April 2nd 2020
During the past weeks as concern grows globally about COVID-19 infection and death modeling, China has become an island of stability as local infections drop to almost zero and concern shifts to the control of inbound infected travelers. However while life returns to normal for those in expats in China, concern is rising over a growing number of foreigners who are looking at renewing, transferring, or applying for work permits. Why are they concerned? Because the authenticated documentation requirements are almost impossible to complete during this unprecedented period when Chinese embassy/consulates are closing doors, and even foreign affair offices are shuttered.
Below we’ve listed the current document legalization situation by country that Hive is providing services in:
Ireland: No legalizations can be completed at this time
UK: No legalization can be completed at this time
South Africa: No legalization can be completed at this time
Canada: Legalizations and background checks are still possible at this time with some slight delays.
USA: Legalizations and background checks are still occurring however on a extremely slow and unpredictable timeline as multiple Secretary of States are closing and the State Department rejects walk ins. The China Embassy has provided the following guidance and we are seeing requests for legalization for clients WITHIN China accepted on a very slow basis.
The China Embassy in USA has provided the following guidance and we are seeing requests for legalization for clients WITHIN China accepted on a very slow basis.
Our recommendations:
DO NOT DELAY triggering document authentications as the timeline for completion could be one month or longer than our typical 7 working day completion. We will be providing scans of completed documents at each stage in order to give HR capability to share with the FEB (Foreign Expert Burea) in order to try and negotiate flexibility in starting the work permit process in the absence of the fully completed authenticated documents. Currently we are not seeing that flexibility in Shanghai and Beijing, however this may just be due to the fact that the blockage situation has only just been occurring within the past week.
Reach out to us via WeChat or email sales@hiverelo.com for any consultation or service requests.
