When I left China at the end of 2019, I was only meant to be gone for a few months. Do a bit of travelling around Eastern Europe, get a new work visa and then return to start my dream job. Well Covid 19 truly screwed up that plan. At first I wasnt too bothered as it meant I got to stay in Europe for a bit longer and snuck in an extra couple of weeks travelling. Then China and most other sensible countries shut their borders and eventually the UK went into lockdown. When things started to open up in summer 2020, I thought I would get back to China, but the job I was meant to start back in March didnt seem possible as only in major cities could secure the paperwork for foreign staff. So it was back to the drawing board, I applied for jobs in several countries and accepted a couple, but things didnt pan out due to Covid. Finally, though after two years and a lot of stress I have made it back to China.
visa is probably the easiest step at least on my side of things as all I had to do was send the paperwork and they applied for the necessary documents and I just waited, as there was nothing I could do. Also, getting the visa in the UK seems pretty straight forward so long as you have the right paperwork. Fill in the ridiculously long online form (a couple of years ago it was a lot simpler), make an appointment, attend the appointment and submit the paperwork and then go back in a week to collect the visa. I know in other countries you are able to post in all your documents, but then you are at the consulate/embassys mercy of them processing the visa when they feel like it.
Once I got my visa the fun and games started. This is where it got stressful for me. I think I aged a good few years in the last month as there was quite a few things to do and so much could still go wrong. First was book a flight. The flights to China are extremely limited and ridiculously expensive. If your country has a direct
flight to China, you have to take that. The UK doesnt and hasnt since December 2020, and I cant say I blame China for banning flights from Plague Island but other countries with terrible Covid rates didnt get flight bans, so I dont think it is entirely down to Covid. You are allowed to take a flight with one transfer and the transit time shouldnt exceed 24 hours (I dont think that they are so strict with this, but I didnt want to chance it) and must get Covid tests at the airport, therefore there are only certain routes that work and work well. For me, transiting through Helsinki on Finnair seemed to be the best option and people online have said that it was smooth and straightforward. Also, I have flown Finnair before and found them good. There is only one flight a week and the one I wanted was already sold out so that pushed my departure date back a week. Booking the flight online was as easy as non Covid times and the Finnair website has a good section on the transiting to China part. The only thing that was a bit of a hassle with this
was that the transit Covid tests werent included in the price of the flight and the information on payment wasnt exactly clear. Could I just pay for them at the airport when checking in for my flight to Helsinki or did it have to be done in advance? I tried to call Finnair a couple of times, but was on hold for a ridiculously long time. I had better luck with the chatbot, but even that was a pain in the arse as it would tell me the queue was too long and kick me out, leading me to have to go through the process several time, one time I even got to the front of the queue and it still kicked me out! Finally I got through to a representative and was sent a link to pay for the tests, surely they could have just done this when I booked the flight? I think you can pay at the airport too, but the woman checking me in didnt seem that knowledgeable.
In order to board your flight you need to get a green code issued by the embassy/consulate in your country.
