Beijing to tighten foreign hiring requirements

The days in which foreigners could just land up in China and get a job teaching English without anyone checking their credentials or qualifications appear to be numbered, according to a new ruling in Beijing.

There are about 37,000 foreigners working in Beijing on a permanent basis and they mainly come from the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Australia, working in the IT, computer, education and consultation sectors, according to official statistics.

Beijing’s population is estimated at about 21 million, putting the foreign population at less than 0.2 per cent, so it could hardly be described as being overrun with foreigners, but demand for English teachers is surging and the authorities are keen to keep checks on those working in education without qualifications.

From now on, foreigners will be strictly vetted before they are given jobs in the Chinese capital, according to the document issued jointly by, wait for it, the Beijing Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, the Foreign Affairs Office of Beijing and the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education.

Foreign employees in Beijing should be aged between 18 and 60, with a bachelor’s or higher degree and at least two years of related work experience, the decree said.

If they don’t have the diplomas, they need to have equivalent foreign technical qualifications.

On top of this, all foreign employees should be healthy and have no criminal record, and must have a valid passport or other international travel documents, a work permit and a residence certificate.

This all sounds similar to the outlines laid down by the US authorities, or the Irish visa people, but monitoring for years has been pretty lax.

Things have only really stepped up since the economy started to boom and suddenly China became a place to go to work, not just a place from which to emigrate.

Officials also started to ask for more supervision after two foreigners, one of them on the run from child abuse charges and the other, a child pornographer, got jobs at schools in Beijing.