Work Permit for Summer Internship

[krystina]

Hello, I am a senior in high school and for the summer before university, I plan on finding an internship in Beijing.

I was born in China and I am Chinese, but I just recently switched citizenship to American.

I was wondering, in order to work in the summer (possibly on a paid internship), would I have to have any kind of a work permit? I'm really unclear about how this works, I've just seen a lot of questions being asked about having a certain kind of Visa or permit.

On a side note, I have my eye on a few websites and I do have family in Beijing that I could ask, but does anyone have any experience or advice on finding student internships in China?

Thanks all!

[msittig]

No expertise on finding internships, but a modicum of experience with visas. As an American citizen you will need some kind of visa to enter/stay in China. This visa can be applied for at a Chinese embassy or consulate in the US, either in person or by an agency. On July 1st of this year a new set of rules was approved for managing foreigners staying in China on visas; the bad news is that the rules are in the process of being implemented and it's not clear which rules are being applied where. Keeping in mind that context, I'll try to give some advice.

In the past I've heard of several options for people doing internships:

* Do it all legal and get an F-visa, which *was* for short-term business stays. This visa required the submission of special documents like an invitation from the company you are doing business with. However, since July 1st the F-visa is no longer intended for commercial visitors; instead you would be applying for the M-visa. This is a new category of visa and I've never heard of anybody applying for it because it's only existed for 30 days and I'm not sure it's even available yet.

* Do it quietly and just get a tourist L-visa, maybe under the guise of visiting family. Then go ahead with the internship and extend the tourist visa as needed (a max of two times, usually for a total max of 90 days). Of course it is illegal to work on this visa, but if you are able to keep everything discrete then you should be fine. However "discrete" is not always possible/desirable: for example, how much actual client-facing work do you want to do, and do you want to get paid.

If you arrange the internship before you come over to China and your company wants to play by the rules then you could go with the first option. On the other hand, if your internship is informal ("my uncle's colleague has a friend who will let me hang out in their office for the summer") then it would be simplest just to go with the second option.

Of course the best thing is to ask the company you will be interning at to help you arrange the visa, but if you have to do it yourself then all of the advice given may apply. Really the only certainty at this point is: you *will* need a visa.

EDIT: to illustrate the uncertainty surrounding the process right now, especially for internships, read this forum post: http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/phpbbforum/post1844983.html#p1844983

[yis_xxx]

msittig: Do you know anyone who are doing a paid internship or working part time on a F, L or student visa? And they DO pay taxes? I was wondering, isn't paying taxes the easiest way for the government to find out that they're getting paid illegally? Because for paying taxes, they have to inform their passport number etc.