Devoted to ex-pats, exploring resources, challenges, and opportunities

If there’s ever been a business that was tailormade for the readership of ExPatFacts.com, that business is Oasis China Visa Services, a company that specializes in processing many types of China visas. Found at OasisChinaVisa.com, this company is registered in the United States as a branch of Oasis International Travel Corporation. Its main focus is to provide China visas.

Oasis China Visa has all the authorized and approved connections to help facilitate the acquisition of China visas. As their website describes, “The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has authorized Oasis China Visa Services to provide visa processing and mailing services to American citizens and non-American residents in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.” In fact, the China Embassy in Washington DC has formally registered Oasis China Visa Services and has recommended it on their official website.

Types of Visas. You can get every type of China visa that you may need through Oasis China Visa. Here are the main China visas that the company can process:

• Tourist visa
• Business visa
• Work visa
• Study visa
• Other visas, in eight categories (C, D, F, G, J-1, J-2, L, X and Z)

Great Features of the Website. I like how the website clearly explains the processing times and fees for the various china visas offered, along with convenient payment options, including credit card, money order, personal check, traveler’s check, and company check.

I was recently searching for expatriate resources on the Internet and came across a helpful resource: Expatriates.com. Billed as "the community website created for and by expatriates and internationally minded people everywhere," this site focuses on providing bulletin boards, classified ads, and a resource directory of expatriate websites to expatriates around the world.

The classified ads and bulletin boards are purely user-driven tools. I was skeptical at first, but as I looked at these tools, they seem to be legitimate, offering useful ads and announcements, such as jobs, housing, childcare, and language lessons. You can search listings by location (city and country) or by date. You can be seeking for such goods and services, or you can be offering them. It's all free for users. You can subscribe to their update service, which sends listing updates to your email for free.

All in all, it seems to be a pretty solid site... not very glamorous, but functional and active. What has been your experience with Expatriates.com? Please share by leaving a comment below. 

The Internet has plenty of sites that tell the personal experiences of expats in a particular country, but none (that I know of) has a list of sources in all foreign lands who can answer questions and provide details on short notice.  I'd like to create that here.  I'm looking for expats everywhere, or at least one per country, to tell me their perceptions of life abroad.

Let's start with a call for correspondents in countries and locales beginning with A.  Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan,and others I've missed.  I'll take anyone who fits this description: reads and writes English, is an expatriate in the coutry of residence, will tell us the truth (as they see it), and has some spare time.

Others may chime in out of turn.  I'll catalog you and list you when the time comes.

A recent comment asked where to place an ad for a manager to fill a spot in Uganda.  Good question.  The answer to it will also tell where to look for such a job.  I know from having looked for such jobs myself that the usual sources (Monster.com and its rivals) are great because that's where people turn first.  There are sites devoted to international jobs, but they require some searching.  A printed ad, like in the New York Times, has too limited a circulation.

When placing an ad for a job overseas, be clear and explicit.  Make it very plain that the job will be in Uganda, in this case.  Spell out the benefits and perks: salary + a percentage, free or subsidized housing, free home maintenance, a cost-of-living allowance, payment of travel and travel-related costs, one trip home each year at company expense, and any other carrots that typically accompany such an assignment.  Tell if there will be special preparatory training or orientation.  You are trying to soothe some potentially great but fearful candidates.

Put "international" or "overseas" into the job title or prominently in the description.  Those of us who look for jobs overseas can't do separate searches for each country.  Put the job description and details on the company website and make sure that all who might handle an incoming query are familiar with it.

Now I leave it to the readers to add more tips.

There's a lot of talk in the United States about illegal immigrants.  I want to define some terms and situations that would make a person's  presence in a foreign country "illegal". 

The first way to be in a country illegally is to enter it without legal permission in the form of a visa, a travel document, a work permit, or other approval.  This describes most of the Hispanic "illegals" in the U.S. who snuck across the Mexico-U.S. border.  Let's call these Group A.  Why are they here illegally?  Because jobs exist here, and earnings, and because there is no legal way in present law for them to enter the country to take those jobs.  There is no provision in the law for a foreign worker to enter the U.S. to take a job that, presumably, could be filled by an American with the same qualifications.  And the jobs and earnings are so attractive that they risk their lives to get here.  The legality of it hardly enters their minds, when the fact that so many others are doing it unpunished fairly shouts, "Y'all come."

Group B consists of all those people--and there are hundreds of thousands of them, if not millions--who came here with legal permission to enter for a limited time under certain conditions, and now they are here beyond that legal period of time or are doing things that are illegal under the type of permission they were granted.  If that's too legal a description, try this.  They got visas to become tourists but now they have a job here, without getting permission.  or maybe they fell in love here and now they want to stay forever.  This group is just as illegal as the first.  They are just as subject to detention and expulsion.

