China is speeding up preparations to set up a "green card" system
by the end of next year in order to attract more overseas
professionals and investors.
The State Council recently issued a regulation to cut red tape
relating to affairs of senior foreign experts and investors. The
regulation was jointly drafted by nine ministries and
administrations, including the Ministry of Public Security and the
State Administration for Foreign Experts Affairs.
According to the regulation, senior foreign experts and investors
who need to enter China frequently can be given multiple-entry
visas valid for between two and five years.
For those who need to work and live in China for a relatively long
period, residence permits and multiple-entry visas valid for two to
five years can be also granted.
Foreign experts who are already in China can apply to local
exit-and-entry administration departments for visa alterations, the
regulation said.
People currently abroad can apply either to the Chinese embassy or
consulate or else to an exit-and-entry administration department in
China.
The proposed "green card" system is one of several major changes
that China's exit-and-entry administration will undergo during this
year and next, Vice-Minister of Public Security Zhao Yongji told a
conference organized by his ministry on exit-and-entry
administration, which took place on Monday and Tuesday in
Beijing.
On
January 1 this year, visa offices at the Chinese mainland's 25
ports began to administer visas for members of overseas tourist
groups organized by Chinese travel agencies.
On
February 1, the exit-and-entry administration departments dropped
their requirement that Chinese citizens applying for passports and
visas submit foreign invitations and registration forms.
Under another reform, special passages were opened in major
airports for Chinese people returning from abroad. More than 20
such passages have been opened, according to the Ministry of Public
Security.
Programs have also been set up in nine cities in South China's
Guangdong Province, in Fushun in Northeast China's Liaoning
Province and Qionghai in South China's Hainan Province to let
Chinese citizens be issued with a passport on the spot.
By
2005, people in many large and medium-sized cities will be able to
apply for passports using only their identity cards, the ministry
said.
Vice-Minister Zhao said that, at the same time, exit-and-entry
administration departments have never stopped cracking down on
illegal migration.
Between April and June, public security bureaux at all levels
arrested 8,200 people who had illegally crossed the border, stayed
and started work in China, he said.
In
East China's Fujian Province, which used to be a hub of human
smuggling, the border police cracked down on 40 cases, seizing 300
illegal migrants and 200 organizers between April and July.
(China
Daily August 3, 2002)