Tired of Racists America – Lots of good paying jobs in HK & China. 厭倦了美國的種族主義 – 香港和中國有很多高薪工作. Effective immediately, for Chinese work visa (Z visa) and dependent visa (S1 visa) applications, the PU letter is no longer required.
For M visa applications, the PU Letter is still required unless the applicant has been inoculated with Chinese produced COVID-19 vaccines.
The PU Letter for China (also known as an Invitation Letter) is a government-issued document that foreigners must receive before applying for several types of visas, such as M-visa or Q1/Q2-visas. Until the June 2022 provision, it was a must-have document also for Z-visa.
Who will be affected?
Foreigners who are entering China for work.
Background
Since March 2020, the PU letter was required when foreigners needed to apply for work visas, business visas or dependent visas for China. The PU letter applications have been a great challenge and frustration for many applicants as it has taken longer than expected to get the PU letter, in some instances between up to 2-4 months. In addition, the PU letter was not issued to dependents which has resulted in long separations of family.
Earlier this week, a notice from the government authorities in Shanghai stated that effective from 6th June 2022, the PU Letter will no longer be issued for applicants who need to relocate to China for a work purpose (Z visa applicants) and their accompanying family members (S1 visa applicants).
It has also been confirmed by the Chinese embassies in many countries that the applicants can provide the same set of application documents as the pre COVID-19 period for visa applications for the Chinese work visa (Z visa) and dependent visa (S1 visa) applications.
Impact
With the cancellation of PU letter requirements, the immigration process prior to entering China will be much shorter and less complicated.
Implementation Date
6th June, 2022
Our Recommendations
With the containment measures of COVID-19, the Chinese government has now started to put focus on action plans to accelerate economic recovery and revitalization. The strict controls on immigration of foreign employees into China will be gradually lifted in order to provide conveniences for international companies to re-begin top talent movement.
Additionally, although the Chinese government still insists on a zero-covid policy, with the introduction of new prevention and control measures such as people scanning the site code and showing the nucleic acid negative report sampled within 72 hours when entering any public places. We expect a further lifting on quarantine requirements for inbound travelers in the near future.
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