Immigration threatening to cancel X2 if classmates don't attend

[LauraS]

I am currently at South China University of Technology 华南理工大学 where I'm on a X2 visa. After a visit from the immigration department, our teachers have told us that if our class doesn't reach 80% attendance, the immigration bureau have threatened to cancel our visas and send us home. Despite the teachers' warnings, we are still meeting about 50-60% attendance. 

 

Is this an empty threat? Has any one else ever heard of this threat? 

[ChTTay]

I don't know why you'd risk it, just go to class, you've come all the way to China for it after all...

 

I think anyone who has attending a University here has problably heard of this threat. When I was there you had to have a certain attendence or they wouldn't let you come back the next semester. If your attendence was really low you'd be kicked out etc

[LauraS]

I totally agree with you and I do attend everyday.

However, apparently it also rests upon whether my lazy classmates can get out of bed before class is over. We were told that if our class as a whole doesn't reach an attendance rate of 80% (24out of 30students attending per class), that we will have issues with our visas.

This is why I find it strange and want to know if its the laoshi's empty threat or people have heard of it happening before.

[Demonic_Duck]

Even with rule of law being as arbitrary as it is in China, I can't imagine people would actually get their visa cancelled due to classmates not turning up, that seems like an absurd threat.

 

Also, I'm at Tsinghua now (where ChTTay was last semester), and I have heard multiple stories of students with terrible attendance whose visas didn't get cancelled (despite the fact they should have been based on the university's/local government's regulations), but no stories of students whose visas really did get cancelled. Of course, that's not to say it never happens, and that's all anecdotal.

[roddy]

Wow, collective punishment. 

 

My first instinct is that there might have been a miscommunication either between the PSB and the teachers, or the teachers and yourselves. But maybe they really are getting this serious - if the schools aren't keeping students in line, then they just don't get to have students. 

 

Find it hard to believe it'll actually happen though. Keep us informed. 

[889]

Of course we don't really know what's going on; we can only make a reasonable guess or two. And one guess is that the PSB has told the school it'll have difficulty getting new visas approved unless it gets the attendance rate up (which is to say, it'll have difficulty making money), and the school has massaged that message a bit to do whatever's needed to get the attendance rate up.

[rezaf]

Did you guys actually see the people from the PSB? 

[vellocet]

I know for a fact that certain laowai will ruthlessly abuse the X student visas to work and do business in China.  They'll pay the fee to an agent to enroll them in school and get that all-precious visa in their passports, show up for the first day of class, and thereafter forget about the university as they have money to make.  Too often, it isn't even really that much money, but compared to what they could make back home, it's huge.  10k RMB monthly goes a long way in a lot of the world's countries. 

 

You'd think that the school would be in on the scam and simply lie about its attendance numbers.  I guess they're not getting their cut? 

 

I'm not really sure what the students who come to class are supposed to do about the situation.  Their classmates are dispersed to the four corners of China teaching accented English and exporting hair dryers. 

[LauraS]

I never saw PSB but it seems that most classes are being told about their poor attendance and that their visas (or visa renewals) are potentially in jeopardy. 

I get the feeling I won't be at this university much longer for a number of factors (and no, not just because my visa will be cancelled. I'll write the full review of the uni when I finish). 

 

If no one else has ever heard of this happening before, I'm going to take it as a bluff and continue with my exam study. Thanks for your input guys 

[langxia]

I know that at the university I was at (Minzu Daxue) there was one student that got his visa revoked because he never attended class (He wasn´t even working. Only a kid that was sent to china by his parents and didn´t want to be there in the first place, so I guess he got what he wanted). But I have never heard that they would revoke others peoples visas. Sounds kind of weird and they probably only want to scare you a little.

[edelweis]

Did you already take your exams? What happened with the visas?