Working Illegally in China

Have you ever herd the saying it’s too good to be true? Well that is what happened to me March 2017 when I applied for a joke for a teaching job in China and got not only s reply the next day but the job week or so later. So, there I was going to go to China for 12 months to teach English even tho I did not have any teaching experience nor did they make me do a police check. (First red flag). I was nervous excited about this new journey in my life that I failed to miss some pretty big red flags. First of all, in the job description it says the agency would pay for my flight over, they did not I had to pay for my flight (Second Red Flag). Then there was the issue of the Visa.

 

I got told that I would not be able to get a working visa right away but the school is ok with a business visa. (Major Red Flag) but I thought nothing of it because they said it was ok so I thought it was ok. So, before I left I decided to get engaged to my girlfriend who I was leaving behind and at the start of June I headed off to Beijing.

 

Arrived in Beijing at 8pm and got through customs pretty easy and had someone meet me at the airport and took me to the hotel and the hotel I got taken too was not what I was expecting it was a cheap looking run-down hotel but hey I got to stay there for free. My first night there was terrible got told by my driver that they speak a lot of English in Beijing and the first place I went too was all in Chinese and my phone could not get the translator app and there I was in a country by myself and the only person I knew was in Wuhan 500km away.

 

The first two days was great I got to walk around by myself tried McDonalds and KFC so all around great. On the third day I met two other people who came over as well and I knew off the bat they were not lifelong friends but I could put up with them for a year. So I originally got told that I could live at the school and I had a school picked out turns out they were both not true and had to go for a audition witch I failed because they did not like my singing. So, I had to go to another school and turns out they did like me.

 

The second week I had to get a bank card and a sim for my phone. The person I had from my agency did not know her way around Beijing we got lost more than once. To her credit she was lovely compared to the other people at the agency. In saying that getting a sim I felt pressured that I had to stay for two years and I felt uncomfortable same again when trying to pay my apartment to make it worse I originally got an apartment the day before but because I couldn’t pay on the day the agent game it to someone else so I was not happy when I had to pay a agency fee to someone I didn’t want as an agent.

 

My big day first day starting and my first impression of the principle of the school was she was a very well-dressed woman one look and you knew who was the boss. And the first thing she said was the Chinese assistant was really pretty so it was good to get the important things out the way. For the first month everything went smooth completely forgot I was on a business visa and convinced my fiancé to come and join me so life was good until one day I was in the class room and a lady came telling me to come with her because the police were here. I was confused I they said everything was ok and the school accepts my visa so what the issue. Turns out no no no no I could of got jail and deportation and what surprised me that most of the teachers at my school was with me in this room waiting for the police to leave. I didn’t want to do illegal work I was having the time of my life and turns out it was a lie. The next day I told my school and my agency I quit I don’t want to work illegally My agency kept telling me that nothing bad would happen if I get court and not to worry.

 

I told them that I want a working visa or I am going home so knowing that they can make money out of me they promised me a working visa but that was not good enough I wanted to make sure my fiancé would be safe so she would have to get one to I was surprised when they agreed. And sent my Fiancé paper work to fill out to give to the Chinese embassy in Australia and we should get it in a couple of months. A few weeks later my fiancé arrived and I was over the moon we will get working visa and go on an adventure together for twelve months oh how wrong I was. One day my fiancé got home to tell me that people at her school were not allowed to tell the police where they were living because they school was not allowed to hire foreigners and that week the policed showed up at my school again and I was lucky enough to climb a fence to leave the school while five other teachers were not so lucky and got court but they were lucky in the fact that they did not go to jail the school got a fine and got told to make sure everyone gets a work visa.

 

Now my fiancé is at a school that she is not allowed to work at and I get told at 21 years old I cannot get a work visa and not only did my agency lie about our work visa they knew that we would not be able to get one anyways. It all came to a end the next week when I got told that agencies were getting raided by police because agencies are actually illegal so everything was a lie the people that hired us the visas everything so the very next day my fiancé and I were on a plan back to Australia. China is a beautiful country and not what we think it is here I am hurt that I couldn’t work legally because I enjoyed my time over there and would love to go back one day but the correct way.