In your case, YES

hahahahaha :cry:

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/coronaviru...121542980.html

I bet that number will keep going up.....:p

Have they made any public statements about how they’re handling people who were vaccinated 6-8-10 months ago?

Sure, you get to enjoy the same 14-21 day quarantine as those who were vaccinated yesterday or never vaccinated 😄

I’m just wondering if you lose your “status” after some date. It looks like the not-too-distant future will have mandatory vaccine for domestic flights to Beijing.

I wonder if the chance of a foreign vaccine being eligible for that is a firm zero.

If country wide mandatory vaccines get us to whatever percentage big brother deems acceptable, count me as a supporter.

I’m not interested in getting a Chinese saline injection if I’ve already had one from the states. If they won’t count the international one then maybe that would curtain call on my China career.

Maybe I spoke too soon on the optimism front, I'm back to being a realist.
It's clear that the goalposts are continually moving. Let's assume that I think that working in China for a year could be beneficial to my career, and also that waiting another year until mid-2022 (or later!) is infeasible.

Let's see...

• My existing vaccine (Moderna) is useless
• I can't get a Chinese vaccine in most Western countries, nor do I really want to. Plus someone in another country definitely needs it much more than I do
• I need to get a job with a company that will give a PU letter* (the RP strategy mentioned above in the thread isn't that useful if I only want to do this for a year)
• I need to wait an indefinite time for paperwork to be processed
• I need to get a green health code
• I need to book a flight (cost probably covered by company)
• I need to quarantine for two weeks (cost probably covered by company, but ughhh)
• Once I get in, I effectively can't leave for a year without going through the health code/flight/quarantine hullabaloo, and unsure if company will pay for the return flight
• I probably have at least one engagement in spring 2022 that I would really want to go to

* Arguably this step may not be that hard. I'm not looking for an English teaching job, and I assume the number of overseas applicants for professional jobs in China right now is extremely low.

I don't really see the situation changing in the short term so given the time span of interviewing/paperwork/healthcode etc I might as well make this decision sooner rather than later...

Pfizer is going to be approved so just get it.

I've actually started to enjoy working here without the ability to leave. Just took some getting used to.

Switching topics, a friend of mine just completed a quarantine and gave me a brief synopsis:
-she was able to select her district upon arrival at pvg
-she chose xuhui (pretty safe choice because no bad areas)
-they bussed the entire xuhui contingent to the same jinjiang inn, which didn't completely suck and had very fast internet
-she ate the hotel food that was left outside of her door for the first week, but somehow managed to crack the eleme barrier during week two

Thanks for sharing this information.
Is your friend's final destination in Shanghai or is s/he going to another city after the quarantine period? I also heard the flight origination point also impact the choice of hotel, but cannot confirm. I heard from another friend of mine that he heard from someone who landed from a US flight at the same time as another flight (not sure from where), but each passenger was assigned to a hotel based on the arrival flight information in addition the final destination in China.

travelinmanS sent me some pics from his arrival at pvg earlier this year. There were signs for most of our districts.* My other friend I mentioned lives in Shanghai. I've heard unconfirmed rumors that if your final destination is somewhere else in China, you can quarantine here for 3 days and do rest at your destination as long as it is set up for quarantine.

*I am guessing that each busload of people standing next to sign "x" goes to the same hotel.

The key thing is China couldn’t care less what is beneficial for your career and they aren’t too keen on foreign talents at the moment. If you don’t have a gig here already, I’d look elsewhere.

The term for this mental phenomenon is Stockholm Syndrome

Apart from being able to easily return to the US, I've honestly just missed out on HK/Macau/SE Asia/Japan/Korea. And, we've been able to do all of that business remotely. Admittedly, sales are more effective in person, but it's a level playing field.

Business is great here and we certainly have everything we need. But you still always know that you’re one positive NAT test away from your whole neighborhood being locked at home for 2 weeks and you cannot leave the border of China without significant financial and legal commitments. In 2020 this was fine but as the western world is opening up full blast it’s much less fun.

This is key and oh so true. It's not how much money you have, it's how much the neighbors have.

I, for one, am feeling left out. Circumstances and lack of fortitude dictate that I can't accept China re-entry with a 3-week quarantine so I'm effectively stuck, until the point where I can't handle it anymore and leave until this whole mess is over. This is where current policy is driving to. The US (and Europe) were behind, but now China is falling behind.

It’s going to be very difficult for China to go from “Covid is the most deadly virus ever” to “we need to open up the borders for the economy despite the Covid risk potential”. They have kind of painted themselves into a corner in this regard. I’m curious to see the propaganda switch they’ll try and pull if they do decide to open the borders because opening the borders means allowing in some Covid.

To be precise, being in China does not impact on your ability to return to the US (as you are a citizen). Nor does it impact on your ability to enter Macau/Japan, in fact whether you are travelling from China or the US, you cannot enter Macau or Japan. For South Korea, it doesn't matter whether you are coming from the US or China, in either case you are allowed in based on your nationality alone.

I take issue with your statement that the western world as a whole is opening up full blast, at least as far as their national borders are concerned. For example, the US still hasn't lifted the Presidential Proclamations banning all Europeans including those from the UK from entering. On the other hand, if anything the UK has strengthened its border controls compared to 2020 (not that it has done any good in terms of stopping Delta).

Yes the EU is experiencing a purple patch right now in terms of virus control so they are thinking of relaxing border controls, but give it a month and they'll be up to where the UK is at the moment.

This is just a bit nitpicky. Assuming one’s primary residence is in China “returning” to the US also implies coming back to China at some point, which is the hard part.


I agree but for a different reason - as long as each of these individual countries has annoying entry requirements, the feasibility of going there short term is low. The re entry policy to China just makes the feasibility go from low to zero, but it’s almost a minor factor.

