Green card system to attract foreign professionals

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 ◆ Green card system to attract foreign professionals

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, China Daily reports on August 3.

According to the regulation, which was jointly drafted by nine ministries and administrations, senior foreign experts and investors who want 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, according to the English-language newspaper.

Foreign experts who are already in China can apply to local exit-and-entry administration departments for visa alternations, and those currently abroad can apply either to the Chinese embassy or consulate or to an exit-and-entry administration departments in China, the regulation said.

The proposed "green card" system is one of several major reform measures that China's exit-and-entry administration will adopt during this year and next, Vice-Minister of Public Security Zhao Yongji revealed.

Since the very beginning of the year, people at home and from abroad have seen remarkable changes in the once rigid system, such as administrating visas for overseas tourists organized by Chinese travel agencies at 25 ports stationed in the Chinese mainland, revoking former requirement that Chinese citizens applying for passports and visas submit foreign invitations and registration forms, opening special passages in major domestic airports for returning Chinese from abroad, the newspaper reviewed.

Sources from the ministry said that people in many large and medium-sized cities will be able to apply for passports using only their identity cards by 2005.