Moving out of China -The Complete Guide

On this site, we have written many articles and even a free e-Book on how to move to live and work in China, but, what happens when you decide to go back to your country or go to another place? Today’s article is dedicated to all of the people that have decided to move away after living for a time in China.

In this article, I will cover the following subjects (you can click on them to jump directly to the section that interests you):

• Things that you should prepare before your move (plane ticket, money, graduation, documentation, rent contract, pets and guanxi).

• What documents and procedures do I need to prepare (unregister at your consulate, translations, legalizations and recognition of degrees).

• How to send your belongings from China (take them with you, air transport, sea transport and sending by weight or by volume).

Things that you should prepare before your move

Preparing to leave China can be quite stressful if you don’t plan it beforehand. Even though this is China and everything is possible, I recommend that you start to prepare things at least two months in advance.

Plane ticket

To get plane tickets for the best price, a part from the general suggestions such as “book your ticket at least two month sin advance”, you should keep in mind that on some airlines (mostly European ones), buying just a one-way ticket is more expensive than buying a round trip ticket, so, I recommend that you also consult round-trip prices even if you don’t have any intention of coming back to China in the near future.

Money

While getting money into China is relatively easy, getting it out of the country isn’t so simple.

If you have been working in China and you have saved up some money in Yuan, you will have to exchange it into an international currency, whether to make international transfers or to take it with you in cash. The problem is how foreigners have a daily limit on the amount of money they can exchange from Yuan into other currencies (around 240 EUR or 300 USD). So, either prepare to go to the bank daily or find a trustworthy Chinese person to exchange it for you (there are no restrictions on them).

I recommend closing all of your bank accounts in China before leaving (it will take you less than an hour and hundreds of papers). If, for whatever reason, you want to leave an account open with some money in it, keep in mind that the UnionPay system is not very widespread outside of China, though in the past years many international banks have started to accept these cards in their ATMs.

Graduation

If you have been studying in China and you are going to obtain a degree, keep in mind that the process may take at least a week.

The university will give you a piece of paper on which you will have to place the seals of various departments that most likely you have never stepped foot in.
Source: http://www.saporedicina.com/english/moving-out-of-china/