An American living in the US can fly to many places in Europe or south/Central America with the only hindrance being a covid test. And there’s no fear of having domestic lockdowns at any point, because even liberal constituents are mentally done with covid.

If you live in China, you are indirectly trapped here because getting back will at a minimum be super costly + painful (2 week quarantine and loads of testing) and that’s assuming you even get permission to come back. I was quoted a business class round trip airfare at $21k USD for august. Most people who don’t have the weight of a corporation or successful business behind them won’t be able to execute that logistically.

I don’t see why it’s hard to contrast with the western world, especially the US. I’m not sure why you take issue with it.

Economy isn't horrible on an empty plane

I think you’re a little behind on that one. I flew back to SFO from shanghai in November 2020 and it was indeed very empty in business, but it looked somewhat crowded in economy, maybe 60%.

Now, based on the seat map inventory and pricing, these flights are pretty full. The China southern flight for Aug 5 is already sold out.

I love China but my exit strategy is now a daily thought.

This is an interesting way of looking at it: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/c...ience-ranking/

Bloomberg is creating their own index of "what is the best place to be when the world reopens". When they added metrics on how easy it is to move in/out* and how much air travel has recovered, the US is now #1 on the list.

* Yes, obviously, it is much easier to enter the US as a US citizen right now. 87 pages of https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/coro...gen-uk-87.html is much ado about nothing.

The article is behind a paywall so here is a picture of the current rankings.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...af484b77a3.png

I'm angling to get my return green code from the NYC consulate (starting from BOS) so I can fly back via DFW...that flight does NOT sell out.

You can't do that (from what I read). if your green code is from NYC, your flight has to orginate from NYC. This pretty much ruled out most of the non-direct flights.

You need to get the code from the DC embassy if flying from DFW. You also won’t be flying from Boston and connecting through DFW. You’ll need to be in Dallas at least 2 days before as the Covid test needs to be taken in the city of departure from the USA.

I know you want to go home this summer but you should probably brush up a bit more on how it all works before you make the trip.

Imagine that you're a German national on a work visa working in the USA. As it currently stands, if you travel back to Germany for the summer holidays you cannot return to the US, unless you first spend 14 days in some third country (where you might end up getting stuck should the situation there suddenly deteriorate).

So the US is hardly open when it comes to allowing people into the country.

Thanks. It appears that I still have a lot to learn. Why don't the Chinese understand the "network carrier" concept? My understanding is that a minority of passengers who use the DFW and DTW flights actually live in Dallas/Detroit.

What makes you think they want to understand？ They don't want people returning to China, their own citizens included.

According to the embassy website, it is to prevent pax from getting infected when travelling across states after testing.
Link to Chinese Embassy in the USA

What I am hearing is it is important to apply for the green code BEFORE you leave China. moondog have you looked into this?

Not really. I was simply planning on calling the NYC consulate because Boston is part of its domain. I'm going to message my visa guy, and see if he has any insights/advice.

You will not be getting any green codes unless you take your tests at the pre-approved testing facilities in the metro area of the flight you depart from directly to China. The only entity that will be giving green codes for DFW flights is the DC consulate and a member here posted that you have a 0.000% chance of getting the green code as an American with an RP. I confirmed this with our immigration legal team.

Unless things change, you should plan on being stuck in the US indefinitely if you’re just going to wing it.

I highly recommend trying to fly out of LAX and have a very strong business or humanitarian letter to attach to your pre approval request email to the consulate.

moondog no offense but I think you don’t retain information very well on this forum. Do not book a DFW-PVG ticket, we already went over this.

Its not really the green code you apply for before you leave China, it’s basically permission to apply for the green code. They’ll tell you they accept your reason for traveling which theoretically means you’ll get a green code when you apply in the USA 2 days before your flight back to China. This assumes you don’t get Covid during your trip in the USA. If that happens, see you in 5 years.

Fair enough, but I think there’s reason to believe that the US ban on foreign travel from Europe which sleepy Joe reinstated in January will probably be going away in the near future. Which is why I originally said the western world is “opening up”

But, for now, having to spend 2 weeks roaming free in Cancun with normal-ish airfares and no green codes or visas is probably a much easier pill to swallow than 2 weeks in a glorified Chinese prison getting brain biopsies every few days. And that’s assuming you can afford the airfare and have a very open timeline on dealing with the green code blackbox process.

Yes, you are correct, I did not word that properly and thanks for catching it. But the key is to start the process before leaving China and have a workable plan.

Apart from the UK, I think we can expect the European travel ban to be dropped fairly soon. Personally I would love to have to spend two weeks in Mexico going wherever I wanted. That is nirvana compared to the quarantines I have done.

I don’t really agree with emailing the consulate to ask for their approval for you to start your round trip from China, unless someone has heard a compelling reason to do that. Or if you yourself have a very compelling humanitarian reason for the trip that you know they’ll be onboard with.

Id just apply for your pre approval to return to China and state the reason you need to get back to China. I don’t need them in the weeds of why I’m going back to the US.

In March of this year I emailed the LA consulate a week before I wanted to fly back to China. Then I booked the flights and handled the green code testing + application once they sent me a reply (fully in Chinese).

To my knowledge, Jan-Mar of this year was the strictest time period for green codes.

There's a business event in Hohhot I'd like to attend in October. I've read a lot of this thread and I should be able to handle all the paperwork, green codes, and related bureaucracy to get into China from the US. The one that is the deal-killer is the 2-week quarantine.

Based on what others have written in this thread, there doesn't appear to be much hope that the 2-week quarantine requirement will be lifted any time soon. Is that a fair assessment? I'm debating if I should inform my contacts now that I'll be unable to make it -- there's another event in the US at the same time so then I can proceed with that, even though the event in China will be much more worthwhile.