Chinese national Steve Xie has been doing business overseas for years. His latest venture, a new warehouse in Egypt, will supply electric vehicles and auto parts to the African and Middle Eastern markets.
But these days, Xie has noticed other Chinese entrepreneurs tend to have one topic on their minds: acquiring overseas residency and citizenship.
“Nowadays, the talk is no longer about whether a whole family should move abroad, but about how overseas passports and long-term residency can provide practical advantages when doing business in different countries,” he said.
For wealthy Chinese, the motivation for holding a foreign passport or residence permit is shifting: once a personal lifestyle choice, now a major business decision as domestic firms accelerate their global expansion.
Entrepreneurs are looking to gain overseas residency and citizenship rights to facilitate their activities in target markets. Local documentation can make it easier to register companies, open bank accounts, sign contracts and unlock other opportunities.
With China’s property downturn making it harder for middle-class families to liquidate their assets and move abroad, business leaders and high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) are becoming the main driver of the Chinese migration market, observers said.
Chinese businesses are increasingly looking outwards for growth as they react to sluggish demand and intense competition at home. China’s total outbound foreign direct investment reached US$192.2 billion in 2024, up 8.4 per cent year on year, according to a report released by the Ministry of Commerce in September.
“The government is currently strongly encouraging Chinese enterprises to go global,” said George Dong, a migration and investment consultant based in Shenzhen. “To mitigate associated tax and policy risks, it even encourages companies to ‘establish deep roots abroad’, which means more people need an emigration plan.”
Chinese companies find it much easier to do business overseas if they have an international profile, especially in Africa, according to Xie. Firms registered in Hong Kong or Singapore often gain greater trust from local clients than mainland Chinese enterprises – and can sometimes even command a 10 per cent price premium, he said.
“Many African clients prefer collaborating with foreign investors under the same British maritime law system, as they are familiar with the relevant legal and commercial rules, facilitating smoother transactions,” Xie said.
Similar dynamics play out in Europe and North America. Su Xiaojie, a Guangzhou-based entrepreneur who runs an e-commerce and logistics business that does extensive business in the European Union, said he was considering applying for a “golden visa” in an EU member state, such as Greece.
The move would make it easier for him to set up local warehouses, ship goods across Europe more efficiently and avoid extra tariffs, taxes and logistics costs, according to Su. “If a business owner holds only Chinese nationality, they face more banking and compliance restrictions, making local operations much harder,” he said.
In the United States, demand for long-term residency is also rising among Chinese entrepreneurs looking to establish local factories and develop brands for the American market.
Bob Yao, who runs a business that operates multiple production lines in the United States, said having residency status offered multiple benefits, from improved brand credibility to flexibility in tax compliance and personnel arrangements.
He currently holds an L1 work visa for employees of foreign companies, but plans to apply for a US permanent residency permit or “green card” via the EB-1C visa programme to consolidate his North and South American operations.
For international businesspeople, being able to travel freely between different countries can be crucial, according to Xie. “When negotiating projects in overseas markets, applying for a business visa may take one to two months, but orders could be snatched up by competitors within weeks,” he said.
But while demand for overseas residency is rising among Chinese entrepreneurs and high-net-worth individuals, they tend to proceed more cautiously compared to a decade ago, according to Dong, the Shenzhen-based consultant.
“The economic slowdown and heightened cross-border tax scrutiny have made Chinese HNWIs more sensitive to compliance and reputational risks,” he said.
Meanwhile, the trend for middle-class Chinese families to sell up their mainland property and use those funds to emigrate to Europe, North America and other developed economies is gradually fading.
Laura Zheng, a human resources manager at a company in Shenzhen, had long hoped to move to Europe under a golden visa scheme, which offers long-term residency to wealthy foreign investors. But that dream now looks out of reach.
With home prices falling across China, Zheng said the proceeds from selling her apartments would no longer be enough to cover her emigration costs after paying off the mortgages. Many other middle-class Chinese are facing a similar scenario, according to industry insiders.
China’s high-net-worth individuals, however, are showing ever greater interest in relocating abroad. According to a March survey by the Hurun Research Institute, 42 per cent of Chinese HNWIs were considering or actively applying for international residency in 2025, up from 40 per cent the previous year.
About 56 per cent of respondents were not interested in applying, down from 59 per cent in 2024. Singapore and North America were the top destinations favoured by those looking to relocate, according to the report.
Visa agents said HNWIs and business owners were likely to emerge as their main client base in China in the coming years. Some are looking to develop complex overseas corporate structures: using Singapore-registered companies for trading, Hong Kong entities for holding operations, and offshore investment platforms to mitigate risk and diversify their assets.
“A decade ago, the most common calls agencies received were from middle-class families asking how to sell their homes and emigrate,” said Bill Liu, co-founder of Guangzhou Cheuk Yuet Overseas Consulting Service. “Today, clients are exploring which residency status can support compliant long-term operations overseas while reducing uncertainty in tariffs and market access.” -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
