A friend suggested I sign up to be a ride hailing app driver to meet new clients. I went and signed up, it took my ID and everything then had an “error”.
Support ended up saying they don’t support my form of ID. I told them it’s essentially the same as a 居民身份证 according to the law and they just said “sorry we don’t currently accept anything except 居民身份证.
Things I can’t do even as a permanent resident:
Open a credit card
Take out a loan
Buy a house (on mortgage)
Sign up for any online jobs like ride hailing
Use 花呗
Any form of investments/interest bearing accounts
…
Maybe one day, maybe never.
The whole "permanent residence" phrase is laughable. You have a 10-year work visa that's simply not tied to a single company. Don't get me wrong, i'd love to have that benefit myself, but people often misunderstand what it essentially is
I think there's a pretty fundamental difference that in order to renew a work residence permit you need to maintain a job. Whereas to maintain pr you just have to live here sometimes.
Yep that's my point in terms of not being tied to a company
I mean that's a pretty huge difference and really the only reason you would want permanent residence anyway?
Is there a country that offers permanent residence more permanent than what China offers? Because China's requirements to maintain are extremely low, lower than the US for example.
UK. Permanent residence is exactly that and does not need renewing every 10 years. You’re allowed up to 2 years out of the country and so long as you don’t stay out longer than two years at one time you keep it
So, more permanent in some ways, less permanent in others (you could leave China for 4 years, for example). I would agree though that does seem much "more permanent."
Still not zero requirements to maintain, though.
If you leave China do 4 years that’s okay at the start. Do renewal there is a requirement to have been living in China 9 months per year for the previous 5 years, same as the original application.
I never said UK was zero requirements. Though as long as you meet the minimum then it is permanent, whereas China needs to be renewed every 10 years. So UK does offer more permanent residence than what China offers which is what I was answering
No it's not. The requirements to renew are:
Not being deported. Didn't commit fraud to get pr originally. Spent 3 months per year in China OR 1 year every 5 years.
So basically as long as you live here sometimes, it's permanent.
The zero requirements to maintain is what the OP was wanting in order to consider it "permanent."
“Spent 3 months per year in China OR 1 year every 5 years”
I’ve never come across the 2nd point. Do you have a link for that one? (Out of interest to learn, it’s not something I’ve come across).
First place I found mentioning it is here: https://www.nia.gov.cn/n794014/n1050181/n1050479/c1295837/content.html
Though that seems to be worded differently than what I always remember reading. The way I remember and the way it seems currently implemented is that the default is 3 months per year, and you can apply for approval to do 1 year every 5 years instead. This link seems to indicate you can actually do even less than that (or maybe I'm just reading it wrong) with permission.
Reports from people that have asked for the approval are that it is pretty much automatic, just you have to ask. Or I believe in some cities, they say no pre-approval even necessary.
Not sure about the US, but i think the keyword here is "permanent", ie, indefinitely
I'm just saying, I don't think any country offers permanent residence that has no requirements to maintain. China's seems about as close as you can get.
The problem with China's isn't whether or not it's permanent, it's that there's no path to citizenship.
There's a path to citizenship. You just gotta be really really good at sports. 😂
It's true, I recently saw that there are very good athletes who only have a little bit of Chinese ethnicity at the very least, but they were very good athletes and China gave them citizenship so that they could be part of their future Olympic team, mainly in winter sports.
I'm not talking about how difficult or easy it is to obtain, i'm just stating that it's not permanent residence
I didn't say anything about difficulty to obtain?
All I'm saying is no country offers permanent residence by that metric (afaik).
Ah my bad, read ya wrong
Australian also isnt (if you leave the country)
Japan lets you pretty much say "I won't be back within a year" and maintain it forever as long as every time you leave you tell them you won't be back soon. I know a Chinese woman with Japanese PR, daughter is 20ish, she left a good 10sh years ago by my understanding
Your comment is underrated. This is actually the only true benefit. It may not be a benefit for much longer though if the job market keeps shrinking. I've been working towards mine, but I'm not looking forward to it as much these days.
Yes, it is how it is. Basically a 10 year old residence permit that includes a work permit and some other perks. The best advantage for me is that you can touch and go to the the train, also when entering the station.
Despite the card saying you have the same rights, the practice is far from reality.
I had an employment dispute last year and considered arbitration but wouldn't take my case because the corresponding law citing duties and benefits here in Sichuan only mentioned Chinese citizens, not foreigners even having permanent residence status. I was told bluntly, that in this case I have the right to take legal action against the provincial government to address a change in law but there's nothing they can do now.
I have had some success going to the counter at certain businesses and politely discussing the matter, getting it manually pushed through. But completely online businesses it hasn’t been possible yet.
