TAS ChinaGuides
Free guides to two systems of everyday life.
Plain-language orientation for Chinese families settling abroad, and for people from other countries who live in China. Free to everyone. No card is needed.
Guides
Ten practical guides.
Each guide sets out what a system expects of a newcomer, in the order you will meet it, and points you to the public authority that decides. Rules differ from place to place and change over time, so each guide tells you what to confirm.
Abroad
For Chinese families settling in another country
1Building a credit history from zeroYour record at home does not travel. This is how a new one is built.
- Accept the starting point: credit records stay in the country where they were made. A strong record at home does not transfer, and you begin again.
- Open a local bank account and have your salary, stipend or allowance paid into it.
- Put one or two regular bills, such as a phone contract or a utility, in your own name, and pay them on time, every time.
- Where the system builds history through credit cards, begin with a basic or secured card, use a small part of the limit, and pay the full balance each month.
- Keep your name and address identical on every account; lenders match records by them.
- Read your credit report from the official credit bureaus once or twice a year, and correct mistakes in writing.
- Avoid several applications in a short time. Each application may leave a mark on your record.
Check the official source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (United States) Financial Consumer Agency of Canada MoneyHelper (United Kingdom) Moneysmart (Australia)
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
2A bank account abroadThe documents banks ask for, and the order in which to gather them.
- Before you travel, ask whether your home bank has a partner abroad or lets you open an international account in advance.
- Gather your passport, your visa or residence document, and proof of address: a tenancy agreement, a letter from your university or employer, or a utility bill.
- If you have no proof of address yet, ask the bank which documents it accepts from new arrivals. Many accept a letter from a university or an employer.
- Open an everyday account first. Add a savings account once the first is running.
- Ask three questions before you sign: what the account costs each month, what it costs to receive money from abroad, and how you send money home.
- Set up online banking, and keep your home-country phone number active if your home bank sends security codes to it.
- Tell the bank if you are resident for tax in more than one country. It is obliged to ask.
- Keep a copy of everything you sign.
Check the official source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (United States) Financial Consumer Agency of Canada MoneyHelper (United Kingdom) Moneysmart (Australia)
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
3Driving licence: exchange or testRules are set locally and differ widely. These are the questions to settle.
- Find the licensing authority for the state, province or country where you live. Driving rules are set locally.
- Settle three things first: whether you may drive on your existing licence, for how long after you arrive, and whether an official translation is required.
- Ask whether your licence can be exchanged for a local one, or whether you must pass a theory test, a road test, or both.
- Have your licence translated by a translator the authority accepts.
- Book tests early, and study the local rules and road signs even if you have driven for many years.
- Arrange motor insurance before you drive. It is compulsory almost everywhere.
- Carry your licence and your insurance papers whenever you drive.
Check the official source: GOV.UK (United Kingdom) USA.gov (United States) Canada.ca australia.gov.au gov.sg (Singapore)
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
4Renting a homeReferences, deposits and tenancy terms, understood before you sign.
- Use a reputable agent or your university’s housing office, and view the property, in person or by live video, before you pay anything.
- Expect to be asked for identity, proof of income or enrolment, and sometimes a reference or a guarantor. Ask what a newcomer without local history can offer instead.
- Read the whole tenancy agreement: its length, the notice period, who pays which bills, and the rules on repairs and on leaving early.
- Pay the deposit by bank transfer to a named agency or landlord you have verified. Ask how the deposit is protected; many places require it by law.
- On the day you move in, photograph every room and the meter readings, and agree an inventory in writing.
- Keep every receipt and every message.
- Arrange insurance for your belongings.
Check the official source: GOV.UK (United Kingdom) USA.gov (United States) Canada.ca australia.gov.au
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
5School places and recognised qualificationsFor the children, and for the degree you earned at home.
- For a school place, find the local education authority or school district. It places children by home address.
- Ask which documents enrolment requires, what language support new arrivals receive, and how a child joins in the middle of a year.
- Bring school reports and vaccination records, translated.
- For your own qualifications, first establish whether your profession is regulated where you live. Medicine, nursing, engineering, law, teaching and accounting usually are.
- A regulated profession is handled by its own regulator; an academic degree is assessed by the national recognition centre.
- Have certificates and transcripts translated by a qualified translator. Some authorities ask for verification sent directly by the issuing institution.
