Ask Headmaster Ken

Dear Ken:

I've been working for my school on a tourist visa for just over two months now. They clearly have no intentions of getting me a residency permit; However, I don't hold it against them because the school is poor and they are good people.

I do have a question about this: Will I be able to wire my money from Bank of China to the USA without a Red/Blue Book when I leave? If not, what should I do?

Thank you,

J

Technically and legally speaking, you need to present a Foreign Expert Certificate (FEC, now "blue book") when exchanging renminbi to foreign currency, not for wiring money.

However, as a practical matter, you don't really need the FEC to exchange money. Check the chapter in the Guide titled Currency and Banking: You can use the gray market of money lenders for doing that (outside the main branch of the Bank of China), or you can ask any Chinese national to exchange the money for you. Depending on the city, branch, and mood of the teller at that particular moment in time, you may even be allowed to change renminbi into foreign currency without presenting the FEC.

It seems that the same banks in different provinces can move the goal post as they wish. I've sent money back home from four provinces. In three, there was a $500 limit but the Bank of China in Chengdu, Sichuan province, has never placed a limit. I just take my salary receipt and passport and foreign experts certificate. They have been very good to me.

Thanks for your input. In China, it appears that policies vary by bank branch even within the same province and city. You're giving them way too much credit by attributing this difference in policy to province. They are not that well organized and there is nothing systematic about it.

When we lived in Guangzhou, one particular branch claimed that foreigners could not pay their Bank of China Great Wall Credit Card (which is based in U.S. currency) directly with renminbi. Another branch claimed that we could pay in yuan but only for the exact amount of the balance due. Finally, a third branch allowed us to pay as often as we liked in either renminbi or U.S. dollars for any amount that we liked.

I honestly think that banking policies in China vary by branch manager if you're lucky and by teller if you're not.

In yet another example, at one branch of ICBC (Industrial and Commercial Bank of China), the policy was that you either received an ATM card OR a passbook (but not both) and in another branch, I was able to receive both. When I asked my students why my wife could not receive both while I did, their answer in unison was "you were lucky."