Work Visa and Permits / Problems and Solutions

Ok I will put this on a few of the groups here that I belong to so if you also belong to more than one then don’t over react when you see it again on another group. :-)

This is primarily directed towards those of you that moved to and now live in China and work for yourself.
And your doing so with a valid work Visa and work permit.

Not those of you that took a job with a Chinese company or foreign company already in China and they got you the visa and permit since the process is very different from what I am inquiring about here.

For my job I come to China often and live there much of the year on business visa and tourist visas and have already explored many ways to get a proper work permit and work visa based on our business opening an office there and allowing me to live and work there without always having to come and go to renew my visa.

Seems the fastest easiest way is through Hong Kong for making a business office in China, it’s also the least expensive and fewest requirements for foreigners.

No way are we going to consider a partnership with a Chinese company (or others) so don’t even interject that line into this discussion please. I don’t care to go there in this posting or in its responses thank you.

I already know all about making a company with partnerships and also the standard WFOE’s for mainland. I do not need that data again here thanks. I look for other alternatives that don’t break any laws or bend them technically.

I have found a few that are very cost efficient. But I don’t want to live in HK necessarily because i can get more house elsewhere for the same money. But I will if I have to and may even live in a nearby country and fly to HK to our office there as needed for a backup choice and do business as usual by only visiting mainland if it comes to that.

Going through HK don’t we don't even run into the high cost you would mainland of messing with a WFOE.

Yes I already know enough about that thanks.
I have been coming to Asia and China since 1984 regularly.

But since each city has its own rules and policies and things change often I like to hear others experiences if they apply. I don’t want to live in HK but want to buy or build in the mainland even though we will have our HQ in HK.

I can work from anywhere and do this job. Even on a tourist Visa as I am in and out of many Asian countries. But to avoid having to go back to HK and being able to live mainland I am looking for the best overall solution. I want to buy a home not rent aqnd reduce the amount of travel and expense. Pretty much a settling down for the long haul situation.

So as it stands it looks like we will create a company in HK that we own. I can get a work Visa and work permit to live and work in HK from that with no problem from what we have discovered so far.

But I want to live in MAINLAND China pretty far inland and away from HK.

The company in HK that sets up businesses has gone over the cost of legally setting up an office in HK and its pretty straight forward and easy. It’s legal for us to have satellite offices mainland as long as they only directs business back to HK (this is based on the fact our business is based in HK for afore mentioned reasons) but I don’t know if that is only for us to have Chinese employees in those locations or if I can also get myself a work permit and Visa as a ride along for those offices also so I can live in the mainland.

I know I can set up in HK and live in mainland not working and always pop in and out of HK etc. but that’s not my goal or the point i hope to discover

I want to live in the mainland and work from home there on a proper work permit also. I don’t want to hear how I DON’T need one based on my HK setup. Only wish to know how any of you may have set up to live and work there if you started from scratch and work for yourself.

Since I have many things we will be doing in and with China I don’t want anything to be unfinished or done improperly that will come back to bite me later as we do more and expand there.

So to summarize I want to hear how any (if any) of you did it.
If you work and live in China with a VALID work permit AND a work VISA and you got it yourself and your own business.

Not from another company that employ’s you and got it for you or that your helping or working for on an invitation.
But work for your own company.
This fits my model best
Any help is appreciated

As I said many times I want to live mainland and not worry about how I state or address my work and still be legal at doing it since what we do and will expand in doing is so varied.

Sorry to beat that point to death.
Either way thanks for reading this
Dwayne