Well, sorta. China’s borders were open, but only to certain groups of people. And one of those groups were those that had residence permits. While I never made it to China to get my residence permit, I did have a valid visa at the start of the pandemic and a job waiting for me, if I ever made it there. It was close enough, right? Only one way to know for sure – apply for that new visa!
Unfortunately, most of my paperwork had expired while everyone was sitting at home waiting for the pandemic to end. Why is the paperwork only good for 6 months? If it was valid for a year, it would have been fine and I could have applied for a visa straight away. Instead, I had the joy of needing a new background check and all the associated authentications, and new work invitations from China.
I was able to quickly get the new background check and send it off for its authentications. This time it was a little easier as I knew what I was doing. But, not everything was destined to go that smoothly. (Actually, it would be the last thing that didn’t take forever.) It wouldn’t be 2020 if there weren’t complications. Lots of complications. Instead of sending the background check out for authentications and getting it back in a week or 2, this time, it took just over 2 MONTHS! Yep, it took over 4 times as long as it did 6 months ago. Go, pandemic!
Normally, the background check would need to be done and authenticated before my employer could apply for the Chinese paperwork. But, this time, due to it taking forever, my employer tried applying for the paperwork without it. By some miracle, while I was waiting for the background check to come back, I got my other paperwork from China!
All that waiting gave me more time to watch the squirrels (I was honestly trying to stop squirrel-watching, but, well, pandemic), like this thirsty, and, probably, chilly, little fellow:
Now, on to the local Chinese Consulate.
After filling out a new visa application, I had to get the attention of the local Chinese Consulate. They were just a little busy trying to catch up with all the people they had ignored due to being closed for a few months and didn’t have time to talk to too many new people a day, or, really, anyone.
Eventually, after what felt like months of harassing them via email, the only form of communication that they were acknowledging, they finally deigned to notice me. They wanted documents, lots and lots of documents. It was more weeks of sending them files and answering questions and basically justifying my whole entire existence. And, just before I had to promise them my first born, they decided they had enough information. They were satisfied that I met the requirements to apply for a visa, no guarantee that I would actually be granted one, even though they have already seen all the documents I would need to send them.
Finally, years after I first contacted the Consulate, or maybe a month, (who knows?) I got to mail in my passport to get that all-important visa. There was a very, very, very long email with instructions on what to mail in, how to mail it in, who to contact if anything goes wrong, and dire warnings that if I didn’t follow the steps exactly, I might not get the visa. And, now it was time to wait another 2 weeks or so for it to come back.
Yay, more waiting!
By now, it’s almost Thanksgiving. That means that it’s been about 4 months since China started letting foreigners in again. 4 months since I started trying to get a visa. 4 months instead of less than 1, pre-pandemic. 4 more months of watching squirrels and slowly going insane.
And, one magical day, my passport arrived. I had a shiny new visa. They were going to let me in! Maybe.
And, when I had nearly forgotten about it, that paperwork that went off for authentication had finally returned. I had all my documents and was finally ready to travel.
Now, all I have to do is get a flight, get a COVID test, and spend 2 weeks in quarantine. Let’s hope all my hard work doesn’t all go to waste and I get to use this visa.
My TEFL Adventure 