I knew it was too good to be true. 27 days to get a visa!! Haha – never believe anything anyone here says. My agent – who I am becoming a little dissatisfied with – has submitted my paperwork twice in order to get a licence to emply people (specifically myself) but on each occasion the government department has refused to believe that I work in that office. This is despite the fact that I do actually work there – go there most days – and that I gave them a copy of the lease agreement.
So here we go, I have arrived at the point called ‘visa problem’ whereby I have two weeks left on my visa and currently not even an application has gone to the visa office. The only option is to resubmit for the third time and try to get a one month business visa. If that fails I will have to pack a bag and exit the country and start the process again.
So, yes in reality you can set up a company in a month but getting the company is the easy part. The tricky bit, which they never tell you about, is getting a visa on your own company so you can actually work for yourself. I started this process at the beginning of April and now it’s half way through July and I am nowhere near getting a visa.
Having visa problems and being forced to leave the country has become something of a rite of passage for foreigners in China. Watch this space.