How to apply for a work visa in China?

Recently, many foreign teachers ask me how to make a work visa in China. Today, I’m gonna tell you the qualification you need to have and documents that you need to prepare to make the work visa.

Qualification

The requirements of applying for a work visa vary from places to places. However, the strict one is that the teacher who apply for a work visa to teach in China needs to have a English or Education related degree, a TEFL/TESOL and two years teaching experience. There are no difference between native English speaker and non-native English speaker. Therefore, if there is agency who tell you that non-native English can not have a work visa, that’s a lie. There is one exception is that there are some schools require the non-native speakers to have a degree in English speaking country. If it’s not from a English speaking country, then the non-native speaker would not get a work visa.

When foreigners find out the strict requirements of the work visa, they may give up since they are not qualification to apply for it. Don’t worry! There are some schools who can make work visa for those who have degree with a TEFL or two years experience. Please note that two years teaching experience is the one after foreigners graduate, not before or during degree time. Therefore, when foreigners look for teaching jobs in China, you also need to figure out the requirements of the school to make a work visa. If your qualification does not fall into the requirements, he/she needs to find another school who can offer work visa for them. This seems complicated for the teachers who come to China at the first time. I recommend the foreign teachers to find a reliable agency like Sunrise, who will do the research for them to make sure that the jobs they are looking that can meet their requirements.

Documents

First, applying for the background check.

There are some countries in where it takes two or three weeks to get the background check. Therefore, you’d better start to prepare the documents early.

Note that background check is only valid for six months, don’t make it too early!

Second, getting background and degree authentication.

Foreigners should go to China Embassy to ask where they should go to authenticate their documents. After they get their documents authentication in local place, they need to take the documents to the China Embassy again to ask the Embassy to authenticate. The China Embassy will stamp a small greed card there to prove that the documents have been authenticated.

Note that background check is only valid for six months, but the degree authentication is no expired date. Once you make it authenticated, you can used it in China for any jobs.

Third, some school also need to make TEFL/TESOL certificates to be authenticated.

The steps is the same as the other two documents. Only one thing needed to be note is that you must have the original certificate.

Fourth, do a physical exam.

Go to China Embassy to ask where you should go for a physical exam. Then do it.

Fifth, after all the documents have been authenticated, send the scan images to the school. The school is going to use the images to apply for a working permit online. It usually takes one or two weeks.

When the school gets the working permit, they will send it to you. And you can take the working permit with your original documents to China Embassy to apply for the work visa.

All the five steps apply for native or non native speaker. Hopefully, it makes your application for work visa easier.