- Expect a bridging examination or a period of supervised practice in a regulated profession, and ask the regulator for the route for internationally trained applicants.
Check the official source: UK ENIC, the national recognition centre Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials GOV.UK (United Kingdom) USA.gov (United States)
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
6Registering for healthcareRegister before you are ill, and know where to go when you are.
- Learn which system you are in: public care funded by taxes, compulsory insurance, private insurance, or a mixture. Your visa often decides what you are entitled to.
- Register with a family doctor or clinic in your first weeks.
- Students: read what the university’s health plan covers, and whether you are enrolled automatically.
- Learn the emergency number, and the difference between an emergency department, an urgent-care clinic and your regular doctor.
- Bring a summary of your medical history and prescriptions, translated, and vaccination records for children.
- Visiting parents are rarely covered by the public system. Arrange travel medical insurance before they fly.
- Ask for an interpreter. Many health services provide one.
Check the official source: NHS (United Kingdom) HealthCare.gov (United States) Canada.ca Services Australia
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
In China
For international residents. Orientation only.
1Arriving in China: residence registration and permitsThe first formality, and the one that every later step depends on.
- Register your residence within 24 hours of arrival. A hotel registers you when you check in.
- If you stay in a private home, you or your host register at the local police station. Many cities also offer registration online.
- Bring your passport and visa, and the lease or your host’s details. Keep the registration form; later procedures ask for it.
- Register again whenever you move. Ask whether a new visa, a new passport or a return from abroad calls for a fresh registration, because practice differs between cities.
- To work, you need a work permit and a residence permit for work. Your employer normally leads the application. Do not begin work on a visa that does not allow it.
- Students: the international office of your university guides you through the residence permit.
- Carry your passport, or a copy of it and of your registration, when you travel within the country.
Check the official source: National Immigration Administration of China The State Council of China, English portal
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
2Phone number, real-name registration and mobile paymentsA local number is the key to almost every service in daily life.
- Buy a SIM card at an official store of one of the national operators, and bring your passport. Every number is registered to a real name.
- Keep the number active. Banks, apps and deliveries verify you by text message.
- The major payment apps accept international bank cards. Add your card inside the app and complete identity verification with your passport.
- Ask about limits on payments made with an international card, and check them before a large purchase.
- For transfers and larger payments, open a local bank account with your passport, your visa or residence permit, your phone number and proof of address, then link it to the apps.
- Carry some cash and an international card as a reserve.
- Pay by scanning the merchant’s displayed code or by showing your own. Never scan a code sent to you by a stranger.
Check the official source: The State Council of China, English portal
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
3Housing in ChinaLeases, deposits, and the registration that follows every move.
- Use a licensed agency, or the housing office of your employer or university, and view the home before you pay.
- Ask to see the landlord’s identity document and proof of ownership, or of the right to sublet.
- Sign a written lease. Where there are Chinese and English versions, ask which one governs, and have the Chinese text explained to you.
- Agree in writing the deposit, the schedule of rent, and what is returned at the end and when.
- Ask who pays the management fee, heating, utilities and internet.
- Confirm before you sign that the landlord will provide the documents for your residence registration, and register at the police station after you move in.
- If your employer reimburses rent, ask the landlord for official receipts.
- Photograph the condition of the home and the meter readings on the first day.
Check the official source: National Immigration Administration of China The State Council of China, English portal
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
4Healthcare and schooling in ChinaHow a hospital visit works, and the kinds of school open to international families.
- At a public hospital you register first, at the desk, at a kiosk or by app, then see the doctor. Payment is usually made before each test or treatment. Bring your passport.
- Many large public hospitals have an international department with English-speaking staff, and private international clinics operate in the major cities.
- Carry your insurance details, and ask whether the hospital bills your insurer directly or whether you pay and claim.
- For an ambulance, call 120.
- Bring prescriptions that show the generic name of each medicine.
- For schooling, the main choices are international schools, bilingual private schools and the international divisions of some local schools. Admission to local public schools depends on the rules of each city.
- Ask each school about its curriculum, its language of instruction, its admission tests, and how its certificate is recognised for university entry elsewhere.
- Prepare passports, residence permits, previous school reports and vaccination records.
Check the official source: The State Council of China, English portal
General information, not legal, immigration, tax or financial advice.
Scam Watch
Scam Watch.
