Permanent Resident Visa

[QL7040]

hi there,

The situation is my spouse runs and owns a small food business. My spouse is a citizen of China. I am a foreigner, not a citizen of China and been married to my spouse for over 15 years.

My spouse started the business a few years ago. My spouse currently resides in Beijing most of the year to run our business, while I lived in Beijing for half a year, before heading back to Australia for the summer and autumn months.

Prior before starting this business in Beijing, my spouse and I had lived in Australia from the day my spouse married me. We have no kids.

I need up to date info since this Visa info changes frequently.

My questions are

1) If I want to stay in China long term,

(a) what Visa do I need to get?

What are the procedures?

2) What I am after is,

is there a permanent resident Visa I can apply since I am married to my spouse who is a citizen of China?

Thanks

[lordnikon]

You can get 1 year multi-entry L visa to "visit family" that can be renewed each year, this is what many people do to stay in china with their spouse. After 5 years of continuously living in china you can apply for what many people call chinese green card, you can read about it here http://www.china.org.cn/english/LivinginChina/184128.htm it is permanent resident card that allows you to live in china and only needs to be renewed every 10 years, the problem is trying to get it, report from people who have tried to get it are that it is extremely difficult and that you may encounter people actively obstructing you from trying to get this, so your paperwork has to be in perfect order, if you search you can find stories of people who have gotten them but they are few and far in between so i would only consider doing this if you truly wanted to go through the hassle and plan to spend the rest of your life in china

[QL7040]

Thanks for the reply. The impression given by my spouse is it is difficult to get a Visa to stay there long term. Since my spouse speaks Chinese and I don't, my spouse is the one organising the Visa for me. So I need some info to clarify the procedures for my understanding.

[lordnikon]

As I am not married I can not give you any first hand knowledge of the situation but if you look around the many forums discussing chinese visa you can find many people talking about the 1 year L visa for spouses, from what i understand about it you can just go to the psb with your marriage book and fill out visa form and they will give you the 1 year visa, i have also read that it is possible to get 2 years L but it is much rarer. Here is discussion about it from the beijinger forum http://www.thebeijinger.com/forum/2009/05/27/Spouse-visa