I have accepted an offer to work in Shanghai in November and is preparing to embark on this major move with a lot of anticipations.

I was told that there are quite a lot of restrictions on currency exchange. Is this true? As I will be paid in RMB, may I know how can I transfer money to my offshore account in my home country? Is there any limit? Are the charges expensive?

I have gathered that the application process / steps for all the related visa are:
1) Upon arrival, go Hami Lu to do health check
2) Find an apartment and then apply for residence permit
3) After obtaining a residence permit, apply for Z visa and work permit

Am I right?

I will be staying in a hotel when I arrive so as to allow me time to look for an apartment. Anyone aware that I can sign a rental contract with the landlord anytime of the month, instead of beginning of the month?

If I have miss out anything, hope someone can alert me.

Really looking forward to experiencing the interesting life that everyone has been talking about here!

Yo Yo

I did almost the same thing when I arrived about 6 weeks ago...although skipped no. 1, 2 and 3 on your list

You should be able to sign your contract whenever, I signed a week or so inte the month and that wasn't a problem...HOWEVER...you have to pay a deposit plus three months rent upfront as well as commission for the real estate agent. Commission is 35% of the rent and deposit is ususally onemonths rent...bring money!

Restrictions on currency transfer are harsh...as far as I have understood, the easiest way to do it...is to go to Hong Kong. If anyone have a better suggestion please post it as I am also very, very interested.

Good luck...

Don't pay the agent fee, there are enough agents out there that don't charge you this, if you sign a one year contract then make the landlord pay it, this is common over here. If they agent says no then tell him/her you will find another agent, also tell other people not to use that agent. This will help foreigners bring our costs down.

The money thing is hard, what you can also do is find some friends, people or students from the US and change your RMB with them, not sure if this is legal but if you have US dollars you can send it out though places like Western Union.

Don't pay agents' fees. Don't pay more than 1 monthy deposit and 1 month rent in advance. Buy a suitcase to carry all that worthless RMB out to another country like Taiwan or Hong Kong, where you can use it to open a bank account and then transfer it safely back home.

Seems like it is really tough to get RMB out of the country without incurring any costs. Can anyone advise me on the 'legal' ways to transfer RMB out of the country. Do you have any idea on the actual costs involved? Are there any retrictions on the amount that I can transfer out?

Edgewood, you mean I can stash 1 bagful of RMB out of the country legally? Do you have any idea wihether I can get RMB changed to USD in HK international airport? Will they ask anything?

I am really confused. My company insisted that they can only pay me in RMB and that's it. I have lots of financial commitments at home so I need to wire money back on a monthly basis without fail.

On the housing part, may I know did any of you pay the 1 month deposit and 2 months rent in cash? That's a lot of RMBs!!! I am still not used to paying things in cash. Do you pay direct to the owner of the apartment or to the agent? Will they provide any receipt?

Hope I am not asking too much. Just find that the way of doing things there is miles apart from what I expected.

the monthly rent will depends how good can you bargain. i paid one month deposit and paying monthly rent. common practice, we pay by cash, but i'm sure you can arrange something with the landlord. ask your company to help bargain.
the comission fee, if i remember correctly, you don't have to pay any comission if the rent is below 3k rmb. if the rent above 3k rmb, then it will be up to your bargaining skill again, common practice is 35% comission fee which will be paid by the landlord. yes, they should give you receipts, if not then ask for it. again ask your company to help you.
you can transfer usd out from china, so you just need to find somone to exchange your money. bank of china at the bund can do that for you, or many people like to use money traders (illegal but no one really cares).
HK airport: there're banks and there is also money changer. if i'm not mistaken, just before you get out the arrival gate to waiting/meeting area, you can exchange your money. to what currency is up to you. but the ticket to hk will be more expensive than the other approach, better forget about it.
Taiwan does not recognize rmb.

