Nation adjusting green card policy to suit its needs

As the annual sessions of the top legislative body and political advisory body continue, China Daily collected the questions that netizens care most about and solicited answers from political advisers and legislators.

The question

I think I ask this every year: When is China going to implement a fair immigration policy that allows Regular Joes to obtain a permanent resident's permit, or green card, not just heavy investors and political refugees?

- A netizen named Longzhou

The answer

It is unfair to say China's current green card policy is unfair. Actually, it is common practice to have a tight policy for ordinary job seekers in all major world economies because they need to make sure their own citizens get jobs first.

The green card policy of a nation is actually part of its global talent strategy and should suit its economic structure. China's current green card policy, which is relatively loose for high-end applicants, suits its economic structure because the nation needs more internationally educated talents with global overview in relatively higher-end service sector, such as the financial and IT industries. China does not need so many ordinary physical laborers, and that's why it adopts a tighter green card policy for them.

However, with China adjusting its economic structure and more deeply participating in the global free flow of talent, its green card policy is changing too.

There is no clear schedule, but it is estimated that by 2020, the last year of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20), China will finish the process of adjusting its green card policy, which will better suit its new economic structure.