What BS. I'd be fuming too. Literally nobody gains from bullshit decisions like that (apart from I guess some less capable schmuck who happened to go to the right school, but fuck that guy).

I'm gonna get another student visa first as i'm running out of time. Then we'll see.

That's good right?

poprock wrote:

Sounds good on the surface, so long as you’re happy with three years on that fixed salary.

10% rise every 6 months, after performance review. But even without that it’s a really rock-solid salary - more than double my previous highest.

Diluted Dante wrote:

That's good right?

It is. I had turned down the offer 2 days ago out of anger but did so very politely. They came back with an improved offer evidently due to my immediate supervisor really liking me - she was the one who encouraged my to apply internally. She messaged me again today asking if I could accept. So...she’s been great and we get along. I really don’t like the big boss, but I’m not sure how often I’ll have to deal with her.

Thing is, because it’s based off a student visa for now, I don’t have to do anything different, so I have time to go through all the paper work and then decide if I finally wanna go through with it.

I hate talking money because it’s crass and makes me feel weird, but when I arrived in China I was on 2K English a year. That went up and I got better jobs, but this is a type of company and position I have no point of reference for. It’s weird.

poprock wrote:

I dunno man, you seem hesitant. It sounds like a great offer from where we’re all sitting. What aren’t we seeing?

Nothing, sorry. It is a great offer. I just need to let what happened with them previously go and try to look at what’s on offer now.

I just had the shit kicked out of me these past few years and I dunno how much fight I have left in me if it all goes tits up again. It looks really good, but I’ve been here before more than once. I won’t feel safe until I’m working in that office and I think it’s making me overly wary.

It’ll be fine.

Thanks man.

Minnesänger wrote:

poprock wrote:

I dunno man, you seem hesitant. It sounds like a great offer from where we’re all sitting. What aren’t we seeing?

Nothing, sorry. It is a great offer. I just need to let what happened with them previously go and try to look at what’s on offer now. I just had the shit kicked out of me these past few years and I dunno how much fight I have left in me if it all goes tits up again. It looks really good, but I’ve been here before more than once. I won’t feel safe until I’m working in that office and I think it’s making me overly wary. It’ll be fine.

Completely understandable given what happened previously, but hopefully this is a turning point and will not just give you a better job/income etc, but also a bit of breathing space (which sounds very important to your well being right now).

Hope it all comes through for you dude.

Is it hard to quit Chinese jobs once you're in them? Can you do the thing where you accept but if it's bad then look elsewhere while still earning money and then leave if you get a better option?

In my experience, the times I've said no to stuff that is available now in the thinking that another option is potentially going to work has fucked me over every time.

Heck it happened recently when I thought someone was going to move into my spare room and help with rent so I said no to another person that offered to take the room in and now I'm stuck with nobody in my spare room because the first person was flaky!

I say, eat the sour grapes and take the job. Earn them dollars and sort it out later if it's a hell hole.

So Chinese visa laws are super weird. There’s national laws, however they’re super vague and the implementation varies massively from province to province because no one knows exactly what the laws should be.

For example, a while back there was a type of business visa (M visa, I think) which let you take paid internships in China but the party recently did away with those as they were being used as a back door method to hire foreigners who didn’t actually meet the criteria for full time work, which is fair enough.

As a result, the official visa for paid internships is now just a student visa, usually an X1 visa (which is for courses longer than 180 days) which is what I have. But how each province chooses to use those rules varies. So, if I want to work in Shenzhen, which I do, I’ll have to go the local public security bureau and get a stamp on my visa. Which is fine. And they said I could apply. But the province that I’m now, which will issue that visa, also has a separate rule that says I can only take internships inside this province. So, that’s put a kabosh on that plan. I could still apply in Shenzhen but I’d need permission from my uni, and they won’t give anything to that effect as they’d put their provincial against the provincial law elsewhere, even though there’s nothing in the national law that can deal with any of this.

I also have a bunch of different teachers all giving conflicting advice and information. And it’s meant I’ve wasted another few days on a bit of a wild goose chase. They knew what my plan was and they let me get all the paperwork sorted, and then told me at the last minute lol no.

So...back to square one. Again.

I’m gonna avoid bumping this thread now every time there’s new news - it’s just so up and down and it’s getting a bit embarrassing.

Jeez mush, sounds like a metric fucktonne of twattery and paperwork

Nothing to actually contribute I'm afraid just know you're being thought of

Yeah that sucks a lot. Wish I could offer some good advice but it's hard to see the options from here. US visa system is completely different than the way China handles it I think. AFAIK there aren't any local bureaus that have a say in it.

Like Cocko said, you're being thought of.