Late Registration Beijing - anyone done since the crackdown

[zhouhaochen]

we have a student who works in Beijing and is on a Z visa from his company. However when he renewed his Z-visa last month, he was just about to change apartment and did not register with the police. He is moving now and wants to register, but is obviously late.

Usually something like this has never been a problem, however with the current crackdown, I wanted to ask if anyone has registered late with the police in Beijing since the crackdown started.

Did it work as smoothly and easily as usual?

[imron]

Late? Didn't he just move-in the day before he goes to visit the police station? ;-)

[icebear]

Say he was in a hotel between apartments, they don't register (or have some alternative system).

[zhouhaochen]

he didnt register his new visa (you are supposed to do that within 24 hours). @icebear, yes hotels do register you. However, this always worked and we are very familiar with the process. We just dont know if it is still the same since the crackdown. Does anyone have experience in the last 1.5 months with this?

[liuzhou]

He renewed his Z-visa? That will be a first. Do you mean his residence permit?

"we are very familiar with the process."

Oh?

[zhouhaochen]

fair enough, you could prefer that terminology.

However, any experiences would still be highly appreciated. It is a bit of a dilema to either wait until things might have calmed down or better get it done as soon as possible.

Anyone registered late recently?

[liuzhou]

It's not a matter of terminology. It's a matter of accuracy and clarity. There is so much confusion around this issue (I don't know why. The rules are stunningly clear.) and you adding to the confusion while claiming familiarity doesn't really help.

If you are familiar with the process, demonstrate it.

As to registering address to renew a residence permit, I've never been asked to, but I don't live in Beijing, I registered one of my addresses about 15 years ago and the other about 10. I've never been asked to renew either.

[WestTexas]

I think he should just go register. What's the worst that could happen? The idea of someone getting booted from China for forgetting a simple formality seems absurd. This is China, after all.

Also, wasn't the whole crackdown thing a lot of nothing? I honestly don't feel like I heard anything coming out of it except a lot of jokes about how the police weren't actually doing anything different.

[Silent]

It is a bit of a dilema to either wait until things might have calmed down or better get it done as soon as possible.

When is that calming down going to happen? You seriously think that delaying is going to help? You really think that it's registering far too late will be a better option then registering late?

Contrary to you I'm completely unfamiliar with the process so I've no clue what I'm talking about and it is China, but it's completely contrary to my logic.

[zhouhaochen]

@liuzhou, I am not here to fight, trying to help someone. I am pretty sure you are aware that police registrations are valid for as long as your Z-visa (or residence permit) is valid for and you need to go and register again once it is renewed.

@WestTexas, thats what I thought, until a friend of mine with a perfectly valid working visa, got after 10 years in China kicked out of the country this week for registering his new passport with the police one (!) day late.

Anyways, thanks for the advice, but I think no further need to continue that discussion. If anyone has still any recent experiences in Beijing, please let me know it would be appreciated.

Will post here once we know what happened, hopefully with a happy ending.

[liuzhou]

I am pretty sure you are aware that police registrations are valid for as long as your Z-visa (or residence permit) is valid for and you need to go and register again once it is renewed.

Don't assume that what appies where you are is the same everywhere in China. As I said, I have never renewed my police registration in 15 years, nor am I required to.

[yialanliu]

Say he was in a hotel between apartments, they don't register (or have some alternative system).

Hotels are required to register you. Foreigners are required to stay in 3 star hotels or better and they have registration. Hostels that are not covered by stars also have registration. If you were not registered, you probably were staying in the wrong type of hotels and that's really your fault since you're not allowed to stay there(example: using a friend to book the room). The Jinjiang(a large chain) in Shijiazhuang wouldn't take a passport since they said they don't do registration and told me to go somewhere else while the Jinjiang at Pudong Airport had no problems since they were able to do registration and let me live there.

[BaoMiHua]

Foreigners are required to stay in 3 star hotels or better

I don't think this is accurate.

I have stayed in many 2 star hotels and probably few 1-stars in the mix too. Few times I have verified the registration for other reasons, other times they have taken the passport and at least pretend to be registering (so not sure if really got registered every time). Only remember one 如家 saying they cannot register foreigners, but this was isolated incidence since other 如家 have registered ok.

[liuzhou]

Foreigners are required to stay in 3 star hotels or better

I don't think this is accurate.

No. It is nonsense.

[imron]

Many years back (at least 10), there were restrictions on what hotels foreigners could legally stay at (only ones that had been registered to accept foreigners), however it is my understanding that these restrictions were lifted quite some time ago.

[anonymoose]

Within the last couple of years at least, there are still many hotels that don't accept foreigners, even in Shanghai. It might just be that they can't be bothered with the hassle of registering foreigners, or maybe they aren't aware of the regulations.

[fanglu]

My understanding is a hotel not registered to accept foreigners can still accept them, but they have to take the guest's documents to the local police station and register. Some hotels are not willing to do that, or don't know how. Also, I get the impression some cities' police are less inclined to accept this type of registration (a fact I discovered after wandering around 宜宾 in sichuan for hours looking for a hotel that would take me).

[Silent]

In my experience (2008) there were no real limitations. Only in one small town I had trouble finding a place to sleep. In the end I found one and where other hotels insisted on (inmediate) registration at the reception on check in this guy didn't register anything at all. The very next day I was picked up by the police as apparently I was in an area where foreigners were not allowed.

In several hotels however I checked in, apparantly without any issue's, only to be visited by the police less then half an hour later to go through a registration process.

[ez2easy]

can someone here kind enough to explain to me what was "the big crackdown" incident?

i have registered before, but after my vacation and return to China. I didn't renew my registration.

last year I forgot to register and the police fined me 200RMB, and that was all.