James asked 5 years ago
My current residence permit expires on 31st July, will it be possible for me to get a 60 day extension on it? Also, my current school says they are willing to provide the work permit cancellation letter to me on the last day of my contract. The problem arises because my contract ends on the same date as my residence permit, 31st July. My new school is saying they wouldn’t have enough time to apply for a new work permit and residence permit. My current school is unwilling to provide the cancellation letter earlier, stating it is against policy.
I was wondering if it possible to use the 60 day extension on my current residence permit to provide me enough time to make the work permit transfer. If not, is there any other possible visas I can apply for? I have been reading there is a Stay visa, could I apply for this instead?
smooth-administrator Staff answered 5 years ago
Yes, is is possible for you to get the 60 day extension as long as the Chinese gov’t doesn’t make a change on this policy.
July 31st is still two months away, so you’ll need to keep tabs on the extension policy.
60 days is definitely plenty of time to make the work permit transfer.
30days is also enough time. Make sure you have all the documents required and your old employer will give you the support you need to do the transfer (i.e. provide you with the work permit cancellation letter that they’ll receive from the labor bureau).
Start the work permit application as soon as you leave your current job. And then just make sure your new employer can submit the application for residence permit successfully a day prior to your last allowed date. As an example, you can budget 27 days for work permit application and 3 days for residence permit application.
Work permit application and residence permit application usually take 5-7 business days each, given no issues with the required documents. So 14 business days + extra business days in case things go wrong and you need to modify your documents / supply additional documents.
If, for any reason, you don’t submit your new residence application successfully within the extension period, then you can get apply for a stay permit but you could also get a humanitarian visa(also 30 days) usually given to foreigners who need more time in transferring / renewing work permits.
You should be fine! Good luck, James.