Under China's new immigration law, harsher fines for illegal foreigners

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Long queues form outside the China Visa Application offices in Hong Kong. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 10:35am, 1 Jul 2013Updated: 11:23am, 1 Jul 2013

China's new immigration law came into effect on Monday, completing a first major overhaul of border regulations in more than two decades.

"The overriding policy behind the law is to create harsher punishments for foreigners who illegally enter, live or work in China," Gary Chodorow, a Beijing-based lawyer with Frederick W Hong Law Offices, wrote in a paper summarising the new law.

For the first time, the law would detain foreigners between five and 15 days if they were caught residing or working illegally in mainland China.

Although Myanmese, Vietnamese and North Koreans have been regularly detained for illegally crossing China's porous borders, detention of other foreigners in China's hubs for illegal stay or employment has been less frequent.

Illegal migrants would now also be fined 5,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan (HK$6,300 to HK$25,000) and face deportation. Their employers would be fined up to 100,000 yuan per individual illegal employee.

Some 47,100 foreigners were caught violating the immigration law last year, according to data released by the Ministry of Public Security earlier this year.

The new law also aims to reform the green card system, which since 2004 allows foreigners to permanently reside in mainland China. By the end of 2011, only 4,752 people have been granted green cards, called the "hardest to get in the world" by the Southern Metropolis Daily last year.

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