registering visitors staying at private residence
 

I thought this had been covered, but if so, I've failed to find the relevant thread, apologies.

As many of you know (sorry to bore you with all this), have family visiting imminently, and they will be staying with us. I know we have to register them with the police within 24hrs of arrival, but I'm a bit confused as to what is required. My colleague called up the police station that we initially registered at when we moved apartment (she does this for me after I return from every international trip) and they said we need to go there with visitors' passports, our passports, our tenancy agreement and our landlord's ID card. However, this strikes me as a bizarre request. Actually, our landlord is really nice, and willing to lend me the ID card, but I can't imagine some billionaire landlord doing the same, or bothering to go to the police station in person. So I called a friend of mine, whom I know has had visitors (in the east side of town), and they said we need to get a special document from the management of the complex we live in, detailing that our landlord does indeed own the apartment, but we don't need an ID card.

Anyone able to clarify what's required? Given that actually our local police station is not so local, I don't want to have to go back and forth on this, especially with the 24hr window.

thanks!

tb

Worry not. If you really do care about this, a copy of your lease (or any lease) would be sufficient.

the lease, & the tax receipt of the apt. lease, & possibly an extra photo copy of the visitors passports may also be needed.

Not at my local PSB.

This is my sl. fear: there doesn't appear to be a consistent approach. And by 'tax receipt' of apartment lease: does that mean fapiao? We've never got any fapiaos for our rent...so that might be tricky...

tb

Agreed. BTW, wouldn't trueblu have had to go through this process himself? So whatever worked for trueblu should work for his relatives.

Most don't bother as the registration paper is only needed for things like applying for a driving licence.

When we went through this process: our landlord took us himself to the police station, and to be honest, I'm not sure what he showed them. I'm trying to avoid having to rope him in, since it would really be hassle, and would deter us from having house guests. The police themselves saying that they want to see his ID card is somewhat puzzling, however, and is not consistent with either the advice on this board, nor experience of other friends.

tb

The problem is that you're in Haidian, and police stations there are much more hard@ss than the ones in Chaoyang. This accounts for the variation in what you're hearing--in Chaoyang, I've never had to show more than a copy of the lease with photocopy of landlord's ID attached, but that was an easy-going subdistrict. The landlord's ID is actually a very typical request, but many stations don't require either the original or the landlord him/herself, just a copy of the ID.

I would try to get by with the following:
--your passport (or whoever's name the lease is in)
--relative's passport
--photocopy of lease
--photocopy of landlord's ID (either borrow if landlord is agreeable, or have landlord make several copies, and you stash the extras for future use)
--letter from wuye (management of apartment) stating that landlord does own the apartment and you are a registered tenant. Make sure the exact address that matches the lease itself is on the letter. Most wuye's do this as a regular matter.

Hopefully that will be it, and there will be no mention of fapiaos, landlord showing up in person, etc. Go in with the attitude of confident honored professor at Beida (Tsinghua?) and not a grungy waiguoren student that the Haidian police typically see. ;)

At my local PSB just a copy of the lease and passport is fine. My management office also provides documentation for visitors to bring to the PSB, just for having something with an official red stamp.

Thanks, this is very helpful, and I'll report back after thursday when we go to PSB. The idea of a copy of the landlord's ID makes a lot more sense, since that was required for the lease (although he didn't have it handy at the time). Will make several copies this time, since he's willing to lend it to us, luckily.

I was hoping to avoid going personally (will that be OK -- if I just send my passport with my wife -- lease is in my name)...since I am super busy that day at work.

tb

How long is your family staying? If it's anything less than 2-3 weeks I'd take my chances and not even bother going to the local fuzz. In the extremely unlikely event you get popped, claim ignorance and talk your way out of it.

Also, you say you register with the police every time you return from overseas. If you are on a residence permit, which I assume you are since you are working, you don't have to do that...only register once, then you're done.

Shanghai: We have simply showed up at the police station with our passports, no other documentation and not accompanied by the actual owner. The only thing that has ever been an issue was a while back they wanted a copy of the ID page of the passport and they didn't have a copier. That's no longer an issue, though.

My wife is Shanghai-born and speaks it at native fluency, perhaps this makes it easier.

First paragraph: Just No. Not in Beijing at this time. Maybe in some other cities you could do this, but the general atmosphere of crackdown in BJ right now does not favor this strategy. For 1-3 days, maybe one could get away with, but not more. They need to be registered.

Second paragraph: Correct, sort of. Normally, people on residence permits do not have to re-register with the PSB upon return from outside China, as long as nothing else (passport, residence, etc.) has changed. However, certain subdistricts do insist on re-registering, even for those on RP's. Again, mostly I've heard of this happening in Haidian Qu. When tried in most areas of Chaoyang, the police just look at you and your RP like you're nuts and say "go away." Only for those L's and F's are they willing to do the paperwork shuffle for each re-entry. Much of Haidian is different though.

The papers we get in Shanghai are always dated to expire on we plan to leave--we have to get new papers each time we go over there.

First, if possible to do the legal thing, would prefer to do so. I admit it might be a personal preference, but so it is. Re: re-registering every time I'm back in the country -- when we first registered, the PSB specifically asked me to do this (despite having a residence permit). Perhaps, as jiejie says, it's function of which district one lives in. However, I don't have to physically go there. I just have a colleague call up the PSB, say that "I'm back", and they say thanks for letting us know. I have no doubt that if I didn't do this, nothing would go amiss. But since it is entirely painless, I have no problem checking the box, at least for now.

tb