Hello

I bought an apartment in Dali. The buying process was without any problem. But when it came to pay resp. exchanging money to pay for the property I ran into following trouble.

I went through the process to get approval from the Foreign Exchange Bureau that I can exchange more than 50'000 USD (which is the yearly limit for foreigner exchanging money). Took me some time to fullfill all paperwork and I paid several visit to this Bureau just with the result that after exchanging the money 'Bank of China' AND the Foreign Exchange Bureau insists that the amount I exchanged for paying the apartment counts against the limit I can exchange privately every year!

They do not matter or consider that in fact the amount I need to pay for my apartment is higher than 50'000USD. They say I can't exchange any money anymore this year!

I'm pretty sure that they interpret the regulation wrong. It doesn't make sense that the amount to pay for the house (for which I got a special approval/allowance) counts to the normal limit of exchanging money for private use.

Anyone who have different experience?
Any real estate company or lawyer know the regulations?

I need to exchange some money this year for my living - I can't eat 2 Kuai noodle soup everyday..., haha

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Keep in mind that I am not a lawyer and only relating my personal experience. When we bought our condo in Kunming I ran into the same issue and, as ridiculous as it seems, there are no exceptions to the limit on the $50K per year rule. I got around it by paying a large deposit one year and paying the balance the next year at closing. That still only left me with earlier savings in the Bank of China and credit cards to live on. Good luck.

I can also confirm that $50,000 a year is the limit. I deal regularly with Bank of China here in Toronto. I think it's in place to prevent "hot money" from entering China. In other words, they don't want foreigners (us) speculating in their markets.

Are you at all able to apply for a mortgage? Is your spouse (if any) Chinese?

That $50,000 limit is "per person". If you have a spouse or significant other then there is another $50,000 available.

When we came to Kunming 2 years ago we got that advice from the BOC branch in Toronto, so split the funds into two and had (almost) no problem exchanging the funds here.

AlPage is correct. The US50,000 limit is per person. But there are other regulations. We transferred US100,000 to my wife's acct here in China with the goal to transfer half of it to an acct in my name and then change to RMB. However, there is also a regulation as to how much can be changed from one acct to another. We had to transfer the entire amt back to the US and then transfer 50,000 back to each separate acct. We were also buying property and had to use that money for that (plus some $ transferred directly to real estate agent) Then we had to transfer some $ to a "friend" to use for living expenses. It is convoluted - - but usually a way to get done what you need to get done.

Plus additional regulations re taxes in your home country!!!

WOW!!!!

There's another method not taken into account by the government.

My Canadian debit card permits me to withdraw up to $1,000 PER DAY, while my VISA card allows $3,000 cash withdrawals. Admittedly I pay a premium of $3 per transaction on the debit card and $5 on the credit card, but in the end I could draw down $4,000 per day in cash and then deposit it in my BOC account here. If my pension were higher I could easily transfer more than $1,000,000 per year, but alas, I don't earn that much.

regulations is only a barrier for the 'average person'. There are quite a few licensed bureau de change in hong kong who could easily wire one or two million RMB to an account in china in one click. :-) i did use one when i bought one property in kunming 2 years back.

Hi all!

I guess I have the opposite problem soon because I want to sell my property here and have the money wired back to my US bank in dollars. So I have several questions if this group would be willing to help out.
1) I see that Dry and Easy has managed to find the Foreign Exchange Bureau and that's great because everyone tells me I should go there (with my receipt for exchanging dollars to rmb in the beginning) but all the people I've asked don't know where it is! even realtors didn't know.
So if you could say where this bureau is, it would be a big help.
2) I saw online that the Chinese are now also limited to exchange rmb for no more than $50K US per year and something about a daily limit of $10K. This change happened in 2010 they say. Anyone heard about this? And do you think it would apply to wiring money from the chinese account to my US bank?
OK, I know that's too much for a short forum entry. Thanks for any help

Go to the main branch of bank in China and tell them you need to send the proceeds of your house sale to the US.

I was told in a BOC in the north of China that this is a fairly simple thing,,but of course in China you will need to kill a forest before its done.

I guess you will need a few trips to the bank and maybe SAFE.