Frustrations with Paperwork

So I have been back in the UK for just over a month now, and while finding work has been a simple enough endeavour, getting my paperwork in order has been an experiment in frustration.

So, to work in China, you need to get a Z-visa. In a view to getting a Z-visa, you need one crucial piece of paperwork, the Foreign Employment permit. Now, my employers and visa sponsors are in Beijing, which is one of the four municipalities in China. And in a municipality, the paperwork is extra strict. You have to do things a certain way, and they require original materials.

Which meant sending my original university degree certificates, my original TEFL certificate, my original copy of my work contract and my original ICPC (International Child Protection Certificate) in protected, express post to China. I was only able to send the package two weeks ago, after finally getting my TEFL certificate from my grandmother.

See, this should have all been done months ago. But there was an issue with getting my first TEFL certificate, which got lost in the Chinese postal system. So I had a second one delivered to my postal address in the UK.

The package arrived in Beijing last Thursday, but I am yet to receive word from my employers if they have received it yet. They did pass on one useful tidbit of information, though. I needed to get a new ICPC so it was valid within the past six months. This is something they should have told me months ago when I emailed a copy of my certificate to them for checking.

Getting a new certificate takes X working days, which delays getting my work permit. Which delays getting my visa. Which delays getting a flight ticket to Beijing. Which will likely delay my arrival in the capital, which will probably earn me a reprimand from my employers who will be deliberately tone-deaf to their involvement in these delays?

Can't lose face now. It's all the foreigner's fault.

I have two more weeks of work lined up at my job. I am expected to be in China for the 25th, to start at my school on the 1st of September. Right now, the sheer time it takes to get the post to and from China looks set to delay everything.