Much ado about homes for overseas residents

The Beijing Public Security Bureau's Exit and Entry Management Department hotline (8402-0101) began an additional service from the first of February: answering overseas residents' queries on house purchase.

About 50 people have been calling every day since then to seek help to prepare their residential status certificates, a new requirement for overseas residents who want to buy a house in Beijing.

As the operators say, the certificate can be issued in 10 days if an overseas resident furnishes all the necessary details: passport, documents to prove he/she has worked or studied in Beijing for more than a year, papers verifying their present address and two passport-size photographs.