Just a heads up for foreigners living in Kunming: There are new regulations for registering at your local PSB and getting that oh-so-necessary half-sheet of paper called a household registration (住宿登记).
This applies to everyone renting an apartment, regardless of how many times he or she may have registered the same address previously.
The new policy, according to phone conversations and in-person visits, requires new renters and those who have returned from overseas to supply:
• A photocopy of their passport's picture page, latest visa page and latest entry stamp page.
• A copy of their current apartment leasing contract. If you rent the apartment from an agent, then a copy of that contract is reportedly enough. If you rent from a landlord directly, you must also bring copy of the landlord’s Chinese ID card (身份证) and their cellphone number. The contract must not be expired.
NOTE: If the name on the property license (产权证) is not that of your landlord -- for example it’s his or her spouse’s name -- make sure you know the relationship and make sure your landlord can state this clearly over the phone. The PSB will sometimes call the landlord to check while you are there.
• If you ask a friend to register at the PSB for you, or accompany you there, make sure they bring a copy of their national ID card.
• Bring a working black ink pen. You must fill out two forms and the pens at PSBs are notoriously useless.
Good to know, thanks, GoKunming.
I have difficulty noticing what has changed - this seems step to step same that I have been following for my entire 5 years here, except for the part about black ink pen.
I have been specifically asked to re-register every time I return from any trip abroad the entire time.
In our office's collective experience, the lease has never once been necessary, nor the landlord's ID. But we may be registered at lax PSBs, which ain't good.
Ok, I always have had to bring a copy of the lease.
I rent through agent, and to my recollection at least once we had to bring a copy of the landlord's ID as well (but not every time).
So what happens for family members who are not named on the lease?
My wife's name is on the lease (in Chinese and English) but my name is not on the lease nor is our daughter.
In our case the lease is in my name (alone), and nobody questions my Chinese wife's residence in the same address. She also uses the address for her own temporary Kunming residence permit (because no hukou here).
since when does this apply? I just went to the local police station today to register my new passport. besides my previous half piece of paper with my old and new passport, i didn't bring anything, not even the contract with the landlord. Got the new registration within a few minutes. Maybe takes some time until the new rules are being enforced?
I know they put in some kind of new registration system a while back (December I think).
I had just returned from Hong Kong and went up to get my new half piece of paper. They had a bit of panic because they were not taking any registrations from local Chinese while the new system was implemented, but since the law says I had to register within 24 hours they had to deal with me. I noticed they were using a manual to guide them through registering.
I've been twice since then, most recently just over a week ago and never took anything other than my passport, photo copies of the relevant pages, and my old residence registration.
