Changing from a working residence permit to a student visa

[TMK]

Hello, I'm currently working in Xi'an as an English teacher on a working residence permit. My plan is to study Chinese at university next year (in the same city). The semester starts in September; I'd like to continue working until then before transferring to student status (I'll have to quit my job a little early because the contract won't be up yet). The university told me that I will need to return to my home country to get a student visa - is this really necessary? I need to save a fair bit of money and travelling back home next summer will be very costly. Is it possible to switch to a student residence permit without leaving China? Or at least, could I do a visa run to Hong Kong for this purpose?

[ChTTay]

It was possible 3 months ago (ish) when some teachers who left my work went to study Chinese. They could switch without leaving China.

I actually switched from Teacher to Student too but had to go to Hong Kong. This was something to do with the way I got my Z visa though. I am not entirely sure but I think it was because I arrived on an L then switched it to a Z. They wouldn't let me switch/change it again so I had to leave and apply for a new visa in HK

[TMK]

Thanks for your reply. In fact, I also originally arrived on an L and switched to a work visa. Did you get the student visa in HK? Or did you re-enter the mainland on a tourist visa?

[roddy]

There's a rule, I think, that you can only have one type-of-visa change per trip to China. So if you've gone travel>work, you'd need to go out and come back before becoming a student. If it's easier though I can't see why you couldn't go to Hong Kong, come back as a tourist (rather than with an X visa) and then change to a student residence permit.

[TMK]

I just heard from another forum that, as of September 2013, conversion between different types of visas is no longer allowed, meaning I'll have to go back home for my X visa application. I'll check again with the university and other sources but I hope this isn't true (unless I can get the X visa in HK).

[ChTTay]

I got an X visa in Hong Kong without any problems but it was around a year ago. The University (Tsinghua in Beijing) provided all the documents/forms that I needed. Unless the rules have changed, as long as you have all the necessary documents.

Check this forum below for fairly up to date experiences in Hong Kong. However, I would contact your University and see what they say. I think you should be good to go to HK for the X visa.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/41414-the-hong-kong-visa-topic/

[roddy]

Hang on

"The semester starts in September; I'd like to continue working until then before transferring to student status (I'll have to quit my job a little early because the contract won't be up yet)."

In Chinese visa terms, that's ages away and there's not much point worrying about it now. I'd wait until the summer - and in the meantime it wouldn't hurt to save up money for a trip home, just in case.