Who "owns" the foreign expert certificate?

[Walkfaster]

I have a foreign experts certificate through my employer, but they want to keep the certificate in their possession. I have heard that they might be doing this to ensure that I can't file a complaint at SAFEA. Has anybody else experienced this?

[imron]

At what stage of your employment are you? The certificate needs to be returned when you are no longer working for that employer, and employers can get fined for FECs that go missing, so sometimes they might be a little uncomfortable about letting their employees hold on to them especially if they have had a situation where a previous employee decided they wanted to keep it as a souvenir.

Although I can understand the desire to keep the certificate in your own possesion, the only real use of the foreign experts certificate is if you want to exchange a significant amount of RMB to a foreign currency and to do that you'll need a whole bunch of other stuff from your employer anyway, so I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes if the school decides to keep it in their possesion.

[roddy]

If anyone "owns" it, it's SAFEA themselves, just like my passport belongs to the Queen. But if your school wants to keep it, I'd let them. Their holding onto it isn't going to stop you making a complaint, it'd actually be one extra thing to complain about, but as Imron says - if they think it's important, let them keep it. Mind you, don't let that stop you making a fuss. "Ok, if you insist, I'll let you keep the FEC for me. But perhaps in exchange you could do something about these 8am Saturday classes..."

[msittig]

Keep a photocopy, though.

[anonymoose]

Don't you need the foreign expert certificate to exit China at the end of your stay? I'm sure I had to hand something like that in at the airport when I left in 2005 (though it may be different now).

[anonymoose]

And by the way, as far as I recall, it explicitly says in the certificate that it should be held by the employee, not the employer.

[Walkfaster]

So.. the current run run down is:

I am still employed with them (although the relationship is more than a bit strained).

The certificate seems to imply it should be held by the employee, but it's not totally clear. My employer made me write up receipt stating that I will return it. Since they let me write, it doesn't say that exactly.

My original intention for getting the certificate is that it allows you to import a car tax free. Is that still true?

And, finally, why should anybody worry so much about a document that has an expiration date? Never mind, were in China, so let's worry.

[roddy]

You are importing this car for your own use, aren't you?

[imron]

Don't you need the foreign expert certificate to exit China at the end of your stay?

I think you might be confusing it with another document. You used to have to hand in resident permits when you left China (back when they came as a separate booklet), but the Foreign Expert Certificate needs to be returned to the issuer.

And, finally, why should anybody worry so much about a document that has an expiration date?

Assuming things haven't changed too much from several years back, the school worries about it because they have to leave a deposit for every one issued, and they won't get that deposit back if someone takes it - expiration date or not.

[anonymoose]

I think you might be confusing it with another document. You used to have to hand in resident permits when you left China (back when they came as a separate booklet), but the Foreign Expert Certificate needs to be returned to the issuer.

I think you may be right. Still, I'm fairly sure the Foreign Expert Certificate is supposed to be held by the employee.

[imron]

Still, I'm fairly sure the Foreign Expert Certificate is supposed to be held by the employee.

That's probably correct. I was just saying that given the limited use of the certificate, it's not going to matter for most people - unless of course they wish to import foreign cars tax free.