Getting visa in Australia
Do not try to apply for any visa here in Australia until you receive documents from China.
The work Visa (Z) is the normal visa you will apply for unless on special occasions we tell you to apply for a different type. This will only happen on rare special occasions. Always be suspicious if someone tells you to apply for any type other than a Work Visa.
The school will send you 2 documents via courier, these are a Invitation Letter and a Work Permit.
Please download the Visa Application form from the Chinese embassy/consulate office.
Now fill in the Application form. Where you don’t have an answer for a field just write N/A for not applicable.
Most fields are easy to fill in. Some you might not be sure of are listed here:
1.9 Is passport type, most people will have a “regular” passport, just put a X in that box.
1.14 You can mark your profession as teacher.
2.1 You can mark as employment
2.2 Now this needs a bit more explanation.
If you intend to enter China and stay there for the whole of your contract then you can mark “Single entry valid for 3 months”. You can still travel within the China Mainland during this time but not to SAR (Special Administrative Regions) like Hong Kong or Taiwan.
If you want to travel to another country during your contract you will need to mark “Double entry valid for 6 months” if you intend to exit and re enter China within 6 months of the visa approval date. Note that is not your entry date.
If you want to travel out of and re enter China more than once you will need a “Multi entry valid for 6 months” or 12 months”. The 6 or 12 months will be determined by the length of your contract, most contracts are 12 months. Note the multi entry visa’s are harder to get approved so it is probably better not to mark these unless you really need it. The schools and visa office are concerned that teachers exiting China won’t return to complete their contract so it can be an issue. Also there are not a lot of holidays long enough to make international travel that good, so it can be hard to get multi entry approval.
2.3 You may not know your exact entry date at this time because we recommend that you don’t purchase your flight ticket until after your visa approval, so an estimated date is ok for here.
2.4 Your teaching contract will usually be for 12 months so write 365 days or if you have a 6 month contract write 183 days. The work visa is linked to the contract so at the end contract date you have to exit China unless you arrange an extension. This is fairly easy for a tourist visa and the schools can help you with this as your contract nears the end. If you intend to stay and accept another teaching contract you will apply for another work visa for that contract. Again you may need a tourist visa to get you through if there is time between completion and commencement dates. All of this can be arranged later.
2.5 Just list your intended entry city and the city your school is at if that is different to your entry city. You don’t need to list other places you might visit during your stay.
2.6 If you are in a hurry to get the visa processed, mark the second box for a rush visa, this will cost approximately $50.00 extra. You will have to drop your application to the consulate/embassy before 12:00 midday and you can collect it after 9:00am the next day if you want it rushed in Australia. Otherwise mark the first box and you can collect it on the 4th working day after application.
For section 4 we should have supplied you with the name address and contact numbers of the school, please ask if you are not sure.
4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 4.10. Will be the name and contacts of the school unless we have given you a contact person name and different contacts to fill in here
Don’t forget to sign and date the application at the bottom
If we tell you to apply for a different visa than a Work Visa (Z) please ask us about the different requirements needed.