Time to process residence permit

[Sid]

Hello everbody,

I am new to china was well as to the forum currently pursuing my masters at Liaoning university.

I had submitted my passport to my university around 12th September for processing of residence permit.Its been almost a month now and still university is saying that they havent received the passport as of yet same goes for lot of other students in my university.

So just wanted to know whether it is normal or is it just our university an exception.Gone through the thread below but most of the examples in the thread cite to residence permit in Beijing http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/37906-convert-tourist-visa-to-study-visa/

but Dalian being small city shouldnt have taken so much time.

Any inputs would be appreciated.

Thanks

[imron]

That seems like a long time. Presuming you came in on an X visa, it needs to be converted to a residence permit within 30 days of arrival. Normally it takes about about week to process, so at most I could imagine it taking 35 days if your school was really disorganised and collected all the passports early but then didn't take them in to the PSB until the last minute.

[eshton]

That's a really long time, Tongji here in Shanghai took only 2 weeks with our passports. I guess the length of the process depends on the city though. I remember being told that the process could take as long as 6 weeks.

[Sid]

Thanks for the replies.

I arrivied at the university on 1st September on X visa.So my visa expired on 30th September taking into account the 30 day visa validity.

So it means I am without a "vaild" visa for almost 2 weeks now and I am not the only one in this situation.

Not so sure what to do next.

[abcdefg]

My guess is that someone dropped the ball during the Golden Week holiday.

Maybe several of you who are in the same situation could go together to the administrative office at the school and politely let them know you are worried and distressed about the delay. Group action often carries more weight than solo action.

[imron]

Or call your embassy.

[Sid]

@abcdefg

Yes a group of us have decided to do that first thing on Monday.

@imron

How will my embassy help ?

[imron]

Because the embassy is there to help when something happens to your passport and them contacting the school on your behalf and saying they need to sort it out is likely to have more effect than a group of students doing the same, especially if it's as abcdefg says and someone dropped the ball during Golden Week or for whatever reason they haven't actually taken your passports in for processing yet. That means someone's going to get in trouble (schools can be fined by the PSB for not processing residence permits in time), and that means someone may be delaying things further to try and cover themselves. In that case pressure from the top is going to be more effective than pressure from the bottom.

Anyway, by all means go and speak to the school first as a group, but if it seems they are stalling or trying to create excuses, then your embassy should be your next step.

[abcdefg]

#7 -- Hope that works. Would strive to keep it friendly and not accusatory or confrontational. "Sorry to bother you with this, but we are worried about being illegal and had to bring it to your attention so you could help us." Not: "How could you negligent morons have allowed this important matter to get so fouled up?"

Also agree with Imron in #8, above. Pressure from the bottom plus pressure from the top. Good strategy.

[Takeshi]

Yea, that sounds like a long time.

Our school didn't collect passports, we had to go to the PSB ourselves and apply for residence permits. (Or maybe they did but I had to do it myself because my situation was messed up.)

The only good thing I can tell you is that it is definitely possible to have "no visa" for the period of time while the PSB is holding your passport until the time you get your residence permit. I had applied for my residence permit on the last day of an L visa and I got a residence permit starting from the day I got it back. For me this time was about a week or so I think.

[kdavid]

I deal with government offices and resident permit processing on a regular basis as part of my job.

One month is not a long time. Especially when there's a holiday in there. More often than not, there's only one person who can do certain tasks. This individual may have taken a long holiday, thus delaying things.

If you don't get it back in the next week or so, then there might be an issue.

[Sid]

Ok guys.Here is an update.

After confronting the administrative office by groups of students multiple times over the course of this week has yielded fruitful results.

We finally received our residence permits yesterday and surprisingly it was back dated by more than a month.In my case it is14th September.

The university office still maintains that the delay was caused by the PSB and they had submitted the passports to them the same day it was collected from the students.So not sure who is to be blamed..

Thanks everyone for taking time to reply to this thread.

[imron]

Thanks for the follow-up.

[roddy]

"Dalian being small city shouldnt have taken so much time."

Not sure if that stands. It may well be that big cities like Beijing and Shanghai have more staff on hand to deal with the (less seasonal) tourist and working visa services, and they can then be diverted to student visas at rush times.Hard to say, but it's worth remembering that the start of the summer semester is a massive (although entirely predictable) rush of work for them.

For what it's worth I remember a residence permit in Dalian taking longer than expected myself, and that was back in 2007. Maybe they're just slow.

[Sid]

Thanks everybody.

One more thing.My course duration is 3 years but I have been granted the residence permit only for a year.I thought it was supposed to be granted for the duration of the course i.e 3 years.

[abcdefg]

From what I've read and heard, one year at a time is the limit for such permits.

[eshton]

Just renew as necessary.

[laowang]

Liaoning University students office will renew your visa when necessary