Chinese green card is not as good as you think

Chinese green card is not as good as you think
Oct 14, 2013 02:37
JIMMYB Points: Join Date: Feb 7, 2007 Status: offline	Noyan Ronna, a 57 years old Turkish, successfully acquired the Chinese green card (Chinese permanent residence permit) this August. However, he found that it was not as good as he imagined. Chinese permanent residence permit has another name “Chinese green card”. If you get it, you can stay in mainland China as long as you can. What’s more, you don’t need to apply for the visa when you enter China. With the permanent residence card and passport in your hands, you can enter and leave mainland China as you wish. It sounds very nice, right? However, it is too difficult to apply for the Chinese permanent residence permit successfully. According to the statistics, just about 200 people successfully acquire it every year. Noyan Ronna is a lucky man. He is the only one who has the Chinese permanent residence permit among his friends. With the Chinese residence permit in hands, the foreigners can enjoy some rights and fulfill some obligations like Chinese people. However, Noyan Ronna doesn’t think that he has enjoyed the rights that he should have enjoyed. Some banks, hotels and financial organizations still don’t accept the Chinese permanent residence permit as personal valid documents. To them, the passport is the only valid document for foreigners. Noyan Ronna went to the Citibank in Shanghai to open a personal account. The staff refused him immediately when he took out his Chinese permanent residence permit. Noyan knew that he would be declined. He showed the printed version of the new guidelines outlining the rights of foreign “green card” holders to the staff and asked her to look at the 13th provision. According to the 13th provision, those green card holders can use their Chinese permanent residence permit as valid proof of identification when they deal with banking, insurance, securities, futures and other financial activities. The staff looked at the provision and then went into the office to discuss with her manager. She came out two minutes later and told him “No, you can’t use the Chinese permanent residence permit.” Noyan was very angry. He threw the guidelines on the desk and said “How dare you violate the laws?” The staff said calmly “We just follow our procedures regulated by our company.” She continued “According to our rules, foreigners who come to Citibank for counter business must provide their first and second identification papers. The passport is regarded as the only valid first identification paper.” Therefore, Noyan has to provide his passport (first identification paper) and Chinese permanent residence permit (second identification paper) if he wants to open an account.

Oct 14, 2013 02:37

JIMMYB
Points:
Join Date: Feb 7, 2007
Status: offline

Noyan Ronna, a 57 years old Turkish, successfully acquired the Chinese green card (Chinese permanent residence permit) this August. However, he found that it was not as good as he imagined.

Chinese permanent residence permit has another name “Chinese green card”. If you get it, you can stay in mainland China as long as you can. What’s more, you don’t need to apply for the visa when you enter China. With the permanent residence card and passport in your hands, you can enter and leave mainland China as you wish. It sounds very nice, right? However, it is too difficult to apply for the Chinese permanent residence permit successfully. According to the statistics, just about 200 people successfully acquire it every year. Noyan Ronna is a lucky man. He is the only one who has the Chinese permanent residence permit among his friends.

With the Chinese residence permit in hands, the foreigners can enjoy some rights and fulfill some obligations like Chinese people. However, Noyan Ronna doesn’t think that he has enjoyed the rights that he should have enjoyed. Some banks, hotels and financial organizations still don’t accept the Chinese permanent residence permit as personal valid documents. To them, the passport is the only valid document for foreigners.

Noyan Ronna went to the Citibank in Shanghai to open a personal account. The staff refused him immediately when he took out his Chinese permanent residence permit. Noyan knew that he would be declined. He showed the printed version of the new guidelines outlining the rights of foreign “green card” holders to the staff and asked her to look at the 13th provision. According to the 13th provision, those green card holders can use their Chinese permanent residence permit as valid proof of identification when they deal with banking, insurance, securities, futures and other financial activities. The staff looked at the provision and then went into the office to discuss with her manager. She came out two minutes later and told him “No, you can’t use the Chinese permanent residence permit.”

Noyan was very angry. He threw the guidelines on the desk and said “How dare you violate the laws?” The staff said calmly “We just follow our procedures regulated by our company.” She continued “According to our rules, foreigners who come to Citibank for counter business must provide their first and second identification papers. The passport is regarded as the only valid first identification paper.” Therefore, Noyan has to provide his passport (first identification paper) and Chinese permanent residence permit (second identification paper) if he wants to open an account.

