Are You a Grade-A Expat?

A new pilot program to be put in place Nov 1 will use an elaborate scoring system to grade and rank expats according to their desirability, according to a Chinese-language report posted Thursday on the website of the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs.

Purported to be a "simplification" of the work permitting process, the new regulation merges the current work permit application process with the rare "foreign expert" work permit in an effort to standardize the regulation of foreign workers. The report also touts a reduction in paperwork for the application process, without offering too much detail.

More significantly, the system appears to be designed to limit certain types of foreigners from receiving working papers, and perhaps will result in the thinning out of current work permit holders, as the article implies that even those currently holding a permit will be ranked.

The new policy will rank each of us into A, B and C categories, using an opaque point system for the ranking, with the categories defined vaguely as follows:

A: Top talent
B: Professional talent
C: Unskilled workers or those working in the service industry

The Chinese report repeatedly mentions the catchphrase "Encourage the High End, Limit the Ordinary, Restrict the Low End" (鼓励高端、控制一般、限制低端) in reference to the new policy.

Citing Xinhua, an article in the Global Times stated that the system will award points on the following:

• Current Salary in China

• Educational background

• Number of years of work experience in China

• Chinese language proficiency

• Age
  

• Location (with more points given to those that work in less developed regions).
  

While no specific methodology for the distribution of the points has been given, the article states that those that accumulate 85 points will be considered A-grade, those with 60 to 85 will be considered B-grade, and those with 60 and under will be C-grade.

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On another note, the Beijinger's 2016 Pizza Cup and Festival is just around the corner. The celebration will kick off with Pies for the People on September 15 onwards. Get special deals from various pizza parlors around town. Click here for more details.