China hopes to cut work permit red tape for foreigners as part of plan to boost Yangtze River Delta
- Pilot projects to streamline the process will be introduced across the region, which includes major economic powerhouses such as Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou
- At present many foreign workers complain they have to navigate a maze of paperwork and renew their work permits annually
Foreigners in China have long had cause to complain about the bureaucracy and paperwork involved in getting a working visa, but that may be about to change after the authorities unveiled plans to streamline the application process.
The plan aims to attract more international talent to major cities across Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces as well as Shanghai.
It also aims to provide more foreigner-friendly schools, hospitals and other facilities in the region.
The Chinese authorities have already been seeking to attract more skilled overseas workers, including reforms of the immigration procedures.
“Plenty of aspects need to be improved and the bureaucracy in these processes should be cut,” said Wang Huiyao, founder of the Beijing-based think tank Centre for China and Globalisation.
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Lucas Rondez, a Hangzhou-based entrepreneur, said the process was already becoming more streamlined as the government recognised the economic benefits that foreign workers could bring.
“It’s smart, they want to attract innovation and companies and they understand that behind innovation is people,” said Rondez, the chief executive of niHUB, which helps overseas tech start-ups launch in China.
The Swiss national said Hangzhou – one of the country’s major hi-tech hubs – had led the way in offering subsidies and other incentives to foreign entrepreneurs.
Rondez said he had been granted a permanent residence permit last year after going through a straightforward three-month process.
But he said more information about the immigration process needed to be made available in English.
“It’s not that they do not have the policy, it’s that maybe you do not find the information or the information is not published in English,” he said.
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But one American software engineer who has been living and working in Shanghai for the past eight years said the process of renewing his work permit every year involved “a lot of trouble and inconvenience”.
The 41-year-old, who wished to be identified only by his first name Michael, said that when he changed jobs several years ago it had taken him two months to get a new work permit. Some of the bureaucratic hoops he had to jump through included submitting a notarised university diploma, a residence permit from the Shanghai police and his work contract.
Sharon Shen, a human resources manager at an American manufacturer in Shanghai, said that as well as being time-consuming, the process was costly for businesses.
“They have to renew these permits every year. It’s troublesome,” she said.
Additional reporting by Alice Yan
