China Visa and the Employment Situation

Well, then, I see I've been very remiss in updating this blog, and for that I again apologize.  If you think this blog hasn't been updated for a bit, you should see my other website,  That's Dongguan.  Just found out last night that the remaining restaurant  in the Dongguan Dining section has closes.  So, the site contains a bunch of reviews on restaurants that don't exist.  Great Stuff.  My excuse for that one is I wasn't in China for 10 months to keep track of things.

Rest assured, Dongguan foodies and news hounds,  I'm in the process of re-working that site, to make it more user-friendly, easy on the eyes and more meaningful.   We have decided to re-name the restaurant review section "Needs to be Eaten" after my wife's comment after Hurricane Katrina.  CNN announcer was doing an interview with someone from the local Human Society, about the house pets and domestic animals that were left homeless, and asked the H.S. person "what do these animals (homeless house pets)  need"  my wife pipes up "They need to be eaten!" 

Now, down to business.,

One of my rare pub crawl nights out last night, and the main topic of discussion was the China Visa situation.  Now anyone who even remotely follows this knows the tightening up of the rules,  however unevenly applied, but it's interesting to see how it's hitting home in Dongguan and how it's affecting companies' business decisions.

First, ChinaFUBAR's been looking for work since his return to China in February, with limited results.  Factor's mentioned other than the "too experienced" "not experienced enough" and "you aren't fluent in English, Mandarin AND Cantonese"  is the new regulations for "Z" visas.  Basically, any company that's following the rules to the letter and wants their expat employees to have proper documentation in the form of "Z" residence visas and work permits,  isn't going to pay to have a new hire flown back to his home country, then sit for 2-3 weeks while the visa is processed. 

In addition, there are some rumors now that the local government is cracking down on who they will give "expert certification" to, and has tightened the Chief Representative Visa Policy.   Discussion last night was around an expat country manager from Germany, working for a large German athletic shoe manufacturer, who is now being transferred out because the company "has to have a local Chinese country manager"  We're trying to verify if the policy came from local government or if it's new company policy.  From what we understand it's new company policy put in place at the request of local government.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out, and if it extends to other companies as well.

As a follow up to my post of "Where Next"   the China Law Blog discusses "China Versus India Versus Vietnam at a Gut Level"  Mostly a discussion of pride of place,  makes the supposition that India cares more about pride of place than China.  Makes for an interesting discussion.

Now, back to "work" with me, time to find gainful employment.  I did hear last night that I'm publishing an English language magazine.  Interesting news to me!  I really need to get out more, I may be president of some company making a 7 figure salary and I don't know it yet.  AH, Rumors....