The visa travails of my colleague Kristina ended with a one-way ticket home.
As I detailed last month, the 27-year-old American traveled 3,400 miles over three weeks in a futile effort to get the proper paperwork to stay in China until the school year ends in June.
This week she went to Hong Kong and Macau in a last-ditch attempt to get a work visa, which could then be used to obtain a one-year residence permit. Unfortunately, her bid was denied and now she has to return to the U.S. She can’t even come back to Zhengzhou to pack her bags – you need a visa to cross over to the mainland from Hong Kong or Macau — so all her belongings must be shipped to her.
Like many foreign teachers, Kristina came to China with a short-term visa, knowing she would have to get an extension once she was in the country. She might have been able to do that if she hadn’t lost her passport, which made what was already a bureaucratic nightmare even worse.
Getting a visa extension in China is like playing Russian Roulette: You never know when your time is up.
