New procedure for Employment Permit in Beijing

[dorearendil]

Hi all,

Just a little heads-up/rant about something I haven't read about anywhere online, so I figured I might as well be the 楼主...

 

I was granted my Z visa in Hong Kong (French passport) last week.

When I flew into Beijing to apply for my Employment Permit (就业证), which should in turn enable me to apply for a Residence Permit (居留许可证), I had the immense pleasure of finding out that the procedure seems to have changed...

 

In the past, it used to be just as described here: you enter the country on your Z visa, head to the 劳动局 (Human Resources Bureau), wait 5 working days, and bam, you got your Employment Permit.

 

But my colleague who's helping me process my visa stuff just found out that now (starting this month?), the company must first submit all the application documents to the Bureau electronically (via some shitty little Windows-only dongle thing they provide, which works once in a blue moon - see attached), WAIT for them to review the documents, get an appointment, AND THEN go to the Bureau in person, submit, AND WAIT 5 more working days...

Don't ask me why it's necessary for the Bureau to pre-review documents before they even get their hands onto them.

In any case, it's been 4 full working days since my colleague uploaded all docs, and still no news about any appointment. Nobody we contacted has any idea when those documents will be reviewed.

 

All this is just to say that don't plan on being able to process your Employment Permit and your Residence Permit within 10 working days (in Beijing, at least), although it used to be possible in the past. Although maybe it's just the whole 两会 thing slowing things down, I wouldn't bet on it.

(I had a plane ticket purchased, personal trip to make outside China in two week, seems like I'll have to scrap that)

 

Has anyone been through this recently? Any idea how long it now takes to process the Residence Permit?

 

Cheers

D-

[roddy]

Thanks for the post. This guy was also talking about applying for the invitation letter online, in Shanghai. 

[ChTTay]

Our company has had to apply online for at least the past year. I didn't really think about it until this post.

 

The process hasn't taken a silly amount of time or I would have heard about it. I can try find out more.

[Angelina]

same goes for Chinese people 

 

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA3MDgzMDAzNQ==&mid=403165733&idx=1&sn=ca4b29498372524dc117eca7d990e4bd&scene=1&srcid=0305hdiEJ3tNtWOgo01OevyL&key=710a5d99946419d9991d4a6af0c63a0e96396ab582edb1e8ff03fc162211a90bcf4b5274ba8be11e7b34e1ec1f188aaa&ascene=0&uin=MTk1NjAwMjEzOA%3D%3D&devicetype=iMac+MacBookAir6%2C2+OSX+OSX+10.11.3+build(15D21)&version=11020201&pass_ticket=yfzici13dzfGWf%2FMk5dGH7XiPdC%2FuJOUmBKkDj8026DGksqlzjpjwDhkUSXG8l4p

[dorearendil]

So here's an update on the new Employment Permit procedure and how I experienced it:

1. my company uploaded the application docs (in took us about 1 full day to make the system work);

2. once the files are uploaded, 4 working days were necessary to get them verified (审核) – upon which an appointment is given, in our case 5 working days later;

3. on appointment day at the 劳动局, remaining documents are handed over to the officials; IF everything's fine, the Employment Permit can be picked up about 5-6 working days later.

 

In my case, there was a tiny mistake in my work contract (my official position wasn't spelled out the same as on the Invitation Letter) — so on appointment date, we learnt we had to go through the whole procedure again, thereby losing about 10 working days.

 

As a result, on the day I finally got the Employment Permit and could finally head to the 出入境管理所 near Andingmen to apply for a Residence Permit, my 30-day Z visa was already expired by 2 days. I couldn't process the Res.Per. and instead had to spend 3 hrs at the Chaoyang 出入境 police station, including an unpleasant police questionning. Fortunately the cops were sympathetic to my bureaucratic plight, and didn't fine me the 1000 RMB (500 /day). Still, I lost another day over this and had to go back the next day for the Res.Permit business. Which now takes 10 working days to process.

 

Hope this can be useful to people

D_

[nealshanghai]

In Shanghai, you apply for resident permit first.. Employement Certificate second.. I think this is more logical