Posted by One of my good friends was forced to move out of China last year.
The reason was that he did not get the approval for a renewed working permit as he changed his job – the document necessary for an expat to work in China. But no clear reason was given by the Chinese authority. His scenarios pointed to anything but an application denial: He has a Chinese origin, got married to a Chinese national and had lovely children together, worked for a renowned company in China for more than five years, and had zero bad records in China.
When I heard about the story, he was already ready to relocate and fully packed up – a foreigner usually needs to leave China within 30 days if his/her working permit expires, not too much time to rent a house, find a school, and get ready to say goodbye to the life that his family was already used to in Beijing.
Of course, I asked him why. He said he went to the immigration office in person to appeal, but apparently the authorities did not think it was the right way to do it, nor did they think there was any need for them to reconsider. He quickly made the decision that he should move out quickly so as not to violate any rules here. Luckily, his company understood the situation, and was willing to help him relocate to branch in.
Relocating, even out of China, was a big hassle during the COVID. Therefore I did not bother him for the rest of his days in Beijing so he could focus on family matters. But the minute that I heard he went to the immigration officer alone, I very much wanted to say to him:
You really should have gone for professional advice on this.
In the first years of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to personally go through all these procedures and navigate the policy path for foreign expats to get their working permits and residence permits. So trust me, I know everything about the complexity. If one is ever close to the expat circle in China, he/she will know the tedious procedure of getting a working permit. Meanwhile, one will also realize how many expats are actually working WITHOUT a working permit.
People understand working under a tourist visa is illegal and the inconveniences around that, but they are deterred by the tediously long procedure of getting the working permit: getting documents ready, get papers certified and translated, writing application letters, waiting for the approval, dealing with window guidance that is not on any policy paper, let alone the bureaucratic request sometimes…… Even if all these are finished after several months, the permit would have expired six months later after people received it – the next cycle begins.
If you are a senior executive dispatched to China by the headquarters, you will be fortunate enough have the majority of things sorted out by others (not frustration-free though, because questions around documents always occur). But if you are an SME staff, a family business owner,an independent investor, or someone who is simply looking for opportunities in China, it will be a burden on your own. As in my friend’s case at the beginning, he was doing it all by himself because he changed his job to a small startup company.
One time I have a foreign friend coming over to Beijing for a visit, and he was staying at my house for 3 days before attending my wedding. According to Chinese law, any foreigner staying in China needs to register with local police first: one either registers the passport at a hotel or goes into a police station in person. I took him to the police close to my home, and we waited at the police station for two hours before we finally filed a slip for the friend to be legally staying at my house. During the waiting, my friend got so bored and upset, and he said to me: Can’t we just leave and not do this? Nobody will ever find out.
And guess what? He is a lawyer in his home country.
China definitely realized that problem and they are fixing it. In the most recent years, China has been taking proactive steps to ease the burden for expats, including giving longer term for working permits, streamlining the working permit procedure, providing more policy transparency, possibility of online submissions, offering quasi-“national treatment” for permanent residence card holders, etc. After COVID had a devastating blow to the economy, China is also trying all efforts to attract and keep foreign investment and foreign talents.
However, it does not mean getting a working permit/permanent residence becomes anything easier. The reforms China executed have increased accessibility and transparency, but meanwhile elevated the level of sophistication. It is easier to understand if I illustrate one example in this way: China introduced a point scoring system to classify expat talents into different categories in order to give more benefits to those score higher, but one needs to identify his/her qualifications with sufficient proof. If one works for enough period of time in China and meets certain qualifications, he/she is eligible to apply for permanent residence, which could get one free from the working permit hassle forever. But again, one needs to prove the qualifications without much template guidance, and the criteria are usually vague and unclear.
Does that ring a bell? To me, it very much sounded like applying for immigration in the US, Canada or Australia, where applicants usually acquire help from service professionals. The conclusion that I make: China’s immigration system is yet to be fully shaped, but it has started to develop in a trend that requires delicate planning with professional advice that can be tailor-made for each: whether a foreigner wants to work in China, invest in China, start a company in China, or simply just live in China. If anyone used to consider immigration in China to be simply just an administrative procedure with a list of personal document copies, it will no longer be the case.
Treat it seriously, treat it well.
And that would be what this blog aims to help you about.
