By Wang Hairong

China is rolling out the red carpet for permanent foreign residents, who will now in principle enjoy the same rights and shoulder the same obligations as Chinese citizens except for political rights or other special rights and obligations stipulated by law, according to a government regulation released on December 11, 2012.

The regulation specifies permanent residents’ equal rights to employment, insurance,investment, home purchase, driver’s licenses and education for their children.

Holders of a permanent residence permit,commonly known as a Chinese green card, can not only enjoy health and old-age insurance available to Chinese citizens but also acquire professional qualifications previously reserved for Chinese nationals, the regulation says.

“The new regulation will help give foreigners a sense of security,” said Liu Guofu, an immigration law specialist at the Beijing Institute of Technology. He said that if residency does not bring other basic rights such as employment, pension and children’s education, it will not attract foreign professionals.

Immigration integration

Rhio Zablam, a 34-year-old Filipino, is looking forward to getting his Chinese green card. He married a Chinese woman in 2011, and will be eligible to apply for permanent residency in three years.

Zablam said that the new green card policy is great for him, because he will not have to obtain a new work permit whenever he changes his job.

LIFE IN PEACE: Eunice Moe Brock, a U.S. national who got a Chinese green card in 2009, celebrates the Chinese Lunar New Year with her interpreter in her home in Ji’nan, east China’s Shandong Province, on February 15,2010

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, adopted the country’s first legislation covering the exit and entry of Chinese citizens and foreigners, the Law on the Exit and Entry Administration, in June 2012. According to the law, foreigners may not be employed in China without valid employment cert ificates. The law will take effect in July.

China first introduced the permanent residence status for foreigners in the Law on the Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens that was adopted by the NPC Standing Committee in November 1985.

In 1986, Werner Gerich, a German who served as manager of the Wuhan Diesel Engine Plant in Hubei Province, became the first foreigner to be granted permanent residence status in China. From 1985 to 2004, the Chinese Government gave more than 3,000 foreigners this status.

China began issuing green cards in 2004.According to the Regulations on Examination and Approval of Permanent Residency for Foreigners promulgated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that year, permanent residency is mainly open to foreign investors who have made sizable investment in China, high-level business executives, prestigious scholars and other persons who have made outstanding contributions or are of special importance to China, as well as people who come to China to join their family.

The 29-article regulations also spell out provisions on the prerequisites and procedures to apply for permanent residence permits.

Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security show that from 2004 to the end of 2011,4,752 foreigners obtained Chinese green cards, of whom more than 90 percent were overseas Chinese, and 1,735 were highly talented people and their family members.

In 2009, Eunice Moe Brock,who came to China from the United States in 1999, was granted a Chinese green card.Brock was born in north China’s Hebei Province in 1917, and returned to the United States 12 years later. In 1999, two years after her husband passed away, she sold her property and moved back to China. She then settled down in east China’s Shandong Province, where she volunteered as an English

teacher and donated funds to local primary schools, hospitals and villages.

Long Denggao, a professor at Tsinghua University’s Center for Chinese Entrepreneur Studies, said that the recent reform will make it more convenient for foreigners, especially overseas Chinese to live permanently in China, and encourage technology and investment in flow.

Nonetheless, Long said that currently, the threshold for permanent residency is still too high and he wishes the criteria could be further lowered.

Talent strategy

Permanent residency has become an important arrangement to attract international expertise, said officials from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently.

China is geared toward creating a highly skilled work force and transforming its labor-intensive economy into a talent-rich one. Chinese leaders attach great importance to attracting talented people from all over the world.

China launched the Recruitment Program of Global Experts (1,000 Talents Program) in 2008, which aims to recruit about 2,000 topnotch scientists to work in China within 10 years. Provincial and municipal governments have launched similar programs.

So far, more than 2,700 highly talented people have been recruited under the Central Government’s program. Since 2009, local governments have also recruited more than 20,000 people under their programs, reported Xinhua News Agency.

Most of the international experts recruited so far are overseas returnees. Since China implemented the reform and opening-up policy,more than 10 million people have left the country to study or work abroad, many of whom have obtained foreign permanent residency or citizenship, said Wang Huiyao, Director of the Center for China and Globalization and vice President of China Western Returned Scholars Association. ” Nonetheless, many overseas Chinese are still emotionally attached to China,and wish to have the chance to work and live in China,” he said.

Overseas Chinese are by far not the only group targeted by the 1,000 Talents Program.One sub-program, the Recruitment Program of 1,000 Foreign Experts launched in 2011, aims to recruit leading experts in science and technology who are not ethnic Chinese.

The program accepts applications from professors in prestigious foreign universities and research fellows of major institutes as well as specialists and senior managers of financial institutions, intellectual property holders and other professionals with innovative expertise needed in China.

It requires recruited experts to work in China for at least three consecutive years, and for no fewer than nine months each year.

Rights of Chinese Green Card Holders

● Permanent residents can participate in all of China’s five social insurance programs—endowment,healthcare, unemployment, workrelated injury and maternity, and enjoy corresponding benefits.

● Green card holders are exempt from a ban on foreigners who have worked or studied less than a year in China from buying property.

● Permanent residents can work in China without a work permit.

● Children of permanent residents may attend school in their place of residence, and they will not be charged any fees except a statutory sum.

● They can enjoy simpl ified investment and registration procedures if they want to invest in or set up a business.

● Spouses and immediate family members of permanent residents can apply for visas, residence permits or green cards.

(Source: Xinhua News Agency)

Experts recruited under the program will be granted a lump sum subsidy of 1 million yuan($160,600), and those conducting research,especially basic research, will receive research funding ranging from 3 million-5 million yuan($481,800-$802,900).

These experts and their spouses and minor children are eligible to apply for Chinese permanent residency or multiple-entry visa valid for two to five years.

As of December 2012, a total of 94 foreign experts had been recruited by the program,according to a statement issued by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

Zhang Jianguo, director of the administration, said that nearly 530,000 foreign experts were working in China in 2011, whereas the number was only about 10,000 in the late 1970s. ■