GZBILL

Even if you can set up a business that requires limited investment, it doesn't mean you can get a work visa. In order to get a work visa the company must meet certain requirements which include paid-up capital requirements. 50k RMB will not make the grade. Working in even your own company without a valid work visa will only make you just another illegal alien, but with much more to lose if you get caught.

Not going to happen. The Shanghai mayor is always spouting this drivel and, in the end, they can never do anything. They've tried taxation. Failed. They've tried tightening mortgage qualifications. Failed. They've tried property development restrictions. Failed. They've tried restricting sales to expats. Failed again. The methods mentioned in this article sound nice in the press, but even if -- and it's a BIG if -- they can put them into practice, it will take several years AND any impact -- IF there is any impact -- will be minimal. My bet is that the Shanghai mayor is spouting off at the mouth posturing to 1) get more of the Shanghai working poor in line and 2) getting himself a roadside box at the National Day parade within sight of Hu Jing Tao.

My geography isn't very good, but I just hope this shit is really, really far away from Beijing.

Not at all surprising. Discrimination of all varieties is institutionalized and permeates Chinese society.

Each province is given considerable leeway when it comes to the One Child Policy and the amount of variance often depends on that particular province's progress towards meeting population planning goals. There are also variances between cities of the same province. One thing that most people don't realize is that in many provinces the One Child Policy also applies to families where one spouse is an expat.

I've heard this too from quite a few English teachers. The best English teaching jobs require strong credentials ... ... or a working knowledge of Photoshop. You'd be surprised -- or maybe not! -- at how many expats I meet while out and about who ultimately tell me they are teachers and have used Photoshop to meet the degree requirements for work visas. Even with all the right qualifications, the vast majority of schools are simply not qualified / authorized to formally hire expats. And don't even get me started with all the Filipina housekeepers / English teachers.

1. Renting, much less buying, a home isn't a problem as long as you have the $$. If you end up purchasing a home you'll have to put it in your wife's name since expats cannot legally purchase real estate until they have been in China at least one year on a work or study-related residence permit. 2. Work visas can be tricky. If you can get a company to hire you -- assuming they can hire expats -- then you should be able to get a work permit and work visa which will have to be periodically renewed -- generally every year. 3. Banking is no problem. 4. Easy. 5. Difficult. You will have to go through Chinese formalities and, in certain fields, be restricted or forced to have local investors. Even if you do establish a business, you may find that it doesn't qualify you for a work visa. Ok I live in China 1 year and buy a home there. What kind of problems could arise if we decide to sell it in 3-4 years and we move to say Behai for retirement home there? There are no restrictions on selling a property you own. You could even turn it into an income producing vehicle. Market conditions may differ between cities and, as well, even between districts within the same city. Bill, we've been told that if you are selling within two years of the issue date of your house book you will pay a hefty tax on the capitol gains...sounded like about 25%... Could be true. Although I am not 100% sure on this one, I have heard that there is a capital gains tax -- and 25% sounds about right -- if you have owned the house for under a certain period of time and / or it was not used as your exclusive place of residence and / or the house exceeds a certain size (have heard about 75 sq. meters).

And it will only get worse leading up to National Day celebrations in October. It's easy to get around filetring by using either a paid VPN / proxy server or a free one. Free ones are a pain in the neck as they work sporadically or often not at all.

If the child is born of at least one Chinese parent and the child is issued a US passport, but has never registered as a Chinese citizen (i.e. gone through the process to obtain Chinese hukou) there is no problem. They simply apply for a Chinese visa in the US passport. However, if the child has both a US passport and Chinese hukou, they need to go to the PSB to go through the process of giving up their Chinese citizenship. Or ... If they want to keep both nationalities, they need to leave or enter China through a "staging" country (eg Hong Kong). They'd go to Hong Kong on their Chinese passport and on to their ultimate destination on their US passport. They'd return from their ultimate destination to Hong Kong and ultimately enter China on their Chinese passport (or Hong Kong travel permit). This is what the millions of Chinese-Canadians do who want to keep both citizenships.

1. No, they did not. It seems you bought your property in Shanghai after the rule was issued. Not all cities have the capabilities to enforce the rule, but it does apply -- still -- nationwide. There have been instances of authorities finding out after the fact and the homeowner having serious issues. 3. Jobs teaching are easy to come buy. Work visas in those jobs are not. Probably over 75% of teaching jobs are not able to provide proper work visas. People do get caught working illegally and do get deported.

From what I've seen / heard: Qualifications: A pulse Where to find positions: Internet. Word of mouth. Cold calls. Recruiters.

In relationships, maybe, but it makes a big difference if you are in the job market. Huge difference.

1. Renting, much less buying, a home isn't a problem as long as you have the $$. If you end up purchasing a home you'll have to put it in your wife's name since expats cannot legally purchase real estate until they have been in China at least one year on a work or study-related residence permit. 2. Work visas can be tricky. If you can get a company to hire you -- assuming they can hire expats -- then you should be able to get a work permit and work visa which will have to be periodically renewed -- generally every year. 3. Banking is no problem. 4. Easy. 5. Difficult. You will have to go through Chinese formalities and, in certain fields, be restricted or forced to have local investors. Even if you do establish a business, you may find that it doesn't qualify you for a work visa. Ok I live in China 1 year and buy a home there. What kind of problems could arise if we decide to sell it in 3-4 years and we move to say Behai for retirement home there? There are no restrictions on selling a property you own. You could even turn it into an income producing vehicle. Market conditions may differ between cities and, as well, even between districts within the same city.

