I don't understand pretty much ANY of that. :rolleyes:
The statement: "Any determined individual can score an RP; this won't cost more than $750" is inaccurate then, yes?

I want to say that Vincent can fetch RPs for anyone (ETA: with a college degree), but you'd need to call or message him to confirm your specific details. Feel free to PM me if you want his info.

I’m 100% sure a $750 RP for someone outside of China, using some sort of fake job to get the RP is impossible. If someone is in China it might be possible but this sort of stuff is going away.

delete

The discussion upthread makes this statement a bit glib.

Upthread discussion on RP is consistent with a general trend we experienced dealing with China from Hong Kong - in our cases, getting cross border drivers licence, or turning 来料加工 into more formal onshore enterprises. We agree there is definite regulatory improvements accomplished, but of course, they didn’t completely cut out agents and corruption either.

Not all the regulation is fit for purpose. E.g. when they tightened import duty enforcement for inbound online purchases, they didn't create a carve-out or handling mechanism for return merchandise authorisations (i.e. return of their outbound online purchases on Aliexpress) https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/e...5321057/page-2

The benefit of being in China didn't occur to me, but this is a good point. Even those companies that used to own sub-companies that employed people required an existing visa in order to play ball. I believe the current system is a Z (work) visa that is valid for one month and you need to convert it to an RP. F, L, and X visas haven't been issued since Covid arrived. That having been said, if you have a job offer from McKinsey or similar, they will get you over here.

Well, that's kind of the CRUCIAL part! :rolleyes:
(And we don't need Vincent for an RP if already in China! lol)

Was planning to go to Sanya later this week. Now because of ONE covid case they have stopped all flights to Beijing and have a new rule that everyone who is entering the airport needs to have 2 tests one within 48 hours and one within 24 hours in order to be allowed to leave Sanya on a flight. This stuff is getting old real quick.

This.

My friend moondog conveniently forgot this most crucial part whenever he mentioned Vincent ;)

It honestly didn't occur to me at all because, pre-March 2020, pretty much everybody had some sort of valid PRC visa. I'm pretty sure new RP applicants inside of China can prepare all of the necessary documents here and have originals sent over if absolutely (e.g. technically your degrees should be originals but maybe nobody really cares) required. If you're not in China, you'll probably be advised (by Vincent etc or any company HR...who also uses a Vincent) to get a Z visa in your home country...which, you have to convert to an RP within 30 days (effectively 9 days if you end up with 21-day quarantine).

In hindsight, I was pretty inefficient during my first RP application ~7 years ago (e.g. the criminal background check didn't need to be the FBI report that takes 60 days to generate; my courthouse in Florida or my PSB in Shanghai both could have fulfilled the same requirement quickly). Vincent and his colleague actually did help me with my initial RP; it's my fault for not asking them for advice on how to streamline that part of the process.

While I realize that travelinmanS is dubious, I remain convinced that anyone who is sponsored by a legit Chinese company can still pull off the process.

The differences between now and 7 years ago are: 1. Xi; 2. Covid; and 3. certain job categories are now frowned upon. These are obvious hurdles, but the bureaucracy continues to chug along on its own.

In closing, I've probably mentioned this upthread, but there is no way in hell I would advise any of you to go it alone. Basically, contact an agent or two, run your plan buy them, get feedback (i.e. will this work?), and then decide whether or not you want to take the plunge.

Also flights from Europe to China are being cancelled because they can’t fly over Russian airspace

Soon Russia will ban US carriers from flying over Russian air space.

This won't make many (if any) destinations unviable. Europe-Asia is a bigger challenge, but thankfully there are 4 airlines with hubs in the Middle East.

Would west bound EWR-ICN-PVG (hypothetically) require a fuel stop at ANC?

No.