Some occupations are regulated for PRC citizen only status, which unfortunately the permanent resident card does not get. Ridehailing is one of them, and due to passenger safety, liability, local hukou system requirements and things like that are not open roles for foreigners. They for example can’t hold a foreigner liable to the same degrees they can a citizen.
You should be able to buy a house and get a mortgage or loan though. Credit card is possible too.
Every bank I’ve been to says they don’t offer for foreigners, even with my ID. And loan services all reject immediately based on “this card type not supported”
I got a mortgage before getting pr, though the real estate agent had to work to find a bank willing to do it.
Car loan also without pr.
I know people with credit cards without pr (seems it's easy in Shanghai). I always failed though. I got a credit card after getting pr.
Got a loan but not credit card is wild.
I suppose it makes some sense in that a credit card is unsecured.
I'm sure I could have gotten one if I kept trying. I failed twice. First time at icbc they claimed my name was too long to fit on the card, and they weren't allowed to shorten it. Second time with merchants I was able to apply but got a denial with no reason given. Looking back I think I just didn't provide a correct document, and they just denied me instead of asking for the correct one.
Seperately, I disagree with credit card and loan. I got both even before my permanent residency.
Were you able to sign up for the ride hail endorsement test for your driver license?
Edit: opening a credit card and taking a mortgage can be done even without permanent residence.
Yeah I used my Chinese drivers license, it accepted that then errored out after because my ID number “wasn’t a real ID number”
So then did it work or not? Did you take the test? I tried signing up on a provincial miniapp and it wouldn't work. Also found a nationwide system and also didn't seem to work.
I had the interesting situation of being in a minor accident a few years ago, and needing to get a police supervisor out to deal with it; because while I have a Chinese license, all the police and insurance systems also require a shenfenzheng number. After an hour of back and forth, the senior cop filed an incident report that said despite the video showing me driving, it was actually my wife in control, so they could use her ID number.
Meanwhile, I was able to get a credit card. Was told it was able to be used worldwide, but then got to the US and the bank had "forgotten" to actually connect up the Visa or something. Chinese colleague had no trouble with hers though. I got back to China and asked wtf happened? "Oh, foreigners can't use them overseas because you might not come back and pay the debt."
What's the fucking point of a visa credit card you can only use domestically? UnionPay is useless overseas and visa is useless domestically
Assuming you just use Alipay/Wechatpay domestically, then it doesn't really matter Unionpay/Visa/Mastercard. My main bank account debit card is a Mastercard, no problems using it domestically.
But yeah still silly not to let the visa credit card be used overseas.
TIL, I was under the impression that domestic Chinese master/Visa cards didn’t work on Alipay. Is your main bank a Chinese one, for the avoidance of doubt
Correct. It's a regular mainland Chinese bank account and the associated debit card/ATM card is a Mastercard.
What bank? I’d like to be able to spend money abroad as I don’t want to send spending money back to UK. Are there fees for overseas use?
Can it be added to Apple Pay?
It's from CITIC. I was able to tap/insert abroad but it seemed there was a transaction limit more restrictive than what I had set, maybe around 500 rmb. No fees for this other than the forex spread, which seemed pretty minimal to me. It did constantly tell me that they were putting extra money on hold until the transaction cleared, which was kind of annoying.
ATM withdrawals didn't seem to have the same limit, but it seemed to be counting against a legal annual limit. Had to pay the ATM fee, so not as good as my US Schwab debit card that reimburses those, but CITIC did not charge a fee. I think it's first three per month are no fee, so not unlimited.
I don't have an iPhone. It cannot be added to Google pay, or I haven't managed to.
I had the opposite experience with a car accident. Everything went perfectly smooth as far as I could tell, no problems using my passport number as ID number. I wonder if the systems are different in different cities.
Got a paper listing all of the involved driver's names (three people), our ID numbers (passport for me at the time) and our insurance policy numbers. Also what percent each driver was responsible (0% for me). Took that paper and my car to the 4S, got a free rental, and picked up my car a few days later. I found it better than my experience in the US.
Same issue. I specifically signed up for the PRC to solve these types of issues. The reality has been the opposite - it creates new issues you didn’t even know existed, while leaving nearly all previous issues still broken. Sorry, but aside from a few nice to have perks like easier access to train stations and quitting your job, it’s a disappointment.
So far!
But yeah. Not holding my breath
As I now reside comfortably outside of China, let's do some story time...
I was denied to take out any loans (one example: personal consumption "flash" loans) despite having met all other criteria except being a Chinese national. I opened multiple complaints with the Shanghai Regulatory Bureau of the State Financial Regulatory Commission back in May of 2025. Each of these complaints went absolutely nowhere. The regulator dutifully took the complaint, I showed the bank they were violating the law, and the bank stated it was there policy, the regulator would proceed to close or redirect the complaint with no action taken against each of the three different banks I tested both in person and in their app (CMB, BOC, ICBC). I can state clearly that the regulator is complicit in these violations. Feel free to try to report the issues again.
