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Visas--the monkey wrench
08-19-2011, 11:52 PM
I'm based in the US and considering moving to a lower cost-of-living country to hang out, bang, and study (but on my own, not at a recognized educational institution). When I started researching cities around the world it didn't occur to me that visa rules may make it difficult to pull off actually *living* in a place for a couple of years, as opposed to just visiting for a few weeks or months and then leaving. What I want is the ability to stay in a country for a couple of years, coming and going as I please without any doubt that I'll be able to get back in (I'll probably want to leave the country 3-4 times a year) but I've seen nothing like that in any of the visa types avialable in say, Thailand. So far I've only checked out the visa rules for a few countries but they've all been similar--I guess they figure that letting in people for no verifiable reason invties troublemakers. Does anyone know of a lower cost-of-living country that makes it easy to really live there without being verifiably employment or enrolled at a school?
Tim
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Visas--the monkey wrench
08-22-2011, 01:11 AM
I guess this is an appropriate place to post Module 4 of my product.
MODULE 4 - LOGISTICS
My blood pressure began to rise and I clenched my jaw.
“I’m sorry sir, that is just embassy policy. You need to have passport photos that fit these exact dimensions to qualify for a visa.”
I looked at my passport photos in relation to the template provided by the embassy. My photos were about four millimeters too long in both length and width.
Logic told me to argue with the visa agent at the Chinese embassy in Seoul. This picture should be fine. What’s the difference? Is it really necessary to make me go get new passport photos and come back here and wait on line for another two hours?
Lips pursed, I glared at the seemingly docile Chinese woman who had clearly dealt with my type before - a snarky young American guy with a strong sense of entitlement and low tolerance for nonsense.
I had already been told to leave and come back with black and white copies of my passport instead of color. WHY? How could color copies possibly be held to an inferior standard to that of black and white?
This embassy was broken and there was nothing I could do about it. The gatekeeper was simply following protocol, so it didn’t make sense to vent my frustration at her or try to reason with her. She knew the system was broken. She didn’t care. She didn’t have to, her job did not depend on whether or not the system worked. As long as people kept lining up to get visa services, she would continue to have a disproportionate amount of control over people’s destinies.
The most powerful, fearless, calculating, and utterly ruthless people in my life have overwhelmingly been 95-pound Asian women. I wish I knew why.
Bureaucrats, human resources, bouncers, cock-blocks - you will face many gatekeepers and obstacles on your quest for any prize worth winning. The last thing you need is headaches over small logistical issues like visas. The following module will help you deal with the minutiae of expat living in such a way that you can quickly get this stuff out of the way and focus on the important things once you land in China. In addition to landing the internship and then getting the eventual offer, you will want to make sure the other areas of your life are set up and systematized in such a way that your sole focus can be launching your career and building your network.
Welcome to Module 4 - Logistics.
This is what your actions will look like:
* Book language school
* Secure visa
* Book flight
* Set up apartment visits through expat websites
This module will set you up with the essential items you will need to get settled as a young expat. You will choose a language school at which you will be studying part time so that you can secure a long term visa. This way, you will not have to constantly fly in and out of the country and waste time and money on flights, hotels, and visas. In addition to this, you will improve your Mandarin skills while having an open schedule to work office hours on a part-time or full-time basis.
In Dropping Bombs we set up final round interviews with internship candidate companies so that we could immediately start to get to work when we arrive to China. Similarly, you will be setting up appointments to see apartments and choose where you will be living during your internship period in your city of choice. Home is where the heart is. You don’t want to have to expend emotional energy on drama either at work or at home. As such, you will screen your location and flatmates carefully to make sure you are getting yourself into the right setup. China will be throwing millions of challenges your way, so let’s make sure we handle them in a systematic and organized manner.
The outcome you can expect is to have chosen a language school, secured yourself a long term visa to avoid constant regional travel, and set up appointments to meet with your potential new flatmates (or 1BR apartment, if you choose not to have flatmates).
This may seem like a trivial detail in the scheme of the China career launch. Trust me, I’d rather be writing about dodging gatekeepers than choosing a Mandarin school. However, if you don’t have this aspect of your life set up and secure, you will suffer in other areas.
Splendid. Let’s go hack China’s visa policies.
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The theme that is relevant for the OP's thread is that local language schools can provide you with business visas so that you don't have to constantly fly in and out of the country.
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Visas--the monkey wrench
08-22-2011, 01:33 AM
I enjoyed reading your little account of dealing with the Chinese customs agent.
In Thailand the business visa has the same requirement to make a border crossing periodically, though I can't tell if the periodicity can be made greater than every 30 days--30 days is way too often! I haven't considered an education visa as an option for more than a few months because I wouldn't want to be a language student for longer than that, and I'm not considering working any kind of a job, so work visas are out.
I hadn't looked into Cambodia because it sounded too chaotic and even dangerous in terms of violent crime. I don't know anything about safety in the Phillippenes--I will have to look in to that.
Tim
