There were many warning signs that I should have noticed right away but was too naive and inexperienced to know better. Now with that under my belt I can now heed to the warning signs before the situation become detrimental leading to facing immigration or even worst the authorities. Not saying I have mastered this skill as of yet.
When I had first given the teaching position to fly to Changchun to teach, they told me to just fly to China on a tourist visa. Readers out there who know what I am talking about are most likely shaking their heads right about now. Blindly, I entered the country to work illegally on a promise that they would provide sufficient paper work including a working visa upon arrival.
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| Strange Book Self |
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| Ugly couches |
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| Two tiny gas stoves |
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| The kitchen sink |
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| Hall way |
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| Spare room |
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| The Room I resided in |
From there they took my passport in exchange for the keys to the apartment, apparently 48 hours after you make contact with your company they have to register you and file for all sorts of papers. FEC (foreign expert certificate) these papers state the school you work for and your job title and then your residency permit which gives you the right to live for 'X' amount of time, usually for a year. FYI: You need your working visa to get the residency permit.
While waiting for all these paper the school that I was working for expected the teachers in the same situation to work. Paying us by the hour when the contract that we signed states that we should be paid salary, including that they would pay/handle/apply for all the paper work and living expenses.
After about two weeks of hounding them for our passport/paperwork I found out that there are so many others in this predicament. So united together to get this problem solved, some of them were working illegally and were avoiding confrontation at all costs. So a small group of foreigners banded together to obtain our documents back giving us the right to take matters into our own hands.
Before they would do anything it took some threats, a written proposal and some phones calls to a couple consulates.
Finally, they decided to tell us that our passports were at police station that we must go down there to pick them up. Not to worry that we would get them back, so we waited at the office for someone to bring us there. A long wait later a couple taxi loads of teachers we all were waiting at a lobby of a very fancy hotel, wondering why we were all there. Soon enough we were going to find out. One by one we get called into a room with two 'immigration' officers [I have to note that they didn't wear uniforms nor did they show us badges, to be honest they looked like Chinese gangsters!] they proceeded to ask us questions about what was happening between each of us individually translated by the foreign liaison. I don't think she told them exactly what we were saying verbatim.
In the end most of us had our passports returned to us, they didn't register us, or fill out any paper work to have us legally working in China. Huh, what were they doing?
Well, here is the down low. What this company does is they tell people from all over the world mostly from the Philippines to come on a tourist visa and promising them living, work and ect. With decreased salaries from their original offer (People from Asian countries made about $600CAD a month for full time work-the western foreigners made more but none of us were earning the same salary) after they release their passports to the 'school' in hopes the employee will forget about their passports. I assume this the companies goal. So they have illegal workers for cheap and they can't leave the country without getting in some serious trouble, some would say this is sly but in this case I say it is just plain evil. I guess when put in this predicament people tend to subdue to inevitability or they fight to leave.
After fighting for my passport I did a midnight run within 24 hours never looking back. Taking the next step forward. Off to Gunagzhou.
