Renewing my visa

As well as my Residence Permit, and Alien Employment Permit. This is our (Renfen the HR manager and I) second attempt. Before I left for the U.S. I brought it up that we should renew it soon, but recommended it early to be safe, unaware that there was a specific time requirement for that. We went to Ningbo on the Friday before my departure, arrived at the government offices around three o’clock and were told that everyone was out for a meeting and wouldn’t return until the following Monday.

So three days before my permit expired we’ve returned. A man across the glass from us has become the face of Chinese bureaucracy to me. Renfen promptly showed her my old permit and said we only had two days left on it. He curtly responded that I’d have to go back to Israel (he really looked closely huh?), or the U.S. to get it. Between long sips of tea before and after which he slowly removed and replaced its lid, he seemed only capable of saying “so much trouble”, “he needs to return and handle it there” - even I could understand him clearly. He wouldn’t even look at us, just casually shuffled papers on his desktop, browsed on his computer and generally transformed himself into a brick wall.

As I said, I just got back from the U.S., my ticket paid for by the company costing three to four month’s salary for most employees that have been here a few years. Renfen, who tends to be a bit high strung anyway really started coming apart. She looses things and atleast partially due to being the one HR manager for 600+ employees always seems to be on the disorganized precipice of going crazy. But this was bad. At this point I walked away from the counter and starting calling a few other people who I guessed might have experience with this. While I was now aware that we should have handled this 30 days before the expiration, I was quite sure I didn’t need to go back to the U.S. or even Hongkong. I couldn’t quite follow along on all the intermittent discussions, but he was saying (incorrectly I knew) that I had to have my health exam done again and I ate today so I couldn’t schedule it and other problems.

At some point while I was on the phone she finally got our way. I later learned her leverage was she said she would quit if I had to go back because her boss would be so mad and he softened his stance. Seems he just wanted to make sure she lost enough face (she did make quite a scene) and groveled enough. I came back between phone calls to find him smiling smugly and saying, “don’t do this next time”, and the bureaucratic wheels finally turning. As we were there three others carrying foreign passports and documents casually strolled up for what appeared to be similar transactions. Seems I didn’t have to be there anyway.

So in the end we walked away with the stamp in my little brown Alien Employment Permit booklet and should the new Residence permit sticker in my passport within a week. Among other things I read a book Chinese Business Etiquette on my flight over. While it contained very little new information for me, it did explicitly spell out a few principles I’ve grown to understand while living here. One is, face is the ultimate currency, and there is very little connections, or the lack there of can do, especially in the face of the bureaucracy so often dealt with here. Make connections and cultivate them – and know how to use the power of face.