As a teach abroad company, it is our responsibility to find candidates safe and legal jobs overseas. But our work is not done once they have completed a successful interview and received a contract offer. Making sure the logistical side of the visa process goes smoothly and our candidates can enter the country they will be working without any issues is a just as important as finding them a school in the first place.
And nowhere is this process more complicated than in China, with document legalisation being a scary and perplexing task.
But fear not, we have over 18 years’ of experience navigating our way through the system and have successfully sent thousands of teachers to start new lives in the Middle Kingdom.
And here’s a little secret, it’s not as difficult as you may think.
In this article, we will break down and explain how the legalisation process works, and guide you through the steps to give you the confidence and understanding you need to begin your adventure of a lifetime in the East.
To work in China, the visa you will need is a Z-Visa (work visa).
To obtain a Z-Visa, you need to…
- Have a university degree in any subject
- Have a passport from the UK, Ireland, US, New Zealand, Australia, Canada or South Africa,
- Have clean criminal background check
- Have a TEFL, CELTA or TESOL certificate (which we offer as part of our program)
Once you have all of these documents, the next step is getting them LEGALISED (excluding your passport). This essentially proves that the documents are real and you are eligible based on the criteria set by the Chinese government, we have no say on the criteria set and must follow the rules to make sure we are complying with Chinese law.
The will need to gather these three documents to be legalised…
- Your degree certificate
- Your clean criminal background check
- Your teaching qualification (for most candidates, that’s a 120-hour online TEFL)
Again, legalisation will prove these are real and authentic documents. In the UK, legalisation is currently a 2-step process:
- The documents need to be approved by a lawyer / notary
- The documents need to be approved by Foreign office (FCDO)
In other countries like the USA, additional steps are required (which are outlined here).
It is possible to do the steps yourself but we strongly recommend using an agency that will quickly and efficiently get your documents approved by the relevant entities. The process currently takes 5-6 working days for agencies in the UK, and it can be even quicker is you use express service.
The agency that we recommend to candidates charges £93 per document for the standard service.
It is crucial that you keep receipts, this is because most Chinese schools reimburse your visa costs soon after you arrive in China and start teaching.
Once you’ve legalised your documents, there are a few more steps before you can apply for the Z-Visa…
- Sending scans of the legalised documents to your school in China
- Your school applying for your Z-Visa invitation (which then takes 2-4 weeks to receive)
Once your school have received the invitation, they will email it to you, you can then book an appointment at a Chinese Embassy within your home country, where you will apply for your Z-Visa in person.
It’s very important to take the original copies of your legalised documents to China. Within your first month in there, your Z-Visa will be converted into a residence permit, which means you can leave and re-enter China at will for a year. You will need your original documents to complete this process.
We hope that this article was useful and will be posting more along these lines soon, so keep an eye out.
Please get in touch here if you have any other questions or would like to learn more about our programs in China, Thailand, Vietnam, Hungary and Poland.
