Approval of the activities of a company with foreign workers
Recently, the requirements for companies hiring foreign employees have grown fairly strict. This is due to a number of factors – from the founding of a company by almost everyone striving to stay in China and attempts to obtain visas for themselves, to the periodic cleansing of zombie enterprises 僵尸企业. Accordingly, there is “Registration and approval of the activities of a company related to foreigners”, or 涉外单位备案, which has existed for quite a long time, but until recently was rather formal in nature.
This article is about Shenzhen, which historically has become a very wealthy city and has attracted an extremely large number of foreigners. But, judging by a cursory search, this procedure exists in many places – such as Anhui, Tianjin, etc.
The first thing to understand is that in China, as elsewhere, everything is subordinate to separate departments. For example, visas are issued by the PRC consulates abroad – it is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Work permits are issued by SAFEA – it is a separate, independent body. While the residence permit is issued by the immigration service – this is the Ministry of Public Security.
Specifically, this document applies only to the latter – to the issuance of residence permits. Accordingly, you need to understand that you can get a visa to enter the country, you can get a work permit – but this does not guarantee that you will receive a residence permit – if the employer or employee in some way fails to satisfy the requirements of the immigration service.
Well, and, of course, this document is necessary when obtaining/extending a residence permit of all relevant types (more on this below).
The list of documents there is very short and simple. Now I would like to focus on what might catch their eye.
The first thing they pay attention to is the amount of taxes paid for the previous calendar year. This concerns specifically taxes – for example, customs duties are not taken into account here. The personal income tax of employees is also excluded from consideration – this is an employee’s tax, rather than a company’s one.
VAT, education tax, stamp duty, etc. are taken into account. The supporting document is 纳税证明, which is obtained online and the term in which should be from January 1 to December 31 last year.
The second is the number of residence permits and visas issued by the company. Let’s consider a detailed list (for the terms see the screenshot above):
1) 工作类 – working residence permit, issued to the direct employees of this company
2) 学习类 – student with the right to practical training. Foreign students who are doing internship in this company
3) 签证 – the number of visas issued at the invitation of this company
4) 家属类 – family residence permit, issued to family members of employees of this company
When submitting documents for obtaining/extending a residence permit, you must also submit a photocopy of the first page of this booklet.
The documents required directly for application:
1) business license of the company 营业执照 – the original and a copy with the company seal
2) passport or ID card of the legal representative 法人 – a copy with a seal
3) passport or ID card of the contact person 联络人 – a copy with a seal
4) certificate of payment of contributions to the SSF by the contact person for the previous 2 months – the original (as a confirmation of relationship with the company)
5) certificate of payment of taxes by the company for the previous calendar year 纳税证明 – the original
6) a report on the public credit information of the company 公共信用信息查询报告 printed from the website https://www.szcredit.com.cn with the seal of the company – 2 copies
7) application – 2 copies
Please submit documents to the city migration service or to a single service center for population. If there are no questions from the inspector, there is no time limit for consideration and the booklet will be issued to you immediately.