puppy.
So uhh what am I supposed to do with an old Chinese entry visa that has fallen out of my passport? Glue that poo poo back in? Is it gonna cause problems if it's not in there when I apply for future visas?

kenner116
May 15, 2009

Arakan posted:

So uhh what am I supposed to do with an old Chinese entry visa that has fallen out of my passport? Glue that poo poo back in? Is it gonna cause problems if it's not in there when I apply for future visas?

Shouldn't be a problem. I had one fall out years ago and it was never mentioned after multiple entries and exits.

GuestBob
Nov 27, 2005

I double dare you to go down your local market and get one of the little dudes to carve you a visa stamp for "The Republic of Fredonia" and get that poo poo all up in there. Make it happen.

SB35
Jul 6, 2007
Move along folks, nothing to see here.

william567 posted:

I'm on Gubei Road, keen to hang out ! With regard to the sim card, I still don't know whats going on. I think they just recharged it initially with a crappy recharge plan.

Gubei Road... Shanghai? Tianjin? Nantong? Ningbo?

Arakan posted:

So uhh what am I supposed to do with an old Chinese entry visa that has fallen out of my passport? Glue that poo poo back in? Is it gonna cause problems if it's not in there when I apply for future visas?

This happened to me too. Technically you're not supposed to make any alterations to your passport, that'd be illegal. But I never reglued it and eventually it got lost. Didn't seem to make a difference.

Trammel posted:

I'm applying for a z-visa in Xi'an, and the company I want to work for is asking for a police check. It's a software development job, so this isn't an Education related requirement, or similar. Maybe it's just because they're used to processing visa's in Beijing.


I've applied online, and I'm hoping a friend can have it "legalized" for me, back home.

I had to do that criminal check for my company in the software park too. I printed out a copy of my online viewable (state only, showing a couple driving infractions) criminal record, copy pasted a state seal on it and that was it. Never heard another thing about it.

william567
Dec 1, 2007
She was like a candle in the wind... unreliable

SB35 posted:

Gubei Road... Shanghai? Tianjin? Nantong? Ningbo?


This happened to me too. Technically you're not supposed to make any alterations to your passport, that'd be illegal. But I never reglued it and eventually it got lost. Didn't seem to make a difference.


I had to do that criminal check for my company in the software park too. I printed out a copy of my online viewable (state only, showing a couple driving infractions) criminal record, copy pasted a state seal on it and that was it. Never heard another thing about it.

Shanghai

Ailumao
Nov 4, 2004

How long does it normally take to renew an RP, given it is a giant university doing it and my RP is sponsored by the government itself? I'm handing over my documents Monday (July 1) and they've told me it should be done in a week, and I should have it by the end of the week of the 12th at the absolute latest.

My cousin is getting married in the states on the 20th so I was hoping to be back a few days before that, but I'm just paranoid something will go wrong and I won't have my passport by the 16th or so when I expect to be flying out. Tickets to the US during the summer are stupidly expensive so I'd rather not blow all this money then not have my passport when the time comes.

GuestBob
Nov 27, 2005

Magna Kaser posted:

How long does it normally take...

Depends on who you are handing the documents over to. If the FAO is going sit on them for [x] days then I can't tell you how long it will take, but if they take them straight to the PSB then it will take 4-5 working days.

Mine went in on the 27th and will be ready for collection on the 2nd (I'll go down there on the 3rd though).

Ailumao
Nov 4, 2004

GuestBob posted:

Depends on who you are handing the documents over to. If the FAO is going sit on them for [x] days then I can't tell you how long it will take, but if they take them straight to the PSB then it will take 4-5 working days.

Mine went in on the 27th and will be ready for collection on the 2nd (I'll go down there on the 3rd though).

They told me I need to get them this poo poo by Monday at noon so they can get this done for everyone, so I'm gonna assume they're bringing it down immediately after nap time.

Aight, I'll bite the bullet and buy these tickets now then.

PleasantDilemma
Dec 5, 2006

The Last Hope for Peace

caberham posted:

Awesome I should be in town. Send me an email and we will grab a bite. Just Wondering if you have ever been to East Asia before? If you can bring me Buffalo Jerky that would be super duper awesome. Or help me carry some inane things if I buy stuff from amazon :shobon: I love USA :911:

I have never been to Asia before, or really out of the USA. I couldn't find buffalo jerky so I will have to find another way to bond with you and become true internet bros. And I'm leaving for Manila tomorrow with friends but my HK trip is solo.

caberham posted:

Real freedom is walking around the streets with a very easily identifiable alcoholic beverage in your hand. Preferably a bottle of Bourbon. In fact, ask some police officers for some directions, take a photo and pose with them while sipping a bottle of bourbon. Compliment on their uniforms or whatever :gay:

My plan for HK was to beat up the statue of Bruce Lee but drunkenly hanging out with doofus cops is better!

