Laowai asked 4 years ago
Hello,
I am currently working in Shanghai and my residence permit will expire together with my work contract end of September.
I would like to stay in China as long as possible, but actually just for traveling, learn Chinese, visit friends and seeing a bit more of the country. To give a clear picture here – there are flights to my home country (even though the COVID-19 situation there is still bad and the flights are expensive).
Now actually I understood I don’t need to apply for a stay permit, but I could just use the 60 days automatic extension after my residence permit expired.
However, someone working for a visa agency told me it would be better to apply for stay permit first (use the termination letter from my employer as supporting document), then later use the 60 days automatic extension on the stay permit? And this would be the “legal way”.
So far I was only reading about people applying for the stay permit after the 60 days automatic extension period, thus I am wondering whether the other way around is correct and possible (and recommended in my case)? In this way I understand I could stay until end of December, instead end of November (by just using 60 day extension vs. stay permit + 60 day extension), which I would, of course, prefer. Do I miss any disadvantage here?
In addition do you know if there is any problem to travel with an expired visa / stay permit within China and register at a local police station in another city, for e.g. in case you don’t stay in a hotel but for a while at someone’s place in an apartment? As I will have no more apartment in Shanghai either..
Thank you in advance for your answer and I am definitely going to share my experience in any case later here, its a great platform!
smooth-administrator Staff answered 4 years ago
Hey Laowai,
Yes, I agree the stay permit + 60 day extension is the safer option. All foreigners who are already in China, the pandemic period is still ongoing and they have not yet taken advantage of the 60-day automatic extension are entitled to use it once. So I believe what the agency’s recommendation is legit.
Domestic travels: same thing I said to the other person:
“As far as I know, you are allowed to travel domestically when you’re on the 60-day visa extension.
And whenever you travel domestically, they shouldn’t really care about your visa. It’s only when you’re crossing the border internationally should they really check for your visa.
If they give you problems, tell them to baidu to the 60-day automatic extension. ”
Police registration – honestly, no idea. I don’t think it should be a problem. If they ask you how come you don’t have a valid visa.. then tell them about how foreigners can overstay their visas by 60 days once. Government officials higher than the police came up with the policy so can’t really argue with that.
Thank you. You would be this website’s first reader to share experience travelling domestically on the 60-day extension.
Warm Regards,
Just Another Expat