In 2001, I got a form filed out by my US doctor with no exam in China. By 2003 rules had changed and I had s health check in Beijing. When I turned 65 the health check was an annual requirement.

For a student visa for less than one year, no health check was required.

I do not know what the current rules are.

thanks, all! Looks like this is going to be a massive headache...reading more forums it seems that you are all correct in that I'll probably have to redo the health check when I get to Kunming anyway...

If you have to re-do the health check in Kunming it is not a problem. The health centre is close to the city and easy to find. If you go at about 10am the big queues have gone, and last time I was done in 30 minutes. You then need to collect the certificate two days later, in the afternoon.
I think it costs 420rmb, but the employer usually reimburses you.

I agree with tigertiger, getting the health certificate in Kunming is painless. Hardest part was getting a taxi back home.

The pain is getting it done in the US. Probably costs more and my doctor kept asking why I wanted to go and live in China. He was ABC and did not like the PRC.

having to fly in wait amonth or so

for paperwork, fly out again for visa, then fly in again. that would be a bigger pain in the arris, and more expensive

Dazzer
Usually, you can avoid the entry/exit trips, which are expensive, by paying a "fine/penalty/fee" at the entry exit office. You have to request this special service from the supervisor. There's no graft involved as you have to pay the fee at the cashier, so apparently this is a "normal" fee/service that the front office staff don't know about.

Whether or not they'll permit you to pay this fee and avoid a useless entry/exit is another matter.

Regardless, they'll need to stamp your passport with turnaround stamps, so not sure how that works AND not sure if that policy has changed recently...and I don't even know the name of the policy.

You'll just have to ask the front office if you can "pay a fee" for in-country entry/exit stamps, so you won't need to travel un-necessarily.

I've ALWAYS had to have this issue escalated to the supervisor somewhere upstairs, so approval may be whimsical.

when was the last time you did it? there were big policy tightening last year or so. also, how do you get around the need to have z visa issued to get work/resident permit

Dazzer
I have a z visa. The entry/exit thing was for one of my kids because their dependent visa lapsed (passport expired before the end of the sponsor's work visa), so the front desk staff told me the kid had to do an exit/entry. I asked if we could pay a fee to avoid the exit/entry and the supervisor had to come down. I may have been required to also write a letter explaining the situation - can't remember as it was a few years ago.

I also did this in Beijing back in 2005 - except the company I worked for did the request. The fee was something like ¥2k.

well thas how it works, if u r not in china while u r applying for z visa, u need to download a form or something with all the names of the specific body checks u need to do , like blood test, x-ray breast check etc , and have ur docs sign their names in the form,thats it.
and , u need to do another check for ur residental permits

in china after u got ur z visa

@doraemon-lei
Yes - that's how I did the health check in the USA. My office mailed the official Chinese/English form, which I had the US medical rep fill out after I completed the physical.

There was some discussion about whether I'd have to have the completed forms notarized and then authenticated (city, state, federal) - but we fortunately got that request squashed.

There was also some discussion about having this crud translated, which would then require notarization and then the profane and obscene authentication process, but got that quashed also.

The next thing I was asked to do - go to a Chinese Embassy/Consulate and have the health check done yet AGAIN by a health clinic certified and designated by the Embassy/Consulate, AFTER I'd completed the local health check in the USA.

The Chinese Consulate asked me who was directing me to do these things, as they have NO REQUIREMENT for a health check and they have NO DESIGNATED health check clinic, so that inane request quashed also. They also noted - they'd been receiving a LOT of these non-sensical requests. Please note - they were prepared to honor the request by telling me to have everything notarized and authenticated - if it was absolutely mandated by some government agency in China...what a nightmare.

By this time - it's clear someone is making things up, utterly unrelated to work visa requirements. It was apparently originating from the new provincial office staff involved in this newly implemented process.

To reiterate - Yunnan is part of a nationwide pilot to revamp the foreign expert and work visa system (and probably also the student visa and every other type of visa). It seems they're trying to go digital and move away from paper records (yay!). The work invitation letter and the temporary work visa are barcoded and MUST be additionally entered into the MOFA (ministry of foreign affairs) computer system AND both your invitation letter AND your temporary work visa approval certificate (?) must be specifically targeted (addressed) to the consulate or embassy handling your "stuff". My "stuff" was initially addressed to the Chinese Embassy - so in a typical catch-22 - the consulate could not verify any of my barcoded documents as they weren't in their system AND the Embassy refused to handle my documents as I was within the consulate's designated "care" zone...so we had to do all the letters over again.

Following up on this - the un-named to protect the guilty provincial office neglected to also enter my letters into the MOFA system...so even though I had the hardcopy originals - the consulate still refused to issue the work visa, because there was no record of me in the MOFA system.

FYI - for those in the USA and especially california - I used a combination of free county clinics (for the STD checks) and low-income health clinics for the health check certificate stuff. Only had to pay for lab tests (not inexpensive) and nominal fees for physicians (or their lower paid counterparts). I'm not even sure I actually saw a board certified MD in this process.

I'm still waiting to hear if I need the supplemental health check, once we transition the temporary work visa to the semi-permanent annual work visa. I've had to have health checks from the designated clinic sporadically, even though I'd never left China during those periods.

I'll bump this thread if the additional local official health is required of me.

As always, with most things in china, your mileage may vary (YMMV).

This new system process is extremely bug ridden - it's quite obvious nobody did a preliminary process walk-thru before they went live with the pilot. The pilot was the dry run and it was an utter mess for me.