My Journey to China

A brief write-up of everything I had to do to move from the UK to China

Fri Jan 20 2023

I've recently relocated from the UK to live and work in Shanghai. I wanted to share my experiences in the hope that someone might find this information useful. Bear in mind I began the process around September 2022 and arrived into China in December so a lot may have changed since then.

Overview

To add a bit of context to this article. I was transferring internally within a company and therefore applying for a Z work visa. I was lucky enough to have a dedicated company visa officer and my company's custom made internal visa application tool helping me so it's possible there could be extra steps I wasn't aware of.

Document Preparation

This is without a doubt the longest and most arduous part of the process. Before even applying for the visa many documents have to be prepared.

Degree Certificate

A Z work visa requires at least a bachelor level degree.

The first requirement to note is the name. With most documents the name must match the name on your passport. My degree certificate was missing my middle name which meant we had to request a signed and stamped letter from my university confirming the discrepancy.

Like most documents used internationally it must be Apostille-d. However, China never fully implemented the Apostille convention meaning the documents must also then be legalised by the Chinese authorities.

The 3 stages then are:

• Notarisation: A public notary or solicitor must check the authenticity of the certificate and notarise it. This costs ~£150 and takes around 5 working days.
• Apostille: The notarised certificate must be given to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to validate the signature of the notary or solicitor. The documents are sent and received by post. This costs ~£40 and, for me, took around 4 weeks.
• Chinese Legalisation: The final step is that the Chinese embassy must validate the authenticity of the British Apostille. The documents can be submitted and collected in person or via post. This costs ~£100 and takes 48 hours (in person).

Police Certificate

The Chinese government require evidence of a completely clear criminal record. The preparatory steps for this document are very similar to those of the degree certificate but the notarisation is not necessary as the police certificate will be obtained from ACRO which is already a British government organisation.

Obtaining the certificate costs ~£100 and takes around 1 week to arrive by post. The Apostille and Chinese legalisation are as above.

Other Documents

The police and degree certificate are the biggest documents to prepare. The other easier documents required are:

• Signed physical examination commitment letter. This is agreeing to undergo a health check upon arrival to China.
• Scan of passport with all passport info included.
• A signed work permit letter which contains a whole bunch of stuff basically saying you promise to abide by Chinese rules/regulations.

Visa

Once all the documents are prepared you need to do the visa application. The Chinese Visa Application Centre website is fairly easy to use and can guide you through the process. It will involve filling out a short form that then needs to be printed and brought with you to a physical in person appointment.

The application costs ~£180 and express service collection takes just 48 hours.

Travel

Pre-arrival

Our flights were booked from London Heathrow (LHR) to Shanghai Pudong (PVG) on 16th December 2022. This was a time when direct flights were still severely restricted and infrequent so the plane ticket was north of £3,000. I hope the tickets never return to this price…

A negative PCR test result was required within 48 hours of landing in China. It had to be done through an official recognised agency and cost around ~£100. The Chinese organisation I used took the test at noon and sent the results before midnight.

After receiving the results the negative test report must be sent to the Chinese health authorities in order to obtain a Health Declaration Certificate. This is the green QR code. It took a few hours to come and was ready in the morning before the flight.

After presenting the Health Declaration Certificate upon boarding the aircraft, more details were entered through a WeChat mini-program to obtain a health declaration ID. This was used to scan for our PCR tests upon arrival.

During the flight an arrival card needed to be filled out for presentation at the border. This details information about residence and person(s) of contact.

After arrival

Upon arrival a PCR test was done straight after disembarking and before collecting luggage.

Information was collected through another WeChat mini-program on our intended residence (as stated on the arrival card) which was used to generate another QR code which would direct us to the correct part of the airport in which to wait for a shuttle bus to our quarantine hotel.

Arrival

Quarantine hotel

Shuttle buses departed the airport around about every hour, one per intended destination. A choice was given between 2 tiers of hotel, one cheap one expensive. The expensive choice cost around ~800RMB (~£100) per night.

Food was brought to the hotel room 3 times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A PCR and temperature test was done every day and results were usually visible online within 12 hours. Deliveries to the room were allowed but not takeaway.

After 5 days, after a negative PCR test, a bus would deliver a few people at a time to their designated home quarantine locations.

Home quarantine

The home quarantine had to be pre-authorised with the managers of the building. They initially seemed reluctant but gave in after some pushing. If quarantine was denied the alternative would have been doing the last 3 days in the hotel.

The building claimed to have put cameras and detectors on my door to check I didn't leave the flat during this time, but I was never aware of any such thing. Delivery and take away was permitted. Someone came to the door on day 1 and 3 to do a PCR test.

After a negative test result on day 3, I was permitted to leave.

Visa steps in China

After arrival in China more work must be done to secure a visa for residence. The Z work visa mentioned above is normally just a single entry visa valid for around 3 months. It permits 30 days of stay in China after entry during which time you must apply for a residence permit. This residence permit is what allows you to reside in China longer and travel freely in and out of the country.

Before collecting the residence permit the health check must be completed. This involves a chest x-ray, blood test, stomach ultrasound, lung examination and sight test. The whole process is incredibly quick and efficient and doesn't take more than 15 minutes.

To obtain the residence permit an appointment at the PSB (Public Security Bureau) must be attended in which passport/Z visa information will be submitted and a photo will be taken. The residence permit will be ready for collection about 1 week later. During this time they will keep the passport, but the residence permit receipt will serve as legal identification until it is ready.

Other things such as getting a SIM card and setting up a bank account are not as easy in China as they are the in UK. I had my visa officer help me with these. My passport information was required but I didn't need to have a residence permit for either.

Conclusion

Ok, that's it!

Tried to keep this article fairly objective and to the point in order to be the most help to others. Getting to China was quite a bit of work, but was definitely worth it!

If you have any questions about all of this please reach out to me on Twitter (@DazKins_). Having gone through the whole process myself I can understand how helpful it can be to get answers from others who have done it previously!