GuestBob
Nov 27, 2005

Magna Kaser posted:

They told me I need to get them this poo poo by Monday at noon so they can get this done for everyone, so I'm gonna assume they're bringing it down immediately after nap time.

Aight, I'll bite the bullet and buy these tickets now then.

They will get a receipt which will tell them exactly when the documents will be available to collect from the PSB, so they will know this on Monday.

caberham
Mar 18, 2009

by Smythe
Grimey Drawer

PlesantDilemma posted:

I have never been to Asia before, or really out of the USA. I couldn't find buffalo jerky so I will have to find another way to bond with you and become true internet bros. And I'm leaving for Manila tomorrow with friends but my HK trip is solo.

Ohhhhh. Never out of USA and off to Asia? Well Manila will be an "interesting stop". HK is not that crazy in terms of its bar scene though.

quote:

My plan for HK was to beat up the statue of Bruce Lee but drunkenly hanging out with doofus cops is better!

There was a buffalo jerky guy but now there's a beef jerky guy

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3543854

Heck You can bring twinkies and I will worship you. Or just come :shobon:

VideoTapir
Oct 18, 2005

He'll tire eventually.
Red velvet cake. Bring red velvet cake and blow everyone's minds.

fart simpson
Jul 2, 2005

DEATH TO AMERICA
:xickos:

I thought the death of my grandmother meant that there was nobody left that actually likes twinkies.

NaanViolence
Mar 1, 2010

by Nyc_Tattoo

LentThem posted:

These are good websites, and I have a few to add:

www.xiami.com and www.1ting.com are streaming music sites with a pretty surprising selection. These are also great if I want to show a certain song to a coworker.

www.verycd.com Originally I used this site for eMule downloads, but now the site is pretty great for streaming both Chinese and foreign TV shows and movies, since the linked videos will usually have Chinese subtitles so you can watch with your friends! Another trick is to use this site to find the Chinese name of a show or movie, which you can then paste into video.baidu.com to watch.

club.pchome.net If SA is down for updates or something, you can check out KDS for your forum needs. It has a lot of goony Shanghai dudes and an overwhelming number of boards, but some of the posts are pretty funny and you can learn slang to impress your students or something (for example, this old HOLY CRAP I SAW NICHOLAS CAGE IN SHANGHAI thread http://club.pchome.net/thread_1_15_7618466.html).

Even with these websites, I'd suggest finding a VPN option. Certain news websites, blogs, and imgur links won't be available without one. It can also make Google searches slow or impossible. You'll also need it if you want to access Google-cached pages.

Thanks for this informative addition, these are all great sites as well. You got me to try Xiaomi again and it really does have everything.

truavatar
Mar 3, 2004

GIS Jedi

caberham posted:

Real freedom is walking around the streets with a very easily identifiable alcoholic beverage in your hand. Preferably a bottle of Bourbon. In fact, ask some police officers for some directions, take a photo and pose with them while sipping a bottle of bourbon. Compliment on their uniforms or whatever :gay:

It's too bad there's not a decent (or real :confused:) bottle of Bourbon in this country. I'm sorry, Jack Daniels is not Bourbon. :colbert:

truavatar fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Jun 28, 2013

fart simpson
Jul 2, 2005

DEATH TO AMERICA
:xickos:

You gotta break into a social circle of rich white world travelers based here. Then you can start a bourbon drinking club and amass 30 decent bottles between you. That's what I did for scotch, except I didn't start the club.

GuestBob
Nov 27, 2005

Mostly white noise from China Daily this morning about the new laws (that paper is the official press organ of SAFEA). This is about the only interesting thing that they have put out:

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2013-07/01/content_16693996.htm

And even this is only interesting because it goes into detail in some areas (like the fake certificate thing - agents are going to be plum out of luck from now on it seems).

For a bonus note, it seems like SAFEA is activley updating the banned laowai list (which had the same names on it forever last I checked):

http://www.safea.gov.cn/content.shtml?id=12746208

GuestBob fucked around with this message at 06:27 on Jul 1, 2013

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Ailumao
Nov 4, 2004

Man, Visa agents may be going by the wayside. Between that and actually having liability now, what will happen!?

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