"Ministry relaxes green card rules for foreigners" in Shanghai?

[ILikeBigWalls]

"Ministry relaxes green card rules for foreigners" was a headline in the ShanghaiDaily.com recently. Here is a link:

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/metro/society/Ministry-relaxes-green-card-rules-for-foreigners/shdaily.shtml

There are many potentially interesting developments there for people from various walks of life. I am most interested in the part about 2 year resident permits for foreign students graduating from Chinese universities. I am finishing a dual-degree programme now and would love to stay longer. Supposedly these new guidelines become effective in July. However I don't yet see any mention of it on the Shanghai municipal webpages (the English versions).

Has anyone heard some thing more? And strangely the article reads as if it will apply only in

Shanghai yet the directive sounds as if it comes from a national level. I wonder if students making use of this sort of permit would be required to work in Shanghai rather than, for example, Beijing.

[sunluosi]

Interested to see if it will be all over China. I've been here a few years now and this would make things so much easier for me. Even the 5 years visa would be a big help.

[roddy]

Between residence, employment, salary and taxation requirements, I wonder how many people will actually be entitled. I suspect the demographic this is aimed at is shown by this new rule:

"Foreigners who hold permanent residence and work permit can also apply for residence permits for their personal servants "

In other words: Finally, a butler visa. 

"Foreign students who have graduated from Chinese colleges and intend to stay in Shanghai for work can apply for two-year residence permits."

That's interesting, IF you can do it without an employer. Otherwise it's just a work visa, no?

[vellocet]

Yeah, if you need to show tax receipts to show you've been paying your Chinese income tax, then I don't think anyone's going to get it.  I don't know a single laowai who pays income tax. 

[ILikeBigWalls]

Concerning the foreign students and a 2 year permit....on the surface it sounds similar to what Germany offers to foreign students. What I understand is that Germany will grant foreign students who graduate from a German university an 18 month resident permit intended to allow time for a job search within the country. Maybe China has decided to follow this model, somewhat, maybe.

The way it is now (in China) allows only time to hand over my thesis and leave.

[Angelina]

This part is not quite clear.

Are they planning to grant "job search" visas like Germany or are they only going to give us residence permits valid for two years instead of the one-year residence permits we can get when working in China now? Also can we get that without an employer? Can we freelance in China?

[zhouhaochen]

They have been talking about these green cards for ages, but so far I have not met a single person ever who got one.

 

@roddy I love the butler visa. Maybe this will replace the spouse visa in the long run? 

[msittig]

 

I don't know a single laowai who pays income tax.

At every school I taught at (in Shanghai, granted), income taxes were deducted monthly from my paycheck and I was given the full set of tax receipts when it came time to file my tax return in April.

[Angelina]

I found this infographic

http://blog.hiredchina.com/blog/detail/id/90.html

[Angelina]

Meanwhile in the UK

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3158012/Foreign-students-banned-working-forced-leave-UK-course-ends.html#ixzz3fjh5iuxv

The total opposite of Shanghai. In Shanghai, I can now stay for two years, even start my own business on the recent graduate residence permit. Things are going in the opposite direction.

[roflcopter2]

I don't think this is actually true. It looks like you have to be willing to start a business, and actually start it and pass all their regulations before you can get this visa. I think this is just a way to get more tax revenue from all the business startup registration fees. 

 

Has anyone succeeded in getting 2 years of working visa just because they graduated from a Chinese university? If you have I would really love to hear from you. 

[roddy]

Given the rules only came into effect three weeks ago and nobody's graduated since then, I doubt it. Would be great to hear from anyone who's been looking into it though. 

 

Welcome to the site, roflcopter! 

[Angelina]

 

Residence Permits for Fresh Chinese Uni Grads

Shanghai aims to support its fresh grads by allowing them to apply for two-year residence permits following their graduation. This policy applies to foreign grads of top Chinese universities. These permits can be used for internships and for students who want to start their own businesses.

 

Let's see what happens.

[roflcopter2]

Yeah I saw that link, that was when I was getting really excited. They said sepcifically that you need to be accepted into a 创业园区，需要进驻企业园区证明。From what my friend was telling me, you need to rent office space in a building and apply for a business liscence and just setting up a paper company is not possible.

 

I am going to go there myself with all my certificates etc and see what they say. 

[imron]

you need to rent office space in a building and apply for a business liscence and just setting up a paper company is not possible.

This has always been the case with setting up a company in China.  You need to have rented office space in a building officially designated for businesses (no home businesses allowed, although some buildings are designated to allow both).

 

If this is a precondition for getting a green card, I'm not sure it's entirely worth the hassle anyway, because as owner/director of a company you can basically issue yourself Z-visas for as long as you need.