Travelling around, but no residence permit

[joshuawbb]

Just a quick question - shortly after I arrive in Xiamen on the 26th, my girlfriend will graduate and I'd really like to accompany her in Fuzhou. This would probably take place no more than 3 or 4 days after I arrive, and we'd be there for about 2 days.

In the days beforehand I'd probably be doing my health check, going through residence permit formalities, etc. The university registration can be delayed for a little while, but I'm not sure about the apartment and health check. If I got the health check and suddenly jumped off to Fuzhou, would it matter if the results had not been published to me yet? What I mean is that I know the health check can take 4 days or longer maybe to complete with results. Should I still be in the same city at this time?

Similar about the apartment - if I moved in quickly, would it matter if I I then disappeared for a few days or so? I'm just thinking about stuff like PSB registration, formalities like that.

Thank you very much.

[Don_Horhe]

As far as I remember, you have a 30-day period to get your residence permit, so in terms of time I don't think you'll have any trouble, although I don't know how things are with actually going to another city, albeit temporarily. It'd be best if you ask the people in your university, or just go ahead and do whatever you want, then pretend to be stupid if something goes wrong.

[imron]

You can travel just fine before you get your residence permit. You'll have a note in your passport saying you have 30 days to get your residence permit and the hotel staff will be able to see the stamp indicating your date of entry. Likewise renting an apartment, and registering with the PSB. The health check is required in order to apply for your residence permit and is not used for anything else. You can go anywhere you like without it. Just remember that you will need to do it several days before you apply for the residence permit and in China its never a good idea to leave anything to the last minute. Traveling for a few days won't cause you any problems, but still try to get everything sorted out as early as possible.

As for an apartment, once you've moved in, it's yours and no-one will really care if you go away for a few days. Do you really expect to be able to find one so soon after arrival though? You might just be better off staying in a hotel/hostel for those first few days.

[roddy]

It's also possible though that the school will need your passport so they can hand it on to the PSB to get the residence permit. You SHOULD be able to use a receipt from the PSB and maybe a photocopy in its lieu when registering at hotels / taking a flight, but expect to be constantly explaining why you don't have a passport. It'll depend how the timing works out.

[joshuawbb]

Thanks for the advice again - seems like it should be okay. If her graduation date is very soon after I arrive, I was planning on getting the health check out the way and waiting until I get back for the university registration, etc. I have until summer vacation (so I'm told) starts to get my uni registration done.

It's possible I'll have an apartment pretty quickly, though I do plan for my first day or two to be in a hotel. My girlfriend and I have been working togetehr on it - well, she's done a lot of the very kind work and collected a lot of advertisements for apartments. Should the ideal one be there, it may just be a case of going through them.

I think the timing should be okay if her graduation is very soon - as mentioned above if I am able to, I'll wait until I get back from Fuzhou a few days later to finish off the formalities.