Shanghai makes it easier for graduates to apply for hukou

There's good news for this year's Shanghai university graduates who are not local but seeking to stay in the city.

According to the new policies for application of Shanghai hukou, or household registration, master's graduates from universities and research institutes in Shanghai have been added to the list of graduates eligible to apply for Shanghai hukou directly without being graded on their personal qualifications if they work in the city.

And also, undergraduates from local universities that are enlisted on national programs for developing world-class universities or world-class disciplines can also apply for Shanghai permanent residency status directly if they have found jobs in Shanghai's "five new cities" and key transformation areas in the south and north of the city.

Other graduates need to have their personal qualifications, such as education background, academic performance, foreign language proficiency, computer-using capacity, awards, innovation achievements, and working area, graded and only those who get 72 points or above can apply for hukou in Shanghai.

Hukou is a system of household registration used in Chinese mainland that identifies a person as a permanent resident of an area and ensures access to local social welfare benefits such as children's education, health care and qualification to purchase real estate.

It's also a way for the government to guide needed talent into key development areas.

For example, last year, the city announced that non-native postgraduates who graduated from universities in Shanghai can directly apply for local hukou if they work in the city's five new cities and free trade zone.

It was a move to support the city's new strategies to develop the five new cities – in suburban Jiading, Qingpu, Songjiang and Fengxian districts as well as Nanhui of the Pudong New Area.

And earlier this month, the city unveiled a new plan to transform traditional industrial areas – Jinshan District in the south and Baoshan District in the north – into more livable areas featuring clusters of emerging industries.

The new hukou policy is also believed to be part of the city's efforts to support the two suburban districts' new development plans.

Shanghai has been lowering the threshold for young talent to reside in the city in recent years.

In 2018, it decided to allow graduates from Tsinghua and Peking universities to settle in with hukou directly. The next year, it was extended to four local universities – Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University and East China Normal University, which are included in the national program for building world-class universities.

Early this month, it announced that graduates from top-ranking universities around the world can settle in Shanghai with hukou immediately if they work full-time in the city.