And, no, we’re not talking about credit cards. You need a visa to work in China. If you already know this, congratulations, you know one thing that our media server programmer didn’t know earlier this year. He flew from Nashville to Los Angeles to board his flight to Shanghai, only to be told that he did not have the proper visa. (Or any visa at all.) Therefore, he spent three additional days while his visa was (very expensively) expedited to his unexpected hotel in L.A. The Chinese government has made travel and working in China far easier than it used to be, but to qualify for an employment visa (Z visa), you need to fulfill several requirements. You must obtain an official invitation to the country, together with an employment license or special status as a “Foreign Expert.” You will need to coordinate all of this with the company hiring your services before you sign a contract and long before your flight.
-From LD-at-Large by Chris Lose, PLSN, Sept. 2017 page 76