Fraud follows people who are far from home, short of local knowledge and anxious to do the right thing. These are the eight we warn against most, each with a way to check.
We will never ask you for money, passwords or one-time codes.
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The call from “the consulate” or “the police”
How it works. A caller, often showing an official-looking number, says your identity is tied to a crime, a parcel or a bank account, and demands money or codes to clear your name.
How to check. Hang up. No consulate, police force or court demands payment or codes by telephone. Call the office back on the number published on its own website.
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The staged kidnapping of a student
How it works. A student is frightened into cutting off contact and hiding, sometimes filming themselves, while the family at home is told to pay a ransom.
How to check. Agree a family code word. If your child falls silent, contact the university and the local police before any money is sent.
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Private currency exchange
How it works. Someone in a chat group offers a better rate to swap currency privately. The money you receive may be stolen, and your own account may be frozen.
How to check. Exchange and send money only through banks and regulated providers.
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“Easy” jobs that use your bank account
How it works. A part-time job asks you to receive payments and pass them on, or to lend your account or card.
How to check. Never let anyone use your account. In many countries it is a crime, whatever you were told when you agreed.
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The rental deposit
How it works. A flat at a good price, a landlord who is abroad, and a request for a deposit before you have seen it.
How to check. View first, in person or by live video, and pay only to an agency or landlord you have verified.
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Agents who sell visas, permits and admissions
How it works. An agent promises a visa, a work permit, a university place or a faster appointment for a fee. In China, the offer may be teaching work on a visa that does not allow work.
How to check. Use the authority’s own website, and check that an adviser is licensed wherever licensing exists.
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Investment circles and online romance
How it works. A friendly stranger, or a trusted “teacher” in a group, shows profits on a trading app and invites you to add funds. Withdrawals then fail.
How to check. Check that the firm is authorised by the financial regulator where you live, and never invest through a link someone sends you.
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Tickets that are too cheap
How it works. At peak season, sellers on social media offer fares below the airline’s price, paid by transfer. The ticket is cancelled or never issued.
How to check. Book with the airline or a licensed agent, and confirm the booking on the airline’s own website.
Consular Desk
The Consular Desk.
How to find and reach your consulate, what to bring, and what a consulate can and cannot do. Information only: TAS China is independent and is not a government body, embassy or public authority.
- Finding your consulate
- Your own government’s foreign ministry publishes the list of its embassies and consulates and the district each one serves. You are served by the consulate for the district where you live.
- What to carry
- Your passport and a copy of it, your residence document, proof of address, the appointment confirmation, photographs to the stated specification, and a means of payment the consulate accepts.
- What a consulate does
- It renews passports and issues emergency travel documents; notarises and certifies certain documents; registers births, marriages and deaths abroad; and in an emergency contacts your family and provides lists of local lawyers, doctors and interpreters.
- What it does not do
- It does not pay bills, fines or medical costs; give legal advice or intervene in a local court; secure release from detention; or arrange visas for another country.
- In an emergency
- Most consulates publish an emergency telephone number for use outside office hours. If your passport is lost or stolen, report it to the local police first, then ask the consulate for an emergency travel document.
- Keep your own record
- Keep copies of your passport and residence document, and the consulate’s address and emergency number, apart from the originals, and leave a set with your family.
Check the official source: China Consular Affairs U.S. Department of State, travel.state.gov GOV.UK, help and services around the world Government of Canada, travel.gc.ca Smartraveller (Australia)
Free help near you
Free help near you.
The kinds of free local organisation worth looking for, wherever you have settled. TAS Foundation gives free first help to anyone in difficulty.
Newcomer and settlement centres
Publicly funded in many countries; they help with forms, language classes and first steps.
University international offices
For students: housing, visas, health plans and a person to ask.
Legal aid and advice clinics
Free or low-cost first advice, often run with a law school or a citizens’ advice service.
Public libraries
Language classes, internet, and patient help with official forms.
Community health centres
Care and health information, often with interpreters.
Tax clinics
Volunteer help for people with simple tax returns and modest incomes.
Tenants’ advice services
Independent advice when a deposit, a repair or a notice goes wrong.
Chinese community centres and associations
Hometown, alumni and cultural associations in your city: the oldest help of all.
In China
The citizen-services section of your own embassy, your university’s international office, your employer’s personnel office, and the international community centres of the larger cities.