S2 visa and F Visa questions

[Blitz11]

Hello,

       I am in China on a S2 visa which is listed for a duration of stay for 90 days.  It is a multiple entry visa so does that mean if I want to stay the full 90 days I need to leave the country and then reenter during that time ???   Also if I want an extension do I need to wait until the last week of my time given to me ???

 

   On a separate note I have this friend who is also here on a S2 visa and might take a teaching job for the spring semester here.  However his visa is also 90 days.  F visas are easier to get than Z visas here, so can you get an F visa while in China.  He knows its technically illegal to work here and get paid with an F visa but, he is just wondering if its an option.  

 

Thanks !     

[roddy]

You don't have to leave, it just means you can (if you HAD to leave there'd be some kind of 'length of stay' marked on the visa. 

 

As for your friend - last time I looked dodgy F visas were increasingly hard to get and expensive, and if you're going to be working at a school there's a decent chance of being there when the visa police come round for a quick check. Go legit, or go home (or go to university and teach privately on the side). 

[889]

If you've got a multiple-entry S2 visa with "a duration of stay for 90 days" then you can stay up to 90 days on each entry, with your last entry possible on the "Enter Before" date. Even if you enter on the Enter Before date, you can still stay 90 days.

 

You generally can apply for an extension about a week before your stay expires. However, in some cases you are issued what is in effect a new visa with no entries, cancelling your old multiple-entry visa. So check the situation very carefully before extending. Also, some places like Beijing are notorious for making extensions difficult, wanting to see a lot of money in a Chinese bank, for example.

[mudhead]

My local Chinese consulate in Canada just issued to me a multiple-entry S2 visa, good for 8 years with 90-day duration of stay. I'm delighted of course! This will enable me eventually to marry my Chinese sweetheart and stay in China (if her parents approve of course, wish me luck  ). My invitation letter was not even from a relative (I have no relatives in China) but from a Chinese friend who lives in Chengdu, whom I met almost 10 years ago when he was staying in Canada.

 

Please help me with my reality check. Here are the facts as I understand them... I will be able to stay in China for up to 90 days at a time. Before the 90 days finish, I have to leave China, but I can come back for another 90-day stay with no restriction. And I can do this as many times as I want, until the visa runs out in 8 years. While this is going on, I don't need to apply for an "extension" or any new document.

 

Have I got this right? This seems to be what the Chinese consulate here told me. I don't understand what Blitz11 and 889 are saying about "extensions" and " 'enter before' date".

 

A final question... What constitutes "leaving China"? Hong Kong? Macau? Taiwan for sure, yes? I'll probably be staying in Guangzhou except for side trips.

 

Thanks for your help.

[roddy]

That's a very nice visa. Wish the UK would join APEC. 

 

You've got it right. Blitz's visa was only valid for three months, so he might have wanted an extension at the end - sounds like you don't need to worry about this till 2023. The 'Enter Before Date' is the last date you can use the visa to enter the country - so if you have an enter before date of 1/1/2016 and a 90 day per stay limit, you could enter on 1/1/2016 and stay until...end of March-ish, whenever your 90 days is up. Again a problem for 2023.

 

Hopping across the border to Hong Kong is all you need to do. I might ask what you're actually going to be doing - the immigration folk might take note if you're spending ALL your time in China and making day trips to HK, as it fits the profile of someone working illegally. 

[889]

"Extension" comes up if you want to extend your stay beyond your permitted 90 days without leaving Mainland China. Thus it's not a 2023 issue; it could be a 2015 issue if you want to stay on the Mainland for a single stretch of say 120 days this year. But note the caution above that an extension may be regarded as a new visa, canceling that nice S2 you just got.

Note too Roddy's hint that your S2 visa doesn't let you work in China.

[mudhead]

Roddy and 889, thanks for your helpful comments and advice. In any case, I'm retired and can't work In China - too old! In view of what you say, I'll be careful to keep my nose clean and not even give the appearance of doing anything that might seem like "work", or take anything in exchange that might look like "money".  

 

I had this problem when I was teaching English in Sichuan. I tutored a few students for the IELTS and TOEFL exams, and told their parents they couldn't give me money because I wasn't permitted to do "outside" work. But if they wanted, they could give me presents! So one mom gave me a new cell phone, another gave me a five years' supply of super special tea, and a third gave me a big plastic Christmas tree and a bunch of ornaments to stick on it. This was fun, and I made some good friends.

[Bob1234]

Mudhead, I was given a S2 visa as well to enter China and marry my fiancee (mine is for 10 years, and we married this last spring). We split our time between the US and China, and I've done the 'leave China and reenter' run twice without any problems when my 90 days ran out on two separate visits. With that said, there have also been 7 months of time that we've been back in the US in the last year and a half, so it's not as if we've been living there year-round, and I've never done more than one reentry on a single visit to China on the S2.

 

I guess this S2 for fiances is a new policy by the Chinese? I was actually trying to figure out in a different forum post whether or not I should switch to a different visa now that we're married, but I'm thinking now that maybe this is exactly how the Chinese intended for these S2s to be used?