Closing note:  many Americans in foreign countries fit into Group B, having abused their legal permission to be there.  Few Americans have snuck into a foreign country without legal permission, though I suspect there are a fair number of them in Cuba, North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other areas for which they wren't likely to get government approval.

Cultural Considerations (I can't figure out how Part 2 got ahead of Part 1, but that's OK): I've explained this sultural phenomenon before, but it's important to rehearse it here in the context of visas.   In many cultures, it is considered proper to use your influence to help a friend.  By extension, it can be assumed that friends will come to you to ask for favors that might be within your reach but not within theirs.  One such favor is helping to get a visa.  I have a short, unsatisfactory answer you can use: "I'm sorry, I can't help."

In Western cultures, we are raised to believe in the Rule of Law, and that legal and civil decisions should be made on the merits of the case and not because of personal influnce or preference.  We have laws against insider trading and racketeering, and we look unkindly at influence peddling.  It will hurt your foreign friends, in many areas of the world, to hear that you are unable to help them get a visa.  They will take it as "unwilling", not "unable" and will consider you less of a friend. 

Some embassies have "back-channel" procedures by which embassy personnel can endorse/recommend the visa applications of people they know, whether to gain favor or to otherwise move toward government objectives.  No embassy employee will, in good faith, promote the visa application of someone they don't know well and personally.  It's bad for security, which reigns supreme at present.  it also doesn't look good when the person they endorse uses the visa for other than its legal purpose.

Part 2: How visas are issued. 
Visa applicants appear at the window of a consul (or vice consul or consular agent) and present an application.  To get there, they may have had to travel for many hours and stand in line for even more hours.  To prepare their applications, they may have relied on professional services and advisors, all in hopes of making it acceptable.  Once they hand the application and their passport to the consul, a short interview usually follows.  How long do they intend to stay?  Where is the money coming from?  What ties do they have to their homeland?  In short, what evidence is there they will use the visa for its intended and legal purpose of allowing them into the country for a short (non-working) visit, and then return home?

If the consul is satisfied with the answers and the application, the applicant is told to come back later in the day to get the pasport with visa.  Then the person's name and data are checked against a database to see if there is any reason they shouldn't be believed, such as not revealing a previous denial or an over-stay on a previous visa.  if all check out OK, a visa is placed in the passport by stamp or sticker.  If not, there may be a second interview and, if the consul's suspicions are not overcome, the applicant is out of luck, and his/her data will be put into that database of negative information.

As you can see, it can be a costly, tiring, frustrating process, even when all goes well.  I'd love to hear experiences from applicants, successful and not.  (I had one woman pass out when I denied her application)

While shopping in a flea market in Chile years ago I was surprised to find an 1832 U.S. half dollar.  Then I remembered that all Atlantic-to-Pacific sea traffic had to circumnavigate South America until the Panama Canal was opened in 1914.  Remnants of far-off societies can still be found all along the coasts.  This episode raises the question: what odd and unexpected things have you found overseas in your expat experience?

I have been surprised by: Mennonites on the Pampa, German colonies in Chile, Italian colonists in Argentina, Palestinian settlers in Mexico, bookstores in Istanbul filled with antique books in English, warm winters (relatively speaking) on Vancouver Island in Canada, the amazing history of Malta, Spanish-speaking Jews from the Netherlands, bagpipes in Galicia, and more.  These are things they don't tell you about in school, or even in special area orientation classes.  Please share your discoveries.

My family went pet-less overseas and then got a dog in the Middle East.  We named him Morgen.  He was a Dalmatian.  And when it came time to move from one overseas location to another, he was a hungry, nervous, piece of freight.  All things considered, having a large pet is not very compatible with expat life.  You can take your pet with you, but you must anticipate complications.

Pets that travel as freight (as most do) are subject to all the same conditions as luggage, including getting lost.  Morgen once went to Detroit when we didn't.  We got him back a day after our arrival.  The sedatives prescribed by the veterinarian (another consideration) had worn off, and he was a wreck.  And then there are the entry procedures and even possible quarantines to consider.  A few countries make it very hard to bring in a pet, and the information on procedures for importing an animal can be hard to obtain outside the country.

I'd be interested in hearing your warnings, anecdotes, and advice about travelling with pets.

I got a comment on this morning's entry about places that expats favor in Sub-Saharan Africa (not incuding the RSA).  A writer in the Congo suggests, among others, Douala (Cameroon) and Dakar (Senegal).  I'm surprised.  (Ignorance will do that for you.)  But also always happy to learn.  I invite other reviews.  Are these two cities peaceful, clean, safe, places where folks should consider spending time because of their attraciveness and quality of life?

I've lived "out there", both as a diplomat and on the economy.  I can forgive bad traffic (to an extent) and some uncleanliness (as long as public services are available and of good quality) to enjoy peace, quiet, and local color inexpensively.