Intern China (Qingdao) gets SMACKED
The questionable internship placement practices of Intern China in Qingdao has finally caught up with them.
Recently several of their Qingdao interns were questioned by Chinese authorities and given 10 days to return back to their home country.
Intern China provides internship placement services in Qingdao and Zhuhai. Below is an excerpt from an email distributed by InternChina to its Qingdao interns after the incident.
From: Jamie Bettles <jamie.bettles@internchina.com>
Subject: Update on your visas in Qingdao… There is one unfortunate request I have to make to you, which I really don’t like to do, but in these circumstances it’s important that you are fully informed: It is not legal to get paid as an intern in China. This is a loophole which we cannot avoid as many of our partner companies want to reward their interns with some allowance towards their daily living expenses and of course we think it’s better if companies can pay a little allowance to interns.
However, for visa purposes it is not allowed and there is no visa available to foreign students coming to China for a paid internship. Therefore I must unfortunately ask those of you who are receiving any kind of allowance to not mention this in the unlikely situation that you are stopped by the police. If you tell them that you are being paid, the worst case scenario would be that your visa could be made invalid and you would be forced to leave China within 10 days. As long as you are not receiving payment for your internship, you are doing nothing wrong in accordance with Chinese visa regulations …
If you are interested in working as an intern or doing an internship anywhere in China, including Qingdao, we would suggest that you contact the local business directly, as they are the ones that should be issuing you the invitation letter.
We do not recommend the use of such services as Intern China or any other type of head hunter that makes a profit on your experience as an intern. As a paid intern you should never be issued an “F” or “X” or “L” VISA.
Intern China (Qingdao) gets SMACKED,
I would not recommend Intern China. I had a lot of problems with them because they did not reply to Emails, my host-family was very far away from the internship (more than 40 min drive per bus), the internship description was wrong, my host-family was not happy about them as well …
I have already been to Australia with an organization and that was very good, but Intern China is terrible !
And Intern China in Zhuhai, is that bad also?
I would assume that all operations within Intern China are run the same. The bottom line is you are NOT allowed to accept money as an intern while on a L,X, or F visa. Also do NOT count on a visa extension once here in main land P.R.C., especially in Qingdao. Many intern organizations in China, including Intern China will promise you everything with phrases like “no problem” …
As far as visa extensions go, Zhuhai is close to Hong Kong so in the worst case scenario you would just have to pop over to extend your visa. Keep in mind that they only give a maximum of 1 month extension no matter what documentation you have or what anyone has promised you.
There is a visa available if you would like to work (get paid) as an intern in China, it’s called a “Z” VISA! An internship is usually a non-paid position where the “student” gathers valuable work experience to enhance their CV or fulfill university credit.
In the above case, at least one intern was actually working for Intern China, who should be fully aware of these policies since they have been doing business in Qingdao since 2007.