Foreign workers in Shanghai can bring their maids

A woman from the Philippines became the first person to receive a residence permit designed for foreigners providing housekeeping service in Shanghai's Pudong district, which houses more than 300 Fortune 500 companies and is home to the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

Liu Chen, a Chinese American and president of Shanghai Affinity Biopharmaceutical Co Ltd based in Shanghai Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone in Pudong, applied for the one-year residence permit for the housemaid he hired on March 14 and she obtained the permit on Mar 31.

"He had worked for many years in Hong Kong, where the housemaid worked for his family. So he felt delighted that the family could bring her along to Shanghai thanks to the new policy," said Chen Lijun, deputy director of the exit-entry administration office under Pudong district police.

Statistics from the Shanghai Exit-Entry Administration Bureau show more than 20 foreign housemaids have received such residence permits in Shanghai, but this is the first case police have made public. She is the first in the Pudong district.

The permission for foreign housemaids is one of the measures Shanghai has unveiled since July 2015 to attract talented foreigners as it tries to build itself into a global technological innovation hub by 2030.

In the 2015 measures, high-level professionals with permanent resident permits or work permits can apply for a residence permit for their foreign housemaid with materials including an employment contract, financial support statement, personal insurance and health certificate.

In December, the policies were eased further. High-level experts from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are eligible to file an application for a housemaid, and the application is open to all foreign experts with a master's degree or above, or those employed by an enterprise in Zhangjiang or the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, institutions of higher education or scientific research, or those whose professional areas are listed by the Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau as being helpful to the city's progress in scientific and technological innovation.

Each qualified foreign expert can employ one housemaid, who can enter China either with a tourist visa and go to local exit-entry administration office for a residence permit or apply for such a permit at Shanghai's port of entry, Chen said.