I’ve recently begun a new phase of my adventures in China, and will be working on a project basis with a design company.  We have some really great things lined up (watch for announcements soon), and I am excited about the opportunities it presents.

One big difference that is included in my work on these projects is my visa status.  Rather than staying in China on a visit or student visa, I will be on a work visa for the foreseeable future.  It will make my present schedule (rotating  3 months in Shanghai, 3 months in Singapore) much smoother and less of a hassle with all of the procedures.  But… in order to get to that point, there are always a whole lot of procedures to be settled first.  And, I have come to understand that Red China is something of a misnomer; it should be Red Tape China.

In the present instance, we’ve been working on this visa application since late spring.  It has been partly slowed down because I was in Singapore for the summer, and because we didn’t realize that I could do the required medical exam in Singapore.  Now, if you have an option to do the medical exam in your home country, let me advise that you do so.  The facilities here are crowded, and I felt like I was just some piece of livestock being herded from room to room to be poked and prodded by all the different people who needed to have some say in my suitability for the marketplace.  Apparently I passed inspection, because the visa has been approved.

I was told to collect some small necessary item (a stamp in the passport, I think) from the US Embassy.  I went there with one of my coworkers.  After fifteen minutes or so of animated discussion, they said, “Not here.  You need to go to Minsheng Lu.”  That’s the same old facility I went to for student visas and the like, so I knew we were in for a long day of waiting.  That’s fine, as it is expected when you handle immigration matters in most countries.  I’ve found that this place in Shanghai is very typical in that regard, and so was prepared for what was coming.

Or so I thought.  When we reached Minsheng Lu, the story was quite different.  ”Go to the embassy,” they said.  ”We did,” we replied.  ”No,” came the answer, “we don’t mean the US embassy in China.  We mean the China embassy in the US.”  There was some more discussion, centering around ticket prices, flight time, and the ridiculous idea of going to the US just to get a little stamp in the passport, and turning around to come back.  I told them that I have many American friends who did not have to go back to the States for this same process.  ”OK, Hong Kong,” was the answer.  I asked that it be done in Singapore instead, as I would like to be home to attend to some other personal matters too.  And so, that’s the final arrangement we came to.

So, now I’ll have to rush back to Singapore and get all of the necessary procedures done there, armed with my “Alien Employment License.”  But I can’t stay for too long, as I have to be back here before the holiday starts on October 1, so as to get another stamp on the passport here.  There will be several more days of running back and forth between embassies and government offices and so forth.

It is so typical of China.  I am not sure I will ever quite understand the love of having a little slip of paper and a little official stamp for every little step of every little procedure one must undergo in order to get something even halfway official done in China.  But that is the reality here.  And while I don’t fully understand it, I am used to it.  I can even forget, at times, how odd it once seemed.  I was reminded, though, when I told my family members in the States that I am going to have to go back to Singapore for this little step in the whole procedure.  They said, “Isn’t that a big hassle, leaving the country in order to get a little stamp?”  I thought for a second, then said, “Yeah, I guess it kind of is.”  It was only then, though, that I had realized it.