Hi Cat (Catheter?),
I don’t think there’s really technically such a thing as a student visa. If you study fulltime at a proper university liek Shida, you can then get an ARC, but you have to be there for 6 months before they give it to you, so this ARC becuase your a student would be referred to by some people as a student visa. It’s just an ARC, not a work permit, the two are separate things.
Secondly people studying at other schools like TLI or CLD, or those in theirfirst 6 months at uni, can use the documentation from their school to get a 60 day visa, which they then get extended at the police station monthly for up to 6 months. I did this for a long time and although people often refer to it as a student visa, it’s really just a visitor visa.
I don’t really think you should have too much trouble. They’re usually more worried abotu people going the other way, which is why I had to get papers saying that I’d stopped studying beofre I was allowed to apply for a work visa! Seems crazy that they’re alomost saying “if you’re going to work here, you’re not allowed to study Chinese”.
Bri
Bri