can you open an account with any bank in