Pain in the Ass Department.

@michael2015 wow thanks for all the info. It cost me over $300 to get the necessary x-rays done as (obviously) my insurance wouldn't cover random x-rays + extra for all the the other tests. Wish I had gone the free county clinic route.

May I ask if you ever ended up getting your work visa? And how long that whole ordeal above took?

@jado...
Entire process (new process, of which Yunnan is one of the pilot provinces), took 6 months. Apparently, I was one of the first guinea pigs for Yunnan, so the process had quite a few kinks, red herrings, and frustrations for all. Hopefully, your experience will definitely be infinitely less frustrating.

Once I returned to Kunming, converting the temporary work visa to the annual visa - infinitely less troublesome.

On a positive note - I renewed my driver's license, so now I can apply for a local license here (aka written driving test). Astoundingly, my driver's license in the USA had expired 11 years ago, but as I was still in their system - I only needed to take the written exam again (piece of cake). Sometimes, computers are actually beneficial.

I also noticed that California's bureaucracy works INFINITELY better than the US State Department, which I can only disparage disdainfully.

@michael2015, you say you were one of the first to go through this new process.

When did it start? Was it after June 2016, as I have to re-apply soon.
Are there any online details of the new pilot scheme?

Actually, you can do the health check after you arrive in Kunming and apply for the notice of work permit first, then you can take the notice and go back to your original county to get the visa. This kind of way is much easier and cheap to get the health report. if you do the health check out of China,your health report need to be certificated by Chinese embassy, which is more complicated, because

the ambassies only accept the health report from specific hospitals.

@tiger
There's a gokm news article (I think) on this thing. It was implemented somewhere around Sept 2016 - I was in the process of using the old letter of invitation, when it got bounced and they started requiring the new LOI with the associated barcode...amongst a plethora of other things.

@longdragon has been doing most of the things required of me for years - authentications, criminal background checks, etc. The process has apparently always been fairly rigorous, but unevenly implemented - so now the pain is standardized for all.

While I was at the entry/exit office, I bumped into another American couple here on a shorter term work visa (6 months) and they similarly bemoaned the rather rigorous process. If you're a long-term expat - you'll probably need to do all these things also - but the good news is it's probably mostly a one-time thing...unless some dolt mandates authenticated documents that are less than 6 months old...I can see that coming...new idiot rule someone just made up.

@michael2015 thanks for the update! My company recently got back to me saying my paperwork was rejected...they're asking me to resubmit after getting a TEFL, which I should've had the good sense to acquire even though they neglected to tell me that was needed...

Reading a bunch of old GK threads and wondering if I'll ever get a work visa approved under this new system? Seems like the process keeps getting more and more impossible.

Also this business of having things authenticated...do you know whenabouts in the application process these things will be required? Sent in a lot of paperwork already, but without auth....

@jado
I was gonna include some rants, but a short answer is probably more helpful.

AUTHENTICATIONS
Technically, ALL authenticated documents must go through notarization>city>state>federal authentications, so you can see, the cost adds up quickly, not to mention waiting times. My problem - my office was feeding these things to me linearly (one at a time) as opposed to all at once. SEVERAL things could have been done simultaneously - I can multitask - such as health checks (as opposed to waiting 3-4 months deep into process to tell me something that could have been done 3-4 months earlier).

College Diploma
TEFL (I don't need this - so don't know what it looks like and whether the document needs to be authenticated, but...probably/maybe).

OTHER THINGS
Criminal Background Check. I had mine issued by the California Justice Department - and didn't bother to get it authenticated by the US State Department, although it was initially requested, then after I complained - retracted.

Health Check - again - they'd requested the full authentication process on these tests - but I complained and this authentication request was also retracted. You can read my earlier rant on this issue, in case they ask you to get your health check authenticated.

WORK HISTORY
I was asked to supply authenticated letters of employment from ALL my employers since graduating college. In lieu of this - they asked me to supply former paystubs (minus the authentication, I'm sure they forgot to ask), to which I declined as impossible (leaving out the other denigrating opinions) and somewhat arbitrary and ludicrous.

You can "TRY" to do the TEFL, minus the other authentications, but I suspect you'll be hitting the amateurish HR wall with your employer. The "old" way doesn't work anymore - so you MAY want to have them send a list of visa requirements. Also - if you're a Foreign Expert - they have additional requirements, which I believe is the source of ludicrous-ity. As per my last rant - the Chinese Consulate has NO health check requirement (their words) for work or tourist visas.

And this is the short version of my reply...hope it helps...

oh...and don't forget to ENSURE your work invitation letter (ostensibly issued by some government department) is barcoded AND addressed to the correct consulate or embassy. If it's NOT entered into the system correctly - the consulate or embassy can NOT verify your work invitation letter - yep - I had this problem also.

In addition to the work invitation letter, is the temporary visa authorization. This MUST ALSO be barcoded AND sent to the appropriate embassy or consulate.

Please note - in the USA - the embassy and the consulate do NOT communicate with each other on these visa process issues. If your documents are addressed to the consulate, the embassy cannot and will not help you...and vice versa.

Additionally - if you're home or address of residence is outside an embassy or consular jurisdiction - they will tell you to redirect your documents, applications, and visa requests to the appropriately responsible office. I thought I could get my stuff done in San Francisco - they told me they won't help me - gotta use the Los Angeles consulate. I could have used a San Francisco area address - but the point was moot - neither office could expedite my work visa without the mandatory documents and authentications.

Bring a briefcase - keep everything organized, keep copies of ALL your receipts (assuming you get reimbursed).

On another note - on the way back to China - we used e-tickets all the way - not a boarding pass stub in sight - this works wonders with the accounting department - who requires these non-existent ticket stubs to confirm we actually travelled to China, as opposed to swimming over, to save a dime.

Pardon the grammar, spelling, and vocabulary - I've been integrating qinglish to ease communications issues and be more culturally sensitive.

This is getting interesting.
This is a new policy and, as normal, Kunming has local interpretation.
If people continue to post their experience, I think, this is important at this stage of change.

One day, when the dust of novelty has settled, something more definitive, can be settled.