China releases new exit-entry regulation for foreigners

The Chinese government promulgated a new exit-and-entry regulation on Monday that is intended to standardize the issuance of visas for foreigners, as well as related services and management.

The 39-article regulation will take effect on Sept. 1, replacing the previous regulation promulgated in December 1986.

Based on one's purpose of entry, the regulation categorizes ordinary visas into 12 types, with the new R-visa to be issued to high-level foreign professionals.

Another new visa type, the Q-visa, has also been introduced for foreigners who come to China to visit relatives.

The regulation will help safeguard national security and strengthen relevant review measures while facilitating normal personnel exchanges, according to a spokesman for the Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council, or China's cabinet.

According to the regulation, financial, educational, medical and telecommunications institutions, when necessary, can verify foreigners' identities with the exit-entry management agencies of local public security organs.

The regulation is also designed to address foreigners' illegal entry, residence and employment in line with the exit-entry law.

The regulation defines circumstances of illegal residence.

A foreigner who stays or resides beyond the period permitted by his or her visa or residence certificate will be deemed to be residing illegally, it says.

Illegal presence also applies to foreigners admitted into the country without a visa who remain in China beyond the visa-free period and fail to apply for a stay or residence certificate.

Any foreigner who moves beyond any area to which his or her stay is restricted will also be considered to be illegally residing, the regulation says.

It stipulates that overseas students who need to take part-time jobs or internships may, with approval from their schools apply to the exit-entry management agencies of local public security organs and include such information in their residence certificates.

It also states that foreigners who have left their jobs or changed work locations, as well as overseas students who have left the institutions that enrolled them, must promptly report to the exit-entry management agencies of local public security organs at or above the county level.