DaileyB

My children's family in Wuhan is giving both of my children (Son 22 and daughter 18) tens of thousands of dollars each. In talking with my son last night, who received a large payment about 14 months ago, he said that some banks have high fees associated with money transfers out of China (In our case Fifth Third Bank) I personally have no idea of what the fees would be and defer somewhat to my son who speaks and reads Chinese. (Over time, I have posted here a lot, but some people may not know that I am an American and my children are Americans, but their deceased mother was from Wuhan) In any event, he is thinking of going through Schwab to transfer the money out, and I am wondering what those of you who have transferred money out of China would recommend as the most convenient and least expensive way to do it.

narvik

Not sure if your kids travel to US often, but they could take USD$10000 at a time without declaring it on entry.
What bank do they have in China? A more international bank, such as ICBC might be easier than some of the others.

travelinmanS

ICBC charges me 80rmb for a wire transfer to the USA. The receiving bank usually charges $15.

DaileyB

Thanks for your help. I will relay the info to my son. I think he may be conflating a sharp drop in the yuan 4 or 5 months ago with the actual cost of wiring the money out of China.

YariGuy

All the info above applies if your kids are in fact getting US Dollars. It's a whole different story for them to exchange RMB into USD.

Palal

You can only take 5K USD out of China without declaring it.

Any individual can transfer up to $50k out of China per year. Wire fees vary by bank.
For US Banks, some don't charge wire fees if you have some amount of $$ (e.g. BofA preferred program).

narvik

<cough> oops <cough>

tauphi

There are no limits on the amount of outbound wires, in USD or any other currency (apart from CNY which cannot be wired out).

However, a Chinese national resident in China can only convert USD50k from CNY without providing additional proof.

travelinmanS

Foreigners cannot transfer out the 50K per year unless they have tax receipts for that money. They can transfer out whatever amount of money they have paid tax on regardless of how much or how little it is. Chinese citizens can transfer 50K a year no questions asked.

889

If the sums are quite large, there may be a need to file little-known IRS Form 3520.

tauphi

Again the limit is not on the transfer. If you already have the USD sitting in your bank account you can transfer as much as you wish.

The limit is on converting CNY into USD (or another currency).

As for the annual limit on conversions, foreign nationals are entitled to exchange up to USD500 per day with no proof, up to USD50k per annum. I actually did that during my first stint in China before I had tax receipts and ran into the annual limit.

YariGuy

Wow, 20 years in China and I did not know that. This is great to know.

travelinmanS

You're right. I should have said convert not transfer. I actually did another conversion/transfer at the bank today, getting the horrible 7.33 exchange rate . It's at least an hour wasted every time. I wish they would make this process easier somehow but I don't think that will happen anytime soon.

tauphi

Well I am no longer in "China" so now I have the opposite problem of funding my CNY purchases. But I do like the rate, wish it would go lower

jamar

This does depend on the bank's understanding of the exemption. Interestingly, I've had a harder time getting foreign banks to do this; UOB and Standard Chartered would often refuse me even the 500 (Chinese New Year money received back when I was a student = no tax paid and nothing to show at the bank) but ICBC and BOC were fine doing it.