Hello

I have a situation that needs to be solved. I was born and raised in China. However, my parents went to the US and applied for an American citizenship around 2002. At the time, I didn't want to apply, but they did it for me anyways (don't know how they did it)

Now I'm back in China. And I need a way so that I can stay here. My company right now won't sponsor me for a Z-visa (don't know why...they won't give me the EXACT details). Is there a way I can get a D-visa (since my relatives are all Chinese citizens)? Or any other way that I can stay in China? Is it easy for me to re-attain my Chinese citizenship?

How about working in hong Kong?

Since I'm also Chinese (but with American citizenship), I think it would be easier to obtain one of the said visas above?

I don't know about what happened before with your parents changing your citizenship (though I find it hard to think possible unless you were under 18 at that time).

That the company won't give you the paperwork to get a Z working visa is a red flag. If you will be working in the PRC, legally you need to be working on this visa. The exception is if you are doing something classified as an internship or a fellowship, for which an F visa is usually the correct one.

Because it requires more trouble and paperwork, a bit more expense, and you would be put on the tax rolls, dodgy companies often refuse to sponsor the Z visa and want you to come in and work on some other classification. Understand that if this is the situation you are facing, YOU are the one taking the risk of technically working illegally. Magnitude of that risk depends on nature of what you will be doing, clout of the company you are working for, duration, which city/town you will be located in, etc. It does not matter that you were born in China, etc. The fact is you hold a foreign passport. I suspect that whoever is hiring you feels pretty safe that as native-born (and I presume fluent Mandarin speaker, reader and writer), you will "pass" for local so will slide under radar. This will likely be true, but what I said before still goes as far as legality and risk. There are some "pluses" to working illegally and not being on a Z: easier to avoid income taxes, easier to change employers as on a Z, you need a formal release letter from Employer A before you can get work permit transferred to Employer B. These are, admittedly, quite attractive reasons for avoiding being legal.

D visas were originally intended more for older retired Chinese living abroad, with different citizenship, who wished to return to PRC for good. D's don't allow work privileges, and at any rate have become sort of an anachronism and replaced by other paperwork/procedures. Not an option for you. Ex-PRC citizens with relatives can get a one-year L visa with no restrictions on duration of stay or entries/exits. However, it does not come with work privileges. Occasionally 2 years are granted but there are no recent reports of success on the long length coming out of the USA. There is a new residency permit (which is what you're really after) process just announced in the last couple of months, and it is aimed at Chinese with other citizenships, who want to come back but who want to keep their current citizenships from another country. I don't know a lot of details on it or whether it eases the way for legally working. There was a recent thread on this on this forum, but not very in-depth. So, Google industriously and you can find out more about this. Many are reporting that the Chinese Embassys abroad, and their websites, are not exactly clear and useful references on this new development, but you can inquire.

As for regaining Chinese citizenship, I'm sure you could. But understand that the Chinese do not allow dual citizenship for adults, so they would certainly insist you renounce your US citizenship. (The USA allows duals so that isn't an issue.) This would give you Chinese residence and work privileges, but you would then be needing visas to visit the US and many other places. And I have no idea how you would get a new hukou permit in China that gives you official identity as resident of a specific city. This would be a big step with potentially life-changing repercussions, not to be taken without thinking through all the angles.

Hong Kong has completely separate immigration and visa issues from the PRC, but for working there, you do need the proper visa and cannot do so on the standard visa-less entry (which I think is time-limited for US passport holders anyway).

Thank you so much for your advice.

I think re-attaining Chinese citizenship is the simplest way to go. Or going to Hong Kong to work is another way.


However, when you mentioned the new residency permit. I think the one you're talking about is where they changed the rule regarding the length of time that you can stay in China. The time has been prolonged to 2 years for Children over the age of 18, coming back to China to take care of their parents, who are at least 60 years old.

This is the one, is it not? Still, there is at limit and you cannot work in that situation.

Also, I am fluent in Mandarin, able to read and write. But...um....I guess that doesn't help much.

Sorry to hear that the new regulation will not help your situation.

For the meantime, your best option may be to bide your time and see what the Chinese government does with regulations over the next couple of years. A gray-market visa agent in China would be able to convert your current visa (F I presume) into a new F for 6 months (or sometimes, 12 months) with multiple entries and no duration of stay limits. It won't be cheap though, for a US passport holder. This will buy time and flexibility.

Or you could look for a different employer that wouldn't have a problem sponsoring your Work Permit and Residence Permit (via the Z visa). This seems to me, to be the easiest solution of all.