Zhangjiang seeks to lure top expat talent

THE Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone has been a key place to implement China’s newest policies for attracting talents from all over the world.

In a memorandum of understanding signed last year by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs and the Shanghai government, the two parties decided to jointly develop the zone as a pilot for international talent management and provide services and policies for expatriates.

Top foreign talents — highly skilled professionals — can now apply for permanent residency, or green cards, with a letter of recommendation from the administration committee of the zone.

They will no longer have to work for at least three years before they can apply for the card.

They will receive a reply from the city’s exit-entry administration authorities within 50 working days. Previously applicants had to wait up to six months to get a card.

Foreigners with a working residence permit applying for a green card can have their spouse and children under 18 apply for the card at the same time.

High-tech companies in the zone also enjoy favorable policies to hire international students from higher education institutions home and abroad.

International students with at least a bachelor’s degree from a Shanghai university can now get a one-year work visa right after graduation if they have job contracts with companies located in the zone.

Students from foreign universities listed on the website of the Ministry of Education can apply for an internship visa on arrival or while in Shanghai. And foreign students in universities in Shanghai can now start a business here with recommendation from the universities by applying for a study permit allowing “entrepreneurship.”