Lost passport in China

Post Reply
IntHopeful
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Jan 24, 2019 2:28 pm

Lost passport in China

Post by IntHopeful »

Hoping for someone particularly knowledgeable about the Chinese visa system for this one...

So I had a Z visa, lost my passport with said Z visa before doing my medical/police check in China and getting my residence permit. ****. Filed a police report and got a paper from them saying I have a lost/stolen passport. Went to the consulate to get a temporary passport and also apply for a new permanent one which will be here in a few weeks.

I also have to re-do an FBI background check and get it re-authenticated since my previous one is now expired. Sucks, but okay.

My question is about what my school HR is now telling me. I should preface this by saying that they have been upfront and by-the-book about all visa matters up to this point.

The HR person who accompanied me to the police station is telling me that I don't need to get another Z visa. I can get a "Stay visa" (I don't know what this is) and transfer that to a residence permit. I asked her if she was certain that this was legal, since I thought you could only work on residence permits from Z visas. She assured me it was, because it was a "special issue visa" (also don't know what this means). I obviously don't speak Mandarin, but she appeared to have gotten/verified this information from one of the officers at the police department and seemed genuinely happy to discover it.

However, I'm having an awfully difficult time finding any sort of information on this to verify on my own. Is there anyone here who knows about this, or could point me in the direction where I could find this information?

Thank you
PsyGuy
Posts: 10789
Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

Response

Post by PsyGuy »

A "stay" visa is indeed a "special issue visa", its the Chinese equivalent of the Japanese "Designated Activities" visa and its new with the recent overhaul of the immigration authority. You could be allowed to work on it, but I dont know why your HR would advise you of this. Its a very broad visa thats fixes unusual problems, but getting work authorization with it, would be the same amount of work for the IS as getting a Z visa. I can understand what your HR is trying to do, they already applied for a Z visa for you, and now with a temporary passport and a permanent passport to come, they would need to apply for two more Z visas (one for the temporary passport, and one for the permenant passport). You fall into one of those unusual problems, in the past the local PSB would just say "its okay" until you got your permenant passport and then you would apply for a new Z visa. Now the stay visa is that intermediary formal and official version of the "its okay". Basically your HR doesnt want to apply for 2 more visas and have to cancel the Z visa for the temporary passport when your permenant one comes, its a lot of work and visits to the PSB. They probably arent going to apply for the work authorization of the stay visa, but its going to give you something in your temporary passport to show/use for things like travel (staying in a hotel) or for use at your bank or if your stopped by PSB, so that you have a visa in your passport. However when you do get your permenant passport you will need to have a Z visa/residence permit.
Post Reply