Here are some relevant laws:
http://www.pbc.gov.cn/eportal/fileDir/image_public/rhwg/961202f.html -
https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/2024/issue_11306/202404/content_6947720.html
(1) The borrower is a citizen of the People's Republic of China with full capacity for civil conduct or an overseas natural person who complies with relevant national regulations;
One of the banks informed me they were denying foreigners from applying due to 1996 regulation: The General Provisions on Loans (1996), a still-effective departmental regulation, provide in Article 17 that borrowers must be enterprises or institutions approved and registered with the competent administrative authority, other economic organizations, individual businesses, or natural persons with full civil capacity and Chinese nationality.
Is this a new issue? Of course not. It's been the same for many, many years:
https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/85952262?utm_source=zhihu&utm_medium=social&utm_oi=42489201295360
You can get a credit card even without PR, recommend: Fubon Bank, ICBC, CMB
You cant get microloan, but you can get car loan and mortgage loan.
Never tried online job or huabei
You can get investment account, recommend: 中信证券
I’ve been with icbc for 15 years and they never let me
Change to a bigger and better branch. Or try CMB, they are the most foreigner friendly bank.
My wife’s boss is Italian and has one as well. He says it’s a joke. Only thing it’s good for is going through immigration line. Other than that still needs to carry passport for every thing. He’s a frequent business traveler been living China for 20 years.
Basically, need to look for this is the drop down box. 外国人永久居留身份证. Foreign Permanent Residence.
Others 居民身份证. Chinese Mainland Citizens ID. You’re not citizen, can’t select this.
I don’t see why you will need it for Ride Hailing app. I’m not citizen I still can sign up for Didi apps. Foreign travelers still can use Didi apps
I think he wants to be a ride hailing driver.
They are trying to work as a didi or ride jailing driver.
Yes I missed it
Yes I misread it
Yes I missed it.
I think OP wanted to be a driver, rather than a passenger.
wtf 🤣. I totally missed that. Why not? I’m sure can speak Chinese to communicate with passenger. I think that’s more either cannot have a part time driver or ride hailing apps do not hire foreign drivers
I have a lot of free time during the day and can meet new clients by doing ride sharing / I own my car
So my friend suggested I sign up for the app. But so far it isn’t accepting FPRID
Maybe contact the ride sharing companies customer service?
What does he still need his passport for? My experience has been that, domestically, I can switch everything over to the card (and Chinese name!). I don't think I have anything left registered under my passport at this point. Only need passport for immigration. Seems like the exact opposite experience.
Though does it work better than a passport? No, it seems about the same.
I don’t know all his personal details. All, he said he still needs to carry for all his business travels for hotels and flights.
Hotels and flights definitely work with the card and no passport. You can even book flights with the Chinese name on the card. Sounds like he's just choosing to continue using a passport, which is also an option, but he doesn't have to.
Is it the old style or new 5 star card?
5 star was meant resolve many of those issues.
Oh God, cone on. We know it was mostly a change in name. That's the standard here.
this country, i fucking swear...
Sorry, swearing is only for citizens.
"this video cannot be played"
I bet if I were a permanent resident, it would play!
So I know that Chinese companies which wanna hire foreigners need to have some sort of certification, and then that'll allow them to apply for a work permit for the foreign employees.
I was under the impression that with the foreign permanent residence ID you wouldn't have to limit yourself to Chinese companies holding that certificate, you could literally apply for the same jobs as locals, whether that be a waiter or shop assistant at your local grocery store.
Any idea if that's true?
I guess even if it possible, like Didi, their digital systems won't even have the option of supporting a foreign permanent residence ID.
Do you need to be working on top of a permanent resident for investments? You should be able to buy stocks after you go through the whole process and investment products from your bank
Basically, FPR ID card ≠ citizen ID card.
It's said to be more convenient, but in reality it doesn't really work for many things. A lot of basic utility APPs are incompatible with it.
Some success can be had if you go to the local office of said utility and talk it out, e.g., state grid, gas board, water board, HOA, etc. They have ways to get around the "online only registration" that the person on the desk will tell you.
I know I'd rather have everything tied to FPR card ID, and the only thing permanent about it - the number - rather than my passport that changes number every time it's renewed.
Backup of the post's body: A friend suggested I sign up to be a ride hailing app driver to meet new clients. I went and signed up, it took my ID and everything then had an “error”.
Support ended up saying they don’t support my form of ID. I told them it’s essentially the same as a 居民身份证 according to the law and they just said “sorry we don’t currently accept anything except 居民身份证.
Things I can’t do even as a permanent resident:
Open a credit card
Take out a loan
Buy a house (on mortgage)
Sign up for any online jobs like ride hailing
Use 花呗
Any form of investments/interest bearing accounts
…
Maybe one day, maybe never.
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