Pudong offers one-stop permit for expats

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.

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.

German Ulrich Jablonka was among the first batch of foreigners to register for work and residence permits from the service center yesterday.

"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."