China eases green card requirements to lure skilled professionals

Work visas in China are normally restricted to short-term stints and linked to a specific employer, with long-term residency green cards rarely granted and visa and work permits renewable annually.

At the present time, China is experiencing a brain drain in which successful skilled professionals are queuing up to emigrate to less restricted climes in the West. The resulting announcement earlier this month that a more flexible, pragmatic stance on the green card issue is to be adopted coincided with a speech by China’s Premier in which he praised foreign experts working in the country.

China’s green card is the most difficult in the world to get, and work permits come with an age limit of 65 years, potentially shutting out many expats who’ve been working within the community for decades. Some 72,000 green cards were issued in 2013, and the 800,000 expats in the country still find the society and system highly suspicious of foreigners.

According to a long-term US expat with her own economic research company, Beijing’s aim to attract outstanding talent has a second strong to its bow. It’s also, she claims, all about money in the form of increased tax revenues and access to expats’ international assets.

Long-term expats, adds another British entrepreneur in Beijing, have put half their lives into China, and would appreciate recognition of their labours and a sense of belonging as well as the convenience of a green card. Expats can easily become emotionally connected to China, he added, especially when they have contributed years of work and expertise to the country’s development.