I am constantly told that as long as you have tax receipts to prove you have paid tax in China, there is no problem to change your salary paid in RMB to a foreign currency. The Bank of China also told me that I can hold RMB and foreign currency in the same account. As other people have said once the money is in a foreign currency you can transfer it out of the country. Of course you get shafted on the exchange rate, but isn't that the case anywhere?
The most inconvenient part of the process seems to be becuase they don't seem to have heard of standing orders or direct debits here, so every time you want to do it you have to traipse to the bank, fill out all the forms, and maybe carry cash between banks (eg Bank of China => HSBC => freedom), though it may be possible to get it out through BoC.
Apart from that I am not sure what the fuss is about. Having said that, this is just theory as I have not actually done it myself. Maybe I am missing something?
Another thing you can do is get a foreign currency credit card (and that I have done, China Merchants Bank visa card). You can use that abroad (eg to pay a direct debit for mortgage etc) then when you get the bill they will convert it to USD first (if not already USD) then to RMB and pay them a visit every month (sigh) to pay the RMB cash. Again, of course, they have a very 'favourable' exchange rate.

Thanks for all your advices! I have a clearer picture now.

Hmmm... got to pay by cash for the chinacredit bills???!!!???

Need to trouble you all again.

Since I have to pay the landlord quite a fair sum for the rental, can I withdraw RMB from the ATM machines using my home CITIBANK card? My card allows me to draw from my savings account when overseas. But I am not sure if the local banks ATMs (for eg, BOC) in Shanghai allows me to do that. BTW, how much can I withdraw each time?

here's the way i plan on getting my cash out of the country... it's legal, but a little sneaky and requires friends or relatives....

My parents are going to visit me for a few weeks. I'm going to pay all their hotels, expenses, meals, trains, planes in the country, etc out of my chinese bank account. Then I send them home with a pile of recipts, tell them to add it up, divide by 8.25 and put whatever amount that comes to into my american bank account.

so they don't bring money into the country, and I dont have to bring money out of the country This only works, however when you're making a relatively low salary like me... those of you making 100,000+USD/year would need a lot of friends for this to work...
but with money like that, I guess you can just buy friends, right? *poke* *teasing*

there's a citibank right on the bund you can use your ATM card at. you can also use your ATM card at many local machines. You can usually withdrawl up to 5,000 RMB per day. getting money out of ATM machines with foreign ATM cards I have NOT had a problem with... I have had a problem with pickpockets though, so you may want to bring some travelers cheques just in case you get your wallets swiped right when you show up. The pickpockets can tell someone who's just shown up in the country... they have a rather shell-shocked look on their face.... so watch your wallet.

only a few atm banks will allow you to withdraw money using foreign card. not sure about the situation now, but china merchat bank atm will allow you to do that (at least in the past).
travelers cheque is not a good idea, recently i helped a friend and bank of china took one month before it gave me the rmb equivalent and put it into my account. dunno because it's their system or because the amount (well not that big actually just 2 thousands usd).
yoyoda, bring a few thousand cash, enough to survive for the first month, exchange it with your company (well i did that since the company gives me better rate). or ask for a cash advance from the company.

a friend of mine exchanged travelers cheques just fine at Citibank on the bund for RMB cash... Maybe it just depends on where you go. ICBC (industrail and commercial bank of china) takes foreign cards, as does Citibank and HSBC (if you can find their ATMs). I can think of two other banks, but I can't remember which ones, they all have branches near where i live. If your card has "Maestro" or "Cirrus" you're usually ok- just look on the machines N00b has a point though, some ATMs will not accept cards with raised lettering, which most foreign cards have.

But, simply put, YES, you can use your ATM card in Shanghai... just not everywhere.

Cash is also a good idea.

I came over with 300USD cash, no travelers cheques, and lived off my ATM card and a small cash advance from my company for the first month, but they provided me with an apartment when i arrived so no need for apt down payments.

2000USD limit each transfer. A fee applies.

You can only change 70% or so of your salary (according to your contract)....into foreign currency. You need your salary receipts when you go to the bank...or you won't get the foreign dollars.

but i would recommend taking a suitcase into Hong Kong