Oct 14, 2013 02:37

JIMMYB
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Join Date: Feb 7, 2007
Status: Offline

Discouraged by the staff at the Citibank, Noyan went to an ICBC branch to open an account. The staff looked at his Chinese permanent residence permit carefully and then asked “Don’t you bring your passport? You can use your passport to open an account.” Noyan insisted that he wanted to open an account with his green card. Also he showed the guidelines to the staff. The lady was embarrassed and called her manager to confirm whether the green card can be used for opening an account. Ten minutes later, she told Noyan that he could use his green card to open an account.

Noyan read the registration form carefully and found out the Chinese permanent residence permit was listed as one of the valid identification papers. He asked the staff “Aren’t you familiar with the form?” The staff just said “Sorry, I didn’t know it.”

After opening an account at the ICBC branch, Noyan still had a doubt “Do all the foreign invested banks follow the same procedure?” He went to the Standard Charted Bank to confirm this. He showed the green card to the staff and told her he wanted to open an account. The staff refused and asked him to provide his passport. She told him that foreigners couldn’t open an account without passport. Noyan took out the printed guidelines and asked her to confirm this with her manager. Five minutes later, she told him that he could use his green card to open an account. Noyan asked “Why couldn’t you look up the regulations first?” The staff said “Sorry, we just updated our regulations and I didn’t see the guidelines before.”

Oct 14, 2013 02:38

JIMMYB
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Join Date: Feb 7, 2007
Status: Offline

After opening two accounts at the banks, Noyan decided to see whether he could register at the hotel with his green card. He went to the Motel168 and told the receptionist that he wanted to book a room. The receptionist asked him to provide his passport. Noyan showed him the guidelines and asked him to confirm it. The manager took out all the training materials and read them one by one. Suddenly, he found out that Chinese permanent residence permit could be used as valid document for registration. He apologized to Noyan and told him that he didn’t see any green card before.

Noyan went to the Lujiazui Shangri-La Hotel. He gave his green card to the receptionist and told her that he wanted to book a room. The girl looked at his green card for a second and said “Ok, just wait for a minute.” Noyan was surprised and asked “Really? Did you see the Chinese permanent residence permit before?” She answered “I have seen it two or three times since I worked here. But I am pretty sure that it can be used to book a room.”

Noyan was satisfied with the girl’s answer and then went to Shanxi Securities to try his luck. The manager told him immediately that he could buy A shares when Noyan told him that he wanted to buy some shares with his Chinese permanent residence permit.

Suddenly, Noyan came up with a new idea “Can I buy the air-ticket with my Chinese permanent residence permit?” He went to a ticket office and told the staff that he wanted to buy one air ticket with his green card. The staff told him that he could buy the ticket with his green card. However, he might have trouble when he printed the boarding pass at the airport.

According to the guidelines, Noyan can also buy the train tickets with his green card. However, he was very tired after going to banks, hotels and air ticket offices.

Oct 29, 2013 04:58

GUEST21102

No biggie. BRING YOUR PASSPORT! That is what they require. I would love to have a Green Card in China. It would give me the freedom to work where I want to work, change jobs ad do whatever without the yearly visa hassle and rule changes. And this guy is bitching because he cannot use it at the bank? Cry me a river.

As an aside, my banking tale of woe.

In 2010, I needed a new American passport. Went to Shanghai and got it. new passport has different number than the old one.

I lost my ATM card and went to the bank to get it replaced. Brought in my new passport. Although it has the same information and my picture, because it was a different passport number, I was initially refused service. I went back and forth with the woman and it was settled that the next week, I will bring in my old expired passport, which I did. That was my ID. Then I had to muck around at the window for 20 minutes while all the paperwork was arranged so I can use my new passport for ID at the bank. Just a pain, and be aware of it, if you change your passport.

Oct 29, 2013 20:08	#4
JIMMYB Points: Join Date: Feb 7, 2007 Status: Offline	GUEST21102, Your situation is totally different from the guy in the report. He earns his green card and wants to prove whether he can enjoy the rights gained when he got the green card. Sadly, the banks are not prepared well for those green card holders. Besides, he can easily open an account with his passport.
JIMMYB Points: Join Date: Feb 7, 2007 Status: Offline	Last edited by JIMMYB: Oct 29, 2013 20:09

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