How Difficult Is It to Become a Beijing Resident?

Steven Schwankert | Aug 28, 2014 1:00 pm | Add a comment | 2092 reads

With more than one-third of Beijing's population living in the city without permission, the process of obtaining a hukou, or official residency, is again under scrutiny after a "hukou gang" was busted, CCTV News reported.

In an informative series of graphics (shared below), a flow chart shows the difficulty in obtaining official Beijing residency for Chinese citizens not born in the city. While a hukou no longer ties one to employment and home in the same way that it once did in the 1950s, when the system was implemented, it does provide (or restrict) opportunities for children to attend Beijing schools, or to receive access to some healthcare services.

More directly, it means that of the tens of thousands of non-Beijingers who attend university in Beijing, even finding a job at a Beijing company will not give them the chance to become officially resident in the city, ultimately sending most home after a period of employment.

As such, the "market" for hukous, with prospective residents paying large sums to "brokers" who provide hukou slots to which they have access for talented candidates, is large. The former gang had raked in RMB 3 million from 90 candidates before being stopped, CCTV News reported. See the charts below to understand how complex the process is.