6 ways to get the vital document

1) New graduates can try to find jobs with the national ministries or State-owned enterprises, which typically offer a hukou to their hires. Unfortunately, it's not easy to land those jobs. Successful applicants must excel in many rounds of exams and interviews. However, the trade-off with accepting the job might be a 5- or 10-year contract. The penalty for breaching those contracts is high.

2) Those who yearn for a hukou can buy one. Sales are illegal yet quite prevalent, particularly before the annual college graduation season. Sellers can be found on the Internet bulletin board systems (BBS) of universities in Beijing. They usually obtain hukous from companies that are qualified to offer them but not good enough to attract top job applicants.

3) Those not graduating this year can invest in Beijing to procure a local hukou. In Beijing, the owner of a certain-scale private enterprise can get a hukou, but normally this can cost more than 8 million yuan ($1.2 million). People with that kind of money usually don't need the Beijing hukou, of course. Individuals of more modest means can invest in a suburban area, normally at a cost of 250,000 to 500,000 yuan.