Special Topic: China Visa Guide

About five years ago, China started offering permanent residency to foreigners for the first time ever. This was a big step forward, as for years foreigners in China of a more than transient status had been living a year to year, or in some cases even month to month, existence. Even those married to locals, like myself, found themselves having to renew their visas each year. Many of us hoped that permanent residency would offer more options for those of us who hope to live in China long term. However, in the five years following we have not seen as many Chinese “Green Cards” (red cards?) granted as we might have expected or hoped.

It turns out that permanent residency is again one of those things that is a privilege extended to those with big investments in China, the high rollers, the big bosses, the people China wants to stick around. If you throw $500,000 USD into the Chinese economy, China will reward you with permanent residency, that is a given. There are also other categories – making significant contributions to Chinese society (vague enough for you?), and marriage or parenthood. However, despite the fact that marriage is considered, in the rules, to be a legitimate reason for being granted permanent residency, not a single married person that I know actually has been granted the elusive Chinese green card.

What are we granted? Well, the folks at the Public Security Bureau are nice enough to hand out year long tourist visas to people who are married to nationals, and the children of those nationals. The visas are, in a manner that would be almost comedic if it weren’t so sad, called “visiting relatives” visas. That’s right, every year I must apply to the Chinese government for permission to visit my husband and child. Kindly, they have not turned me down yet. While a year long visa with no real strings attached seems like a pretty sweet deal on the outside, it is actually quite prohibitive. I cannot legally work on a visiting relatives visa. I am not entitled to any protections, nor do I qualify for any Chinese social programs. My children will have to pay international tuition if they want to attend public schools, and I am registered with the police as a “guest” in my husband’s apartment.

Mere technicalities, you might say! After all, who doesn’t bend the rules every once in awhile. It wasn’t that long ago, was it, that everyone and their uncle was running around on year-long business visas procured in Hong Kong, and doing quite fine on those. However, in this case I am less concerned with the fine print or the consequences of my visa than I am with the philosophical ramifications of living in a country that can’t even do me the courtesy of accepting that I just might be here to stay. Contrast this with my home country, for example, the USA, which doesn’t even want me to bring my husband anywhere near the border until he has his green card in hand. In the USA, marriage to a citizen entitles you to a green card, and a green card entitles you to most of the same rights and responsibilities that any American citizen would have. A permanent resident in America can attend schools, apply for student loans, and receive Medicare. The status inherently acknowledges that there are people in this world who will have binding ties to more than one country, and sees nationality as something more fluid and less set in stone.

Special Topic: China Visa Guide

In China, on the other hand, I will always be a foreigner. While technically I am eligible to apply for Chinese residency in 2 more years, I doubt it will be granted, since I am not a big boss, and I don’t have anywhere near $500,000 to invest in China. Most likely I will be reduced to yearly treks to the PSB to own up to my foreignness, to accept a limbo-like existence where I am not a resident, but a permanent visitor, forever on the outside. China will gladly accept my tax money, but she will not accept me. And why should she? China has no need for immigrants unless they’re adding something to society (like money), what with 1.3 billion people of their own to deal with. To China, multiculturalism, the inherent benefits of the perspectives of people from a myriad of lands, traditions, and histories, is not apparent. In fact, outsiders like us are often seen as corrupting influences – we brought the internet, porn, drugs and SARS to China’s innocent and virginal shores. If my little family and all those like just decided to take our countries up on the offers of a green cards for our spouses and pack our bags and set off I doubt anyone would mourn that as a great loss.

 

At least not yet. But I am certain there will come a time when even China will have to acknowledge that we now live in an international community, and that there is a lot of good to be had from embracing multiculturalism and opening ones doors to those that would wish to stay here. Giving the wife of a citizen permission to work legally in her husband’s country will not lead to moral decay, and allowing foreign resident children to attend public schools with the locals might lead to a greater awareness of the world (and those ever important foreign languages!). That outside isn’t always something to be feared and distrusted. And while China, and indeed the whole world, says a lot to that effect these days, actions do not always back up the pretty talk. As long as I’m still lining up year after year for permission to “visit” the husband that I share a life and a child with, I will not yet believe that China’s time has come, but I will hold out hope for change nonetheless.

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