Chinese Z working visa - invitation letter

[Meddle]

Hi all,

I can't seem to find any threads on the working visa for China, so apologies for posting it here under 'General'.

My work visa's been approved, and the school in China is busy processing the invitation letter which I take to the Chinese embassy in Bangkok, but does anyone know if the Chinese embassy accept copies of the work permit and invitation letter? (as opposed to having to get the originals posted over). It's getting a bit late and this would greatly speed up the process.

I'd appreciate any suggestions if anyone's been through this process :-)

[Crossy]

I've used scanned / emailed copies to get business visas for China so I suggest it should be no problem.

Why not get the originals EMS'd anyway as a backup in case the policy has changed.

Moving to Visas for Other Countries for more focussed replies.

[Meddle]

I spent the entire day yesterday (and I mean the entire day) constantly calling the embassy (right number too) ... just rang and rang

Hence my post :-)

[Tomtomtom69]

I have applied for a work visa (type Z) in Bangkok before. Actually it was in the first half of July last year, but not for a teaching position, but for a company. Still, I don't think that made a difference. I had the a copy of the invitation letter printed out in color. They like to see the original certificate from the work permit office though (it's double sided, on special cardboard, one side is in English and the other in Chinese, that's why a copy isn't acceptable for that document) - and that's what caused me to have to go back there one more time before they would accept my application but the invitation letter itself, whether it's printed on company letterhead or not (although it should be) just needs to look original, though a copy will suffice. If you are getting your work permit certificate EMSed over, why not get your school to send over the original invitation letter too? But as I said there's no real need for the latter to be original.

[Meddle]

Thanks TomTom ..

How long did it take you to get the visa once you submitted all the doc's?

I'll have to wait for the originals then, and I'm guessing I'll have to take passport, medical and whatever else I can dig up, in case.

Gonna book a ticket, send booking confirmation to China to speed up the process in getting invite letter and work permit, take those to embassy here and hope to get the visa ASAP.

Wow, getting a bit nervous, wonder how similar / different it is to Thailand.