1. Renting, much less buying, a home isn't a problem as long as you have the $$. If you end up purchasing a home you'll have to put it in your wife's name since expats cannot legally purchase real estate until they have been in China at least one year on a work or study-related residence permit. 2. Work visas can be tricky. If you can get a company to hire you -- assuming they can hire expats -- then you should be able to get a work permit and work visa which will have to be periodically renewed -- generally every year. 3. Banking is no problem. 4. Easy. 5. Difficult. You will have to go through Chinese formalities and, in certain fields, be restricted or forced to have local investors. Even if you do establish a business, you may find that it doesn't qualify you for a work visa.

Why am I not surprised? All that's missing now are the freaks crying about how bad the death penalty is.

http://www.france24.com/en/20090619-china-...graphy-internet It was only shut down for two hours and is currently up and running. In any event, this is why God invented VPN and proxy services.

Because you have poor credit?? As long as your credit report is clean, you generally have no problems getting cellular service, electricity or home phone service without a deposit. In any event, if everyone pays a deposit, it's not racism. If they only make Chinese people pay a deposit even though they have good credit, but don't make, for example, Caucasians with good credit pay, that is racism. Highly unlikely they'd do that in the USA while in China it is the norm. Look also at employment ads. In China it is very common for ads to specify sex and age of those they will consider for a position. Show me where you have seen that in the US.

If you have to pay a security deposit for utilities and your next door neighbor -- whose economic and credit conditions are identical to yours -- doesn't and he's of a different race, you're in line to win a million dollar discrimination lawsuit. Too bad you can't sue like that in China.

I usually agree with a lot of what you say but I still find this not to be racism or so different from anywhere else. Makes sense to me that there are stricter conditions to give credit to foreigner than to a Chinese person ... more than likely the Chinese person cannot just leave China without paying the credit card bills...an expat can ... Millions of Chinese people have immigrated to Canada / Australia and, to a lesser extent, over the last couple of years. There are several hundred thousand that are immigrating in 2009 alone. That they worry about a few hundred expats stealing 10,000 RMB and not untold amounts of Chinese is nothing but racism. They give credit to any student with a pulse in spite of the fact that the default rate for students is over 75%. An expat working for a decent company who earns 20,000+ RMB per year is denied. Racism. If it were to happen in the US, see how fast multi-billion $ lawsuits are filed ... and won. I'm lucky. I can get anything I ask for at virtually any bank in China. I have expat employees earning 75k RMB per month who get declined left and right ... until I call the bank and put in the good word.

Sometimes it might just be a case of feeling self-conscious. Funny, but I've made some very good friends from those who have made insensitive comments that they foolishly believed I didn't understand and I subsequently verbally ripped them apart in public for it. One of my favorites has to be in the elevator when a couple and their child were talking about what a big nose the foreigner has. So I pretended to be talking to my imaginary kid and commented in Chinese about the mother's anatomy. Funny as all hell!

Bill is the real deal. He's here, and has the value of personal experience. I can see how any American would become cynical living in China over a long period of time. I'm sure if he thinks back hard enough, he will remember the rosy early days. I do remember them ... and most of those rosy days do continue until now. But not all. Someone mentioned or implied that racism and discrimination are not problems exclusive to China. This is true. But racism and discrimination in China are institutionalized to such an extent that, in many cases, it defies logic. Ever tried getting a visa for your Chinese spouse ... or for had a Chinese person you know want to get a visa to visit the US? Compare that to what it took for you to get a visa/apporval to come to China -- There are quite a few people on this forum currently living and working in China. I dare any of them to walk into any bank in China -- even the so-called foreign banks -- and apply on your own for a credit card. 99.9% of the time, in the end your application will be declined because -- and they usually will put it bluntly -- you are not Chinese. I must be one of the 0.1% since Bank of China gave me one ... of course it took me 6 months and providing a copy of my passport 5 different times. Up until just recently, you could not open cellular service on any terms other than pre-pay if you were not Chinese. The pre-pay is true for many Chinese also and depends on the company and where you are in China (north/south/etc and small/large city. etc)True - but now you can Try getting home phone, gas or electricity service in your name even if you happen to own the home. Again .. maybe it is related to location in China. Not a problem for me. My company did help but everything is in my name. I also have been able to obtain credit -- now quit easily. But the vast majority of expats here are denied credit unless they meet certain specific conditions whereas practically any Chinese high school student can easily obtain a credit card. Again, the issue is race. There is only pre-pay now in southern China, but in Beijing you can get on a billing plan but only after placing an initial security deposit. Local Beijing residents are exempt from that. Getting utilities in your name without being the owner of the property is tough. But as an expat, even owning the property they'll try and get you to find a Chinese relative or invent one. I am pretty lucky because I know how to deal with the issue, but I have several friends who were forced to put up a security deposit to get utility service in their own name in spite of owning the property. My dictionary calls taking adverse action against a person exclusively because of their race racism.

For painless currency conversion and international remittances -- all in English -- open an account at ICBC and register for their online banking. B) Joint accounts are a new old concept here. They used to have them before the liberation, but ended them. Now they are just starting to reappear.

Bill is the real deal. He's here, and has the value of personal experience. I can see how any American would become cynical living in China over a long period of time. I'm sure if he thinks back hard enough, he will remember the rosy early days. I do remember them ... and most of those rosy days do continue until now. But not all. Someone mentioned or implied that racism and discrimination are not problems exclusive to China. This is true. But racism and discrimination in China are institutionalized to such an extent that, in many cases, it defies logic. There are quite a few people on this forum currently living and working in China. I dare any of them to walk into any bank in China -- even the so-called foreign banks -- and apply on your own for a credit card. 99.9% of the time, in the end your application will be declined because -- and they usually will put it bluntly -- you are not Chinese. Up until just recently, you could not open cellular service on any terms other than pre-pay if you were not Chinese. Try getting home phone, gas or electricity service in your name even if you happen to own the home.

Priced even more reasonably are the dozens of free proxy services.