Police station reregistering when coming back from out-of-China vacation

[Pascal Ma]

I am studying for one year in Beijing and I have a residence permit.

The university (BLCU) had a Q&A session at the begining of the year but they failed to provide a clear answer to this.

I am thinking about traveling to Thailand during the winter vacations. I have heard that when coming back to China you should reregister with the authorities (back to the police station?) within 24 hours. Now, if I want to go to the south of China after Thailand and before coming back to Beijing, should I register when I get back in China or can I wait returning to Beijing?

Also, I live in an appartment, not in the university's dorms, so I had to register at the police station.

I am sure people do this all the time and maybe I am worried for nothing, but I just wanna be prepared. What do people normally do?

[Mouseneb]

I didn't do it once, and when it came time to renew my residence permit, they looked at my passport and saw I'd been out of the country and threatened to fine me. I pleaded ignorance and got away with no fine. So the next time, I went to the local police station to reregister, and they had NO IDEA about it. I ended up redoing the entire registration process with them, which was a huge pain. Hopefully no one will threaten to fine me again though...

[roddy]

You should register everywhere you spend a night, basically. However if you're in a hotel or hostel, it's handled automatically. Chances are you just need to drop in to the police station on your return to Beijing, or give them a call.

[anonymoose]

I've never reregistered after coming back from abroad on an existing residence permit. :unsure:

[abcdefg]

My experience has been that when getting back to my home city in China (Kunming) from a trip outside the country, the authorities want me to let them know. Once I didn't do it and even got a polite visit from a uniformed officer at my house.

So now when returning from Thailand or Korea or Hong Kong, I go to the paichusuo where I'm registered and tell them "I'm already registered here, but I've been out of country and have just returned." I bring and give them a copy of my passport page with the new entry stamp. They then find my file and slip it in as well as updating me on their computer as having not just mysteriously disappeared, but as having exited and returned.

I do it partly in order to stay out of trouble and partly as a courtesy to them, since it seems they really are tasked with being able to account for my whereabouts if asked by inspectors or higher ups. I'd like to make it easy for them.

Like most things in China, this may well differ from place to place. The diligence of any particular paichusuo can also be different from others.

派出所 = pàichūsuǒ = local police station

[roddy]

Worth noting that we're not really talking about the residence permit here (the visa-like sticker in your passport students and workers get), but the registration of where you live, which is a slip of paper from the local police station. These often get confused.

[gougou]

Last time I asked my local PSB (paichusuo, see above) about that, they told me not to bother reregistering after coming back from abroad. If ever anything was wrong, they'd give me a call.

Of course, they don't necessarily know what they're talking about, but if anybody asks, it's their fault.

[Brian US]

I didn't know you had to tell them every time you leave home. I assume this is only for international travel as your hotel or wherever you stay will need the registration within China. Doesn't surprise me the immigration at the airport doesn't communicate with local police systems.

[abcdefg]

Worth noting that we're not really talking about the residence permit here (the visa-like sticker in your passport students and workers get), but the registration of where you live, which is a slip of paper from the local police station.

Right. I dug my form out, and the title in English is "Accommodation Registration Form." The Chinese title is 境外人员住馆登记表。 It lists where you live, landlord's information if it's a rented apartment, move-in date, planned departure date and so on.

I didn't know you had to tell them every time you leave home. I assume this is only for international travel

I only re-contact them when I return after being out of the country. They never actually give me new registration paperwork, they just make note of the fact that I'm still living in their precinct and have gotten a new entry stamp. It probably isn't a big deal if one forgets, and I will freely admit to being a bit anal about it.

As to the OP's question about timing:

Now, if I want to go to the south of China after Thailand and before coming back to Beijing, should I register when I get back in China or can I wait returning to Beijing?

Wait till you get back to Beijing. The hotels you stay in while travelling in the south will handle it for you automatically when you check in.

[gougou]

They never actually give me new registration paperwork

Interesting. Back when I still used to reregister, they always took me through the whole registration process again (so I assume they had no idea what they were doing). The fact that the system didn't mention an identical record in my name says a lot about how much data is being compared... I wonder whether they'll ever call me to tell me that of the four of us only one has reregistered at my new PSB.

[roddy]

Doesn't surprise me the immigration at the airport doesn't communicate with local police systems.

It does - it's not unknown to get a 'are you back then?' call a day or two after your return. Although maybe they've been worried and have been calling every day.

[Pascal Ma]

Thanks everybody for all your inputs.

Very enlightening, chinese rules and regulations and never very clear to begin with and their application also not regular, so it's great to read all your experiences on the matter! B)

[abcdefg]

Back when I still used to reregister, they always took me through the whole registration process again...

I've gotten in the habit of taking a copy of my original registration document to show them up front. Without having it in hand, they have once or twice just started to do it all over from scratch.

...it's not unknown to get a 'are you back then?' call a day or two after your return.

I've also gotten a call like this. It has actually surprised me how closely they keep up with foreign visitors. All this was, of course, at its most intense just before and during the Beijing Olympics.

[Mouseneb]

Great idea about bringing your registration to show them, I will definitely do that next time. I've never gotten the "Are you back yet?" call or anything like that. Then again, I don't live in Beijing or anyplace big.

[roddy]

It doesn't really matter how big the place is, it entirely depends on how your local police station happen to run things, and even that can change month to month. If they've just had a telling off from their superiors for being somehow lax in their foreigner management duties they'll be much more proactive, if they're all currently busy in a crackdown on pickpockets and bicycle thieves they won't even notice if you run past the station naked.

[gerri]

I ran into a little delay getting the residence permit extended (staying on at the same job for another year) once because I had failed to inform the relevant authorities of my return from the international destination of Hong Kong... was all nicely handled though. The university where I work uses the province's - or a, anyways - online system for that matter, so you just have to say that you went abroad and are back again, and they put that into the registry.

[rezaf]

I only do that when I move or when I want to renew my residence permit.

[xiaoxiaocao]

It doesn't really matter how big the place is, it entirely depends on how your local police station happen to run things, and even that can change month to month. If they've just had a telling off from their superiors for being somehow lax in their foreigner management duties they'll be much more proactive, if they're all currently busy in a crackdown on pickpockets and bicycle thieves they won't even notice if you run past the station naked

This is so true and really made me laugh! I really enjoy the little once/twice yearly talks about safety the police here give foreign residents reminding you to be a good citizen and obey the laws of the PRC. Last time it was - don't take any photos of military personnel or related facilities and to (in English) ''protect your safety when on the streets''

[anonymoose]

they won't even notice if you run past the station naked

Even if they did notice, they'd probably just stand there commenting on your chest hair and how big your, er, nose is.

[roddy]

once/twice yearly talks about safety

Case in point - I've never had even one, you're getting two a year.