This is turning out to be quite the day. On Thursday (Day 22) the work permit was approved and HR sent a bunch of documentation including one email which indicated my first day at work would be on July 6, which made absolutely no sense as that day is a Friday. Seriously, people, what are you thinking?! After being in communication with my GM at work, she was able to push my start date up to a much more reasonable day, Monday July 3. Phew!
So now the official first day in the office is looming and reading through all the documentation that HR sent was a small bit of financial information saying I need to provide bank account information when I get into the office so I can be paid. (Apparently, direct deposit is the only way for such payments.) But, umm, I don’t have a local bank account. Ugggh.
Looking through the benefits and relocation documents that came with the job offer, there is a blurb about having someone local help with not only opening a bank account but also provide assistance with obtaining a SIM for my cellphone (so I can have a local phone number) and assistance with securing a lease. OK, great! So an email was sent on Thursday to the relocation people asking who I should be working with on these items. No email reply on Thursday. None on Friday (until *very* late in the evening). And then a phone call on Saturday morning came through, and I’m glad it did.
The phone call was from one of the relocation people who asked if I could meet someone at 11am to go to the various places to get a SIM card and then open the bank account. (Apparently it’s best if you have a local number before opening your bank account as it’ll enable mobile banking. OK, makes sense.) We almost had a meeting time and place set … until I was told all that is needed is a 100元 ($14.50 USD) and my passport to open the account. Ugggh. Nope. Don’t have my passport as it’s still with the local police department while they process my resident permit.
Opening the bank account and getting the local SIM card will have to wait until Thursday or Friday, which work will not enjoy as I’ll need some time off to get those things done nor will they like having to enter in some data for my paperwork (ie, bank account information) after the first day when they’re expecting it. (Some internal processes seem to take quite a while at work, including processing HR documents and getting them aligned with accounting.)
The good news is that I did not attempt to open the bank account on my own without having the necessary paperwork (my passport) and local phone number, otherwise I might’ve wasted a lot of time. The bad news is that work will get annoyed. The OK news is that I should get my first pay check before signing a lease on an apartment which is going to be extremely necessary as a security deposit (one month in cash), three months rent (via bank transfer), and payment to real estate broker who ostensibly helps to find and secure the apartment from the landlord (one month’s rent, in cash) is all going to be needed; more on all that “OK news” in a latter post.
Life in China sure is turning into an adventure!