Hi, there
I will answer your questions by 3 parts:
-,If your contract with company will be end by the end of July, and you haven't found any jobs yet,you can rely on a reliable visa company to help you to extend your work visa for another one year You should prepare the following documents:
Your passport
3 two-inch photos (with white or blue background)
The registration form(a small paper you get from police station)
Work permit
Release letter from former company
Original bachelor deploma

You can give the above documents to visa agency, it will take 10 working days to do work visa extension.
-Work visa can be only changed to one month L visa, when your L visa is about to expire, you must go out to get a new visa. For the time being. it's difficult to convert L to F or even do F visa conversion.

-If you change work visa to L/F, It would be complicated for you to get work visa again,you must go through from the first step,(eg:doing physical check, go out of china to get Z visa and then come back to have it extended),Apart from the cost, it's really a time-consuming work.

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

I can pretty much guess the answers but would like to ask a couple of stupid questions to those agents providing Z-visa (or more precisely work permit) extension.

Is he declared as a REAL employee of the recruiting company? In that case does the company pay related contributions, tax, pensions, etc? Is the employee registered with the appropriate departments? If so, does the visa cost include the related charges above?

On the off-chance that the PSB makes a random check, does the employer still remember if said person 'works' for them? Is the foreigner told for what company they are supposed to be working for if asked by the authorities?

If the person finds another job, is he provided with a release letter from supposed employer? Does he have to insert the supposed employment in the CV that he is to submit to Chinese authorities? Wouldn't the Chinese authorities wise up to the discrepancy otherwise?

If in order to avoid aforementioned employee charges, employer only 'employs' the foreigner for a few months before terminating his contract, is the employee made aware and provided with release letter?

Somehow people asking for visa extensions never think or bother about these, but if they are here for the long term, they should.

Hello Luirui,
I have met three foreigners' situation just like you.Two are USA,one is Italian.
They don't have a company to sponsor them,I helped them extend their Z visa for one year.
As you have all the documents,do you have release letter from your former company?
If you have,the total fee is 6500RMB.
You know,convert Z visa to L/F visa,the converted visa can't extend or convert any more.When it expires,you must leave and get new visa.
I think if you want to stay in China for long time,the best solution is to extend your Z visa for one year.
Another thing is apply new Z visa is just like the first time,very complicated.
So think twice.
If you have any problems,you can call me or just send e-mail.