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Hi everyone!
I currently live in the states but am going out to Chengdu to try and teach English in June. I know I don’t qualify for a working visa because of the new requirements (I’m only 22, I don’t have certification, etc). I heard that a Student Visa is my best bet.
Do you guys have any tips on how to qualify one? The requirements online said I need to have verification from an institute that I am studying at. Also, does anyone have any tips on getting the student visa that is longer than 6 months? Or is it easy to re-new one?
Thanks!
-Kirstie
You probably wont get student visa without applying to some University to study. So just pick whatever suits you, be it either something big like Sichuan Daxue or something small. Getting a longer than 6 months visa while not being in China is more pain that its worth imho. Its extremely easy to renew anyway and once here you can easily get a 1 year old one as well.
Do you have any recommendations on a school that is smaller? I wouldn’t mind doing Chinese language classes if that would satisfy the requirement for a student visa. Or some type of culture class.
Sichuan University tends to be more expensive. Southwest University for Minorities (西南民族大学) is one of the more popular ones for people looking to take a class or 2 and hold a visa with lower tuition.
The cost of tuition will offset the cash from teaching, if you’re coming with financials as a non-issue then it works out fine, if you’re expecting to live off of teaching income it may be pretty rough… I think it’s like 6k RMB/semester at sichuan uni?
Check out Cucas, that was how I applied and they make it super easy. Sichuan U is something more like 8K Yuan/Semester, SW for Nationalities is 6K and the classes are pretty comparable. Those 2 are probably the most popular with foreigners from around the world, SU the most popular.
Just FYI, the semester here ends around June and the schools all but close down during the holiday, if you come here around then it might be tough to get a visa then. It’s wicked easy to renew after 6 ms, you just pay and then go to the Public Security Bureau.
I think it’s like 6k RMB/semester at sichuan uni?
More like 8500 iirc. SWUFE is around 5500.
I didn’t realize it would cost so much to sign up for a class. I was thinking it would be much cheaper. I still want to save money whipe I’m there. Does anyone have any recommendations on what kind of visa to get/what to do to get over there to teach English?
Im 22 years old and will graduate college in May with a Communication degree. I am looking to come in June but I guess that is flexible. Please let me know!
Visa situations are difficult now – however, some schools, if you sign a contract, can ‘fudge’ lacking qualifications and get you a work visa. Doing a visa on your own – well, you’ll likely only be able to get a 3 month travel visa. China isn’t really the place it once was for teaching English and travelling around, visas are a pain for many.
Yeah, they’ve made it a lot harder for the cram schools to fudge things recently, although I’m sure it still happens. Classes are probably cheapest at SW University for Finance, SW for Nationalities, and University of Electronic Science – China, although Nationalities is most popular because it’s on the south side where most foreigners live. Still that’ll run you about 6K RMB (1000 dollars), although it’s possible to work now on a student visa with the new visa restrictions, and English teaching goes for about 150/hr, so a lot of students work part time and study part time.
There’s still a ton of teaching work over here, especially now that some of the people on sketchy visa situations have been forced to leave, and you’ll be able to find work easily, but very little that gives you a visa. If you want a visa, Student X visas are still the easiest way to go, however if you want to come in June be forewarned that the new visa restrictions no longer allow switching tourist visas to student visas, so you’d have to take a trip to Hong Kong in August to get your visa stamped on entry.
There’s still a ton of teaching work over here, especially now that some of the people on sketchy visa situations have been forced to leave, and you’ll be able to find work easily, but very little that gives you a visa. If you want a visa, Student X visas are still the easiest way to go, however if you want to come in June be forewarned that the new visa restrictions no longer allow switching tourist visas to student visas, so you’d have to take a trip to Hong Kong in August to get your visa stamped on entry.
So you are saying that if I came on a Tourist visa that I would be able to get a student visa if I went to Hong Kong and came back into China? Because That I could totally do.
You’d enroll in the school here and get your paperwork, and then do a HK visa run, pretty easy but probably run you about 2-3k RMB. Just FYI, if you decided to work on a tourist visa over the summer and got busted, they’ve raised the fines so it’s pretty expensive, plus you get deported and there’s a ban period of 1-10 years, although people still do it.
Ok cool thank you! Does anyone know how to get a tourist visa that is longer than 30 days? Like a 90 day or longer?
RE: “There’s still a ton of teaching work over here” – of course there is tons of work, but the VISA issue makes it far less profitable / far more hassle to do the work for most people.
Kirstie you get a 30 day visa, then can extend it twice – 30 days each, with the visa processing fee and proof of sufficient funds for the stay in your bank account of course. That’s a 90 day visa, essentially, then you’ve got to exit country and start the process again.
Also check out some Chinese VISA agencies in your own neighbourhood. They can often give you much better deals than the official ones. It also saves you a lot of hassle if you’ve already taken care of that stuff before you move.
FYI if you decide to go for a 90d visa through renewals, make sure you’ll be able to leave the country in time (ie don’t calculate which exact date the 90th day would be and expect to leave then, it’s often easy to miss a day here or there)
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