Before I arrived in China, I was warned of the long arduous process of obtaining the holy 'Residence Permit': a trek that begins with a Student X visa and a dream to study Chinese.
So, within 24 hours of my arrival, I had to go the local police station to obtain a Temporary Residence Permit (if you stay in a hotel, the reception will do this for you). Much depends on the person who is serving you at the station, some are lax and some not. For this stage you need; passport (with 'X' visa inside), JW202 form, and possibly money. For safety I also had the lease for my temporary residence. As a general rule, take every form you have with you.
The Temporary Residence Permit gives you 30 days to collect all the items you need to apply for a full Residence permit. Yes, you're living on borrowed time.
Next step, the Health Check. If your Physical Examination Centre is anything like Qingdao, there will be a hall with many desks, all numbered. Where do you begin, you might ask. At desk number 1? No, of course not, this is China, and you start at desk number 5 with your foreigner forms. Continue to ricochet off randomly numbered desks like a pinball until they finally send you upstairs. Here your ordeal begins. X-rays, Fluoroscopy, Ultrasounds, eye-tests, etc. Particularly embarrassing is the walk from the bathroom to the urine testing room, clutching your test tube and feeling nervous about the shade of your sample. Or the possibility of spilling on yourself. My advice, save the blood test for last. For this you will need; passport, 4 passport photos, scans of your passport and X visa, money, and no breakfast! You are given a slip of paper telling you the date and time you should return to collect your results and certificate.
Next, finding somewhere to live. If you choose to live in student dorms, this step would be quite simple I suppose. But don't do it! A classmate and I each found 2 bedroom apartments with furniture near to campus in a recently built compound for roughly 3200yuan a month. An estate agent helped us find flatmates, so the figure is roughly halved. While £160 a month is very cheap from a UK perspective, for a Chinese person it's a little bit 贵, so I have a nice 上班族 flatmate and don't have to share a dormitory with 50 other students. Make sure you understand (as best as you can) the conditions of your lease. Take good care of the contract itself, as you will need it later. (Also, you get to fingerprint the contract, for added novelty value). Finding a residence requires: your passport and lots of money as you may need to pay a whole year's rent in one go. You will also need to pay a deposit, and if you use an estate agent, his fee is equivalent to one month's rent.
After this, register at your new University (try to find an apartment before registering, otherwise they get upset that you're avoiding their dorms). Pay the fees (Haiyang didn't really know what our fees were; there was a 4000yuan discrepancy between my payment and a classmates) and avoid the text books. You will need; passport, passport photos, scans of your passport, Letter of admission (collected from the faculty in Easter term) and your JW202 form.
Congratulations, your inventory now contains all the items needed to apply for the full Residence Permit! Passport, initial X visa, letter of admission to your Chinese university, JW202 form, Health Check Certificate, your lease, and money (around 500yuan). Haiyang helpfully compiled all these documents into a pack and accompanied us to the office in groups. Here, you will have more photos taken of you, and you will be directed to and fro between various desks. Some people seem to get more instructions from the service people than others, so some people actually know what is happening. Unfortunately, I was not one of those lucky people, and once again I wandered around the hall hoping one of them would take pity on me and tell me where to go. This process takes about a week, during which they keep your passport and other documents. Don't forget to go back and collect it. Or in my case, don't forget to give the receipt to the man in the university who collects them on your behalf.
After a month, next tuesday, I will finally be reunited with my passport and gain a Residence Permit.
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