I knew that I needed to file with the city government as a company in order to get a business visa. I had been to the government office to find out the procedure. They were very helpful, and along with all the instructions they also gave me the name of an agency whose business is to process these applications.
I had asked Rachel to phone them. She spoke a long time with them, but she must have been very busy with Web at that time because she did not give me much of a translation about what I needed to do. She fed me bits and pieces, from which I could not lay out a plan.
Three weeks passed. It was soon time again to try to renew my Hong Kong obtained tourist visa.
I went to Rachel and explained how time sensitive this whole thing was, and how helpless I felt not being fluent enough in Chinese to do it myself. She was spurred on to tackle it. We went in to see the agent, and got the ball rolling.
Two weeks earlier I had requested from my home bank a wire transfer of almost all the money in my US bank account, to carry me over in the bakery until business finally caught on. I checked once at an ATM machine, and got a strange result. It looked like too much money had arrived in my account. Silly me, I did nothing. Eventually, though, I checked again. Apparently, the first read out had a computer glitch so that the decimal point was not in the right place. No money had arrived.
Calling my bank in the States requires careful juggling of time. They are about 15 hours behind me. I finally hooked up with them, and asked about my funds. It took a while to figure it out, but I had made a mistake. I had looked up the SWIFT code of my bank online, instead of going to the bank and asking them for it. I confused the Agricultural Development Bank with the Agricultural Bank, and sent the wrong SWIFT code. I held on the line quite some time until my bank managed to track down the funds. They indeed were in Changzhou, but at a bank where I had no account. The money would be returned to Seattle, and resent using the correct SWIFT code.
This last phone conversation took place a day before Rachel and I went into the meeting with the agent. At that meeting I learned that funds transferred from my US account to my private China account would not count. I had to first open a local commercial account, and then have 100,000 rmb wired into that account from the States.
I juggled the time difference again and called the Seattle bank back. I asked if the funds had yet been received, they said no. I then instructed them to hold them in the States until I called back with a different bank account.
That was lucky. Sending money back and forth obviously includes a lot of fees. I was relieved that I had stopped the money from bouncing around, generating more fees. But there still remained a problem. I was planning to transfer 60,000 rmb. That left me 40,000 short. The obvious solution was to find a local Chinese business person, a student of Web, who had that kind of cash in the bank and who was willing to lend it to me for about ten days. That was not a pleasant thought.
Amazingly, about two days after I went to the agent's office to sign the papers (no exaggeration, about fifty pieces of paper needed my signature; they don't except photocopies, so eight copies have to all be signed, and there were a few sets of those), they emailed Rachel to say that the Foreign Investment Management office had approved my application. Now I need only pay the fees and get the gilded certificate, and I can then apply for a business license which I need in hand when I apply for the visa. Did I mention the current visa expires September 9? When it was issued I was told that I could not get any more renewals of tourist visa. It has to be the business visa, or another trip out of the country.
In the end, I find myself short about $4,500. Doesn't seem like much! And in fact, if they would allow me to pay the $1,300 fees after I transfer my funds, I'm short even less than that. It will be interesting to see where those funds come from. As I say, I only need to hold the money in my Chinese account a few days, long enough for them to verify that it arrived. Apparently, they don't have a system to continue monitoring it.
My visa expires Sept. 9. On Sept. 6 I was informed that the business license had been granted, again at lightening speed. So I took the passport to the police station. However, I was informed that there was still one document lacking. I called Su to interpret for me. Once I discovered the problem, I called the agent I'm paying, and she spoke with the policeman. We agreed to meet at the appropriate government building. It was now 3:00, but the offices stay open until 5:30. We got the missing document, and I tried to speed back to the police station. However, my ebike was out of juice. I was not far from the bakery, when I called Rachel and asked if I could swap bikes. No problem, she said. My bike died as I reached the bakery door, no exaggeration. With this bigger, faster back I was back on my way to the police station. In the end, the application was accepted, and I paid the 800 rmb. Once it comes back, hopefully on Wednesday week, I will then be able to go to the bank and set up the account, and order the wire transfer. I thought that I was desperate for that infusion of cash, but actually we've been limping alone fine. Soon I'll need to buy a water heater, though, as the weather cools.
