Top tech talent can now get Chinese entrepreneurship visas

China’s popularity as a start-up hub for expat professionals, especially in the tech sector, is growing fast thanks to its new entrepreneurship visa.

China’s not just attracting ever-increasing numbers of talented expatriates to its established companies, it’s now encouraging them to leave their jobs and start up on their own without visa hassles. The answer for those who’ve been working legally in China for an established company and now want to go-it-alone would seem to be an incubator able to provide not only finance options but also a working space, company registration and, most importantly, an entrepreneurship visa. K-Tech Hongqiao International Incubation Center is Shanghai’s answer to expats desperate to develop their own ideas legally and safely.

In an interview with the expatriate media, the centre’s managing partner Zhu Peiyi described how the company had consulted with Shanghai’s Entry-Exit Administration Bureau, with the result being the special residency permit now referred to as the ‘entrepreneurship’ or ‘business start up’ visa. Peiyi added most foreign business people weren’t aware they could qualify for this visa, but now the good news is out there her company is getting enquiries from a number of foreign consulates in Shanghai.

Starting in 2105, the city’s immigration office has launched 25 pilot schemes featuring policies aimed at simplifying expat visa processing as well as diversifying specific types of visa to fit in with the increased demand. It’s all good news for innovative expat tech talent hoping to get a foothold in China, with the country more than happy to make life easier for those with brand new ideas for the development of the tech environment,

The irony of encouraging top Western tech talent which might well have headed for Silicon Valley, thus resulting in US-based copyrights for new innovations rather than their Chinese equivalents, won’t have been lost on Chinese lawmakers, but may well not have been noted by their counterparts in the present USA political environment