Expats in Shanghai Hongqiao Zone offered three year residence permits

Expat professionals working within Shanghai’s dedicated Hongqiao Business Zone can now apply for full three-year residency permits.

The recently-introduced initiative is aimed at attracting talented staff to companies established in the zone. The three-year permits are aimed at professional workers, with four years offered to departmental managers and five-year permits available for general managers and other top executive-level staff and family members are included.

Residence permits are just some of a new range of benefits offered to talented foreign professionals wishing to work in Shanghai. Assistance will be given with renting or purchasing apartments through a housing subsidy, providing the right educational facilities for children and offering top-class medical care for staff and their families.

Housing developments near the Business Zone are already home to strong Japanese and South Korean communities, with 800,000 foreign residents in total living close by their places of work. The zone itself is home to important overseas enterprises, and most of the expat staff work at executive and managerial level.

International schools are being built close to the housing developments, and are expected to be able to place some 5,000 students. Shopping malls are on the list for development, and the district is expected to become a major central business zone for the city.