Sometimes I do pay attention, but

In what seems a lifetime ago, back when I first came to China in 2006, we were able to game the visa system.  Myles and I would have needed visas for China had we flown directly into the PRC. However, we arrived in Hong Kong, where US citizens enjoyed permission to stay up to 90 days without a visa. This allowed us to take a few days to apply for a China visitor visa, which normally took a couple of days. We would repeat this process as necessary until Randy's employer in Shenzhen was ready for us to apply for residence permits in mid-2007. Hong Kong was also where we retreated to when we had a visa problem shortly after moving to Beijing. We remained there for almost two weeks while our paperwork was sorted out between Beijing and Hong Kong. 

Some of the regulations have changed since then, and in most cases for foreigners, and especially Americans, certain kinds of visas, like visitor visas, are best applied for in the home country. There were still people who could make the "Hong Kong visa run," but that was more restrictive than it was in the mid 2000s.

So when our HR department told us that they could get Myles a visitor visa, one that would last 6 months, we breathed a little and stopped urgently looking for schools. Six months would buy us time to make other arrangements, maybe even enroll Myles in a school that operated in a grey area with respect to high school students or perhaps an online program, even if the classroom hours were out of sync with out timezone. 

I didn't think the regulations had changed to permit this, but I went along with it. Perhaps the COVID-19 Pandemic brought back kinder, gentler visa regulations as so many foreigners were stuck in China beyond their visa expirations in 2020 and now extensions and other visas were easier to get while in China.

About a month later, our HR people came back to us. They had more thorough discussions with the entry-exit bureau. There were a few things they had missed in the earlier meeting, and it turned out we did not qualify for Myles to apply for a visitor visa from China. At least one of us would have to be a Chinese citizen or green card holder. Since we were neither, the only option to apply for this visa was for Myles to travel to the US and apply from there. 

In normal times, this would have only been mildly complicated, but not impossible. These are not normal times. Among the many reasons our family has not left China since our post-Christmas return in early 2020 is the quarantine imposed on all international arrivals in China. For the last year, anyone who is lucky enough to receive a Chinese visa from abroad and returning Chinese citizens have to spend between 14 and 21 days in hotel isolation. That means not leaving the room at all, unless a positive COVID-19 test allows you to leave for hospital admission (ALL positive COVID-19 tests are immediately admitted to a designate hospital, regardless of symptoms). All adults (including teenagers over the age of 14) are separated into individual rooms. Minor children can stay with one parent. And even if travelling to Hong Kong and applying there was still a possibility, Hong Kong requires 14 days isolation after arrival from China (from the US it is 21 days!). 

We could not see ourselves asking Myles to endure that on his own even IF we could get him a new visa to return to China. The odds were not on our side to get him a new visa this way. Additionally, the point of trying to get him a visa that would last past his 18th birthday was to keep our family together a little while longer! An indefinite separation was completely contrary to what we wanted to accomplish.

Late July, upon learning what I had suspected, because I had been paying attention, we were back to square one, with added despondency. School number 1 in this post and its equivalents would be starting the fall semester in mid-August. They would probably not entertain such complicated applicants this late in the summer. There were a still a few with start dates near the end of August and after the beginning of September that were also not exclusively IB.

Then in early August, Randy and I were at a wine tasting at a Western Restaurant that has recently opened in Changping. There were other foreigners at this party, most of whom we hadn't met before. We would not have much opportunity before this to meet some of these private school teachers, or the professor at the law school, or the engineers at the steel factories.  All of us lead rather atomized existence, and none of the other foreigners there that night had children living with them here. It was fun to meet them over glasses of wine.

One of the late comers to the party was a teacher/administrator at a newer boarding school in Changping. I had heard of it when one of my Beijing friends worked their briefly, but I had no idea the school remained open. It operates in a partnership with a well-known boarding school in upstate New York. Like a lot of similar schools that have appeared in China, most of the high school subjects are taught in English so the students can apply to universities abroad. 

So when this woman introduced herself, I asked about whether they admitted foreign students. They have, she answered, noting that they had two students last year from New Zealand. I sought clarification about student visas, and she said that they could get student visas. 

Randy and I were intrigued. Could this be the solution? We would discuss it the next day with Myles.