Have you read 'Poorly Made in China'? It gives further insight into how appearance is more important than substance, to the Chinese way of thinking.
I had asked Rachel to phone them. She spoke a long time with them, but she must have been very busy with Web at that time because she did not give me much of a translation about what I needed to do. She fed me bits and pieces, from which I could not lay out a plan.
Three weeks passed. It was soon time again to try to renew my Hong Kong obtained tourist visa.
I went to Rachel and explained how time sensitive this whole thing was, and how helpless I felt not being fluent enough in Chinese to do it myself. She was spurred on to tackle it. We went in to see the agent, and got the ball rolling.
Two weeks earlier I had requested from my home bank a wire transfer of almost all the money in my US bank account, to carry me over in the bakery until business finally caught on. I checked once at an ATM machine, and got a strange result. It looked like too much money had arrived in my account. Silly me, I did nothing. Eventually, though, I checked again. Apparently, the first read out had a computer glitch so that the decimal point was not in the right place. No money had arrived.
Calling my bank in the States requires careful juggling of time. They are about 15 hours behind me. I finally hooked up with them, and asked about my funds. It took a while to figure it out, but I had made a mistake. I had looked up the SWIFT code of my bank online, instead of going to the bank and asking them for it. I confused the Agricultural Development Bank with the Agricultural Bank, and sent the wrong SWIFT code. I held on the line quite some time until my bank managed to track down the funds. They indeed were in Changzhou, but at a bank where I had no account. The money would be returned to Seattle, and resent using the correct SWIFT code.
This last phone conversation took place a day before Rachel and I went into the meeting with the agent. At that meeting I learned that funds transferred from my US account to my private China account would not count. I had to first open a local commercial account, and then have 100,000 rmb wired into that account from the States.
I juggled the time difference again and called the Seattle bank back. I asked if the funds had yet been received, they said no. I then instructed them to hold them in the States until I called back with a different bank account.
That was lucky. Sending money back and forth obviously includes a lot of fees. I was relieved that I had stopped the money from bouncing around, generating more fees. But there still remained a problem. I was planning to transfer 60,000 rmb. That left me 40,000 short. The obvious solution was to find a local Chinese business person, a student of Web, who had that kind of cash in the bank and who was willing to lend it to me for about ten days. That was not a pleasant thought.
Amazingly, about two days after I went to the agent's office to sign the papers (no exaggeration, about fifty pieces of paper needed my signature; they don't except photocopies, so eight copies have to all be signed, and there were a few sets of those), they emailed Rachel to say that the Foreign Investment Management office had approved my application. Now I need only pay the fees and get the gilded certificate, and I can then apply for a business license which I need in hand when I apply for the visa. Did I mention the current visa expires September 9? When it was issued I was told that I could not get any more renewals of tourist visa. It has to be the business visa, or another trip out of the country.
In the end, I find myself short about $4,500. Doesn't seem like much! And in fact, if they would allow me to pay the $1,300 fees after I transfer my funds, I'm short even less than that. It will be interesting to see where those funds come from. As I say, I only need to hold the money in my Chinese account a few days, long enough for them to verify that it arrived. Apparently, they don't have a system to continue monitoring it.
My visa expires Sept. 9. On Sept. 6 I was informed that the business license had been granted, again at lightening speed. So I took the passport to the police station. However, I was informed that there was still one document lacking. I called Su to interpret for me. Once I discovered the problem, I called the agent I'm paying, and she spoke with the policeman. We agreed to meet at the appropriate government building. It was now 3:00, but the offices stay open until 5:30. We got the missing document, and I tried to speed back to the police station. However, my ebike was out of juice. I was not far from the bakery, when I called Rachel and asked if I could swap bikes. No problem, she said. My bike died as I reached the bakery door, no exaggeration. With this bigger, faster back I was back on my way to the police station. In the end, the application was accepted, and I paid the 800 rmb. Once it comes back, hopefully on Wednesday week, I will then be able to go to the bank and set up the account, and order the wire transfer. I thought that I was desperate for that infusion of cash, but actually we've been limping alone fine. Soon I'll need to buy a water heater, though, as the weather cools.
Have you read 'Poorly Made in China'? It gives further insight into how appearance is more important than substance, to the Chinese way of thinking.
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