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Losing visa power in China

Thousands of Indians living and working in China will be forced to return home in the coming weeks and months as a result of China’s tightening of its visa regime.

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Indians flying home as Beijing gets tough ahead of Olympics

HONG KONG: Thousands of Indians living and working in China will be forced to return home in the coming weeks and months as a result of China’s tightening of its visa regime, evidently as part of security arrangements for the Beijing Olympics. 

The stricter visa norms and their more rigorous implementation apply to all nationalities, not just to Indians; and in practice the changes only plug a laissez-faire loophole that allowed countless foreigners, including Indians, to work and do business in China for years without paperwork — and sometimes on just a tourist visa. 

But the impact of these changes will perhaps be felt most severely by Indian trading and sourcing companies, which have significant operations in China, says Hong Kong businessman M Arunachalam, former president of the Asia Pacific Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and former chairman of the Indian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong.  

The trickle of home-ward bound Indians has gathered pace since the regulations came into force late in March, about a fortnight after anti-Chinese protests erupted in Tibet.  

DNA spoke to several Indians who have returned to India after their applications for extension of their ‘F’ (business) visas or for conversion to ‘Z’ (employment) visas were rejected. 

“My F visa, which had a six-month validity, was to expire in mid-May, but when I sought an extension, I was told to apply from my home country,” one young engineer from Mumbai, who was working in a sourcing firm in southern China for over two years, told DNA on condition of anonymity. He – and five of his Indian colleagues who were in a similar situation – have now returned to India. And since the documentation procedures are too complex for small trading firms to abide by, he reckons that he has no option but to “restart my career – or wait to see if the visa regulations are eased again after the Olympics.” 

The problem arose when, in response to the Tibet protests and perhaps to keep track of foreigners’ comings and goings ahead of the Olympics, China tightened the screws on its visa regime, including for tourists.  

Anyone applying for an F (business) visa is now required to show supporting documents – such as confirmation of flight bookings and hotel reservation and – perhaps most cumbersome of all – “an invitation letter from a relevant department of the Chinese government, company or institution, under the authorisation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China.” 

Earlier, it was common (even though it was forbidden) for a person on a business or a tourist visa to take up employment – and even remain off the radar of income tax authorities; that loophole too has been plugged.  

Even tourists applying for an L (tourism) visa require supporting documents – such as details of flight tickets and hotel bookings.  

L and F visas are being issued as single-entry 30-day visas unless applicants make out a persuasive case for double- or multiple-entry visas. Moreover, India is among 33 countries whose nationals resident in China must return to their home country to secure an extension or renewal of their F visas.  

Foreigners in China’s big cities, including Shanghai, are being advised to carry their passports all the time and be prepared to subject themselves to random checks of the validity of their visa. 

It’s difficult to get a precise estimate of the number of Indians who will be affected by the measures, since many of them remained off the radar of the Indian Embassy and consular officials. But a source familiar with the on-the-ground situation estimates that up to 15,000 Indians who were living and working in China’s trading hubs – Shenzhen and Guangzhou in southern China and Yiwu on the east coast — may be forced to return home in the coming weeks and months.  

Yiwu, which is the world’s biggest commodity trading centre and the epicentre of globalisation, was once home to over 10,000 Indian traders. “Today,” says the source, “there are far fewer.” Most of them, he reckons, were working on F visas, in technical breach of their visa regulations. “That’s why they can’t complain openly. The Chinese government can simply turn around and say, ‘You’re not working here legally and are not paying taxes’.”  

Typically, high-profile companies don’t see their Indian staff being forced to leave China because their visa compliance record is excellent, since their employees work on a valid employment visa. “But even they have to live with a more cumbersome documentation process when they want to depute for short-duration assignments,” says Arunachalam.  
A Hong Kong-based Chinese businessman, however, says that the new visa regime is a sign that China is implementing rule-of-law procedures, and to that extent ought to be welcomed. “In any case, today it’s not exactly easy for a Chinese businessman or an employee to get an India visa,” he points out.  

The stricter new visa regime in place in China has opened up a new market for a range of services – from “invitation letters” in support of a business visa application to “marriages of convenience”. 

An enterprising Chinese businessman has scented a business opportunity in the new visa regime and is offering to sell “invitation letters”, which are required as supporting documents to secure a business visa. 

Advertising its services on the e-commerce portal Alibaba.com, the Yantai LongHarmony Business Development company, based in Shandong province on the east coast, states that it will “provide official invitation letter” to facilitate a six-month multiple-entry visa. 

Several African traders have also found an inventive way out to get around the visa regime by entering into “marriages of convenience” with local Chinese women, which gives them residency rights. “The number of such marriages of convenience has increased since the new visa regulations came into force,” an African businessman who represents a Chinese company told DNA. “Residency rights are all they need to carry on their business.”

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