Can you Renew a Residence Permit while outside of China?

[Rufus]

I seem to have a big problem. My wife and two kids went home over a month ago for the summer and our residence permits expire in 6 days. In preparation for this, they would not let me renew the residence permits till 30 days before the expiration date and my family left about 60 days before the expiration date. So we arranged for a friend that was coming back to China to pick them up from my wife in the USA and bring the passports with him and give them to me (I am staying here in China the whole time) so I can get them renewed.

Today I went to the Entry/Exit Bureau in Gubei and they told me that they cannot issue a new residence permit while a person is outside of the country. She said the only option is to have them come home early before it expires so they can renew(an extremely expensive option which is not an option), or have them apply for tourist visas at a Chinese embassy and they can come back to China with that. I told her that these were not an option based on the timeline and I couldn't renew them before they left because of the limit. She gave me a "meibanfa" despite asking for help or to talk to the supervisor or director.

Does anyone know anything about this? I thought I read once that somebody had did this but I think I may have been mistaken. I need to know if anyone has any info!

[kdavid]

It wasn't until recently that the PSB was requiring that I visit the office in person in order to renew my resident permit. From 2006 - 2009 I just sent in my passport and it was returned with a new RP. After 2009, I've been required to go in each year.

Unfortunately, it appears that 没办法 is correct. Not sure if anyone else has a different experience.

[HedgePig]

Rufus, I'm not sure why applying for tourist visas back in the US is "not an option because of the timeline". Is this because you wouldn't have time to send passports back and apply for visas before your family is due to return? We have done something similar once before, applying for a tourist visa while outside of China for one our children whose residence visa had expired. We had no problem getting the tourist visa (got it the same day for a higher fee) or getting it converted to a residence visa upon return.

[roddy]

I think we had one guy manage to renew a residence permit early - quick search and here you go. Basically you need to persuade the PSB to cancel and reissue them - there's no reason they can't do it if they're so inclined, but it's a bit unusual.

But I can't see them doing it while you're out of the country, and it's not impossible you'd get asked questions at the border as it's going to be clear you weren't where you were meant to be where you were meant to be there.