Foreign professionals living in Pudong are now able to obtain work and residence permits in just five days.
Across the city, foreigners must visit different departments, ranging from foreign experts’ affairs administration to entry-exit administration, and go through a set of procedures to obtain work and residence permits.
They are required to submit numerous documents and fill in many forms, some of which have the same contents. If they miss an official stamp on the form or fill it in incorrectly, they will be called back and have to re-submit the forms. Also, they have to make a reservation for a physical checkup.
It is time-costing, and even with “green channel” openings, it requires at least 12 working days.
But Pudong has now streamlined administrative affairs for foreigners, said Xiao Lin, head of the department of reform on administrative policy of Pudong government.
Expats can log in to an online platform (https://work.pd-italent.com:18081/#/login), a one-stop service platform, to make a reservation for a physical checkup and apply for work and residence permits.
“They used to need to fill in 94 questions on three forms, but now they just need to fill in one form with 66 questions because different departments share the data from the online platform,” Xiao said.
He added the platform uses artificial intelligence technology.
“Instead of spending time carefully filling in basic information like name, age and nationality, now they just take a picture of their passport and upload it to the platform,” he said.
“There information is automatically recognized.
“Also, the platform can immediately tell expats if they have made mistakes like filling in the wrong date or not submitting the translated copy. It means they don’t need to sit at home and wait for a call.”
After their application is accepted, they can go to the newly opened Pudong International Talent Hub, at 999 Huanke Road in Zhangjiang, to submit their documents. Then, they just need to wait for five days to obtain their work and residence permits.
The Pudong International Talent Hub has a specific window to deal with affairs related to foreigners’ work and residence permits.
German Ulrich Jablonka was among the first batch of foreigners to register for work and residence permits from the service center on Thursday.
“The staff members at the service center are so warm-hearted, it’s great to handle my business here,” said Jablonka, who works for the luxury hotel Shangri-La. “I hadn’t thought that it could be so efficient. It’s so fast.”
Wang Fanglei, HR manager from Shanghai Suoguang Visual Products, said there are more than 40 foreigners in the company.
“It’s very convenient that the contents in the documents can be automatically captured,” she said.
Pudong International Talent Hub opened to the public on Thursday. One-stop services are provided for a total of 79 items related to both domestic and overseas talent.
Also, it has attracted companies offering services in human resources including job recruitment and training.
“We hope to create a place where companies can find everything they want here,” said Huang Ying, director of Pudong’s talent exchange center. “We will hold a variety of activities here such as lectures and roadshows.”
She added that startups can be incubated and new ideas fostered.
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