I started the process and was given the plain message that it was a waste of time to continue.
There are specific things they’re looking for in people they give PRs to. Being ethnically Chinese at least partially helps a great deal. Having specific “high value” skills also helps a lot (though even with those skills it’s a crap shoot if you get it). Having certain political connections helps a lot too.
None of these are definitive, though. The bulk of expats don’t stand a chance. Even long-term expats like me who’ve married in, own real estate, started a business, etc. For all practical purposes the PR is unattainable.
If I moved to China it would be for political and ideological reasons more than anything else. On a tangent, why do Americans refer to themselves as expats as opposed to immigrants?
This is a whole other can of worms, but in the colloquial sense “expat” is a word a white immigrant uses to refer to themselves and other white immigrants. “Immigrant” is the term used for coloured people living in a different country than where they were born and grew up. The official definition for “expat” is a worker with temporary residency in a country for work; the person means to or has to return to their country of origin at some point. The term is rarely used like that though. Even if it were, we have the lovely “temporary foreign worker” or “guest worker” to refer to coloured or lower-class expats. So no matter which way you look at it the term “expat” is wrapped in racism.
a) I’m not an American.
b) The term “immigrant” carries with it some sense of permanence that the word “expat” doesn’t. An immigrant aspires to permanent stay in the country. An expat does not.
As with most things there are blurry edges. I’ve been an expat for over 20 years, for example, which strains the bounds of this. But still, in the end, there’s a difference between someone in the country on a short term work visa (even if endlessly renewed) than someone going through the immigration procedure.
Tell that to the officials here and they’ll laugh at you. I’ll take their word for my standing over yours, thank you very much. I try not to tell the locals how things work in their country.
Yes. Well the specific term they use translates to ‘foreign resident’ (外国居民) but it’s a different word from ‘immigrant’ (移民). (The actual translation of ‘expatriate’ is 外派人员, but it’s not a word that you’ll find on official documents anywhere. Bureaucratic language is always different from common language.)
I started the process and was given the plain message that it was a waste of time to continue.
There are specific things they’re looking for in people they give PRs to. Being ethnically Chinese at least partially helps a great deal. Having specific “high value” skills also helps a lot (though even with those skills it’s a crap shoot if you get it). Having certain political connections helps a lot too.
None of these are definitive, though. The bulk of expats don’t stand a chance. Even long-term expats like me who’ve married in, own real estate, started a business, etc. For all practical purposes the PR is unattainable.
If I moved to China it would be for political and ideological reasons more than anything else. On a tangent, why do Americans refer to themselves as expats as opposed to immigrants?
This is a whole other can of worms, but in the colloquial sense “expat” is a word a white immigrant uses to refer to themselves and other white immigrants. “Immigrant” is the term used for coloured people living in a different country than where they were born and grew up. The official definition for “expat” is a worker with temporary residency in a country for work; the person means to or has to return to their country of origin at some point. The term is rarely used like that though. Even if it were, we have the lovely “temporary foreign worker” or “guest worker” to refer to coloured or lower-class expats. So no matter which way you look at it the term “expat” is wrapped in racism.
a) I’m not an American. b) The term “immigrant” carries with it some sense of permanence that the word “expat” doesn’t. An immigrant aspires to permanent stay in the country. An expat does not.
As with most things there are blurry edges. I’ve been an expat for over 20 years, for example, which strains the bounds of this. But still, in the end, there’s a difference between someone in the country on a short term work visa (even if endlessly renewed) than someone going through the immigration procedure.
If you’ve lived in a country for over two decades, own property, and run a business there then you absolutely are an immigrant.
Tell that to the officials here and they’ll laugh at you. I’ll take their word for my standing over yours, thank you very much. I try not to tell the locals how things work in their country.
You’re saying the officials call you an expat as opposed to an immigrant?
Yes. Well the specific term they use translates to ‘foreign resident’ (外国居民) but it’s a different word from ‘immigrant’ (移民). (The actual translation of ‘expatriate’ is 外派人员, but it’s not a word that you’ll find on official documents anywhere. Bureaucratic language is always different from common language.)
To sum up, the officials don’t call you an expat. Thanks for finally clarifying that.
You really are a fatuous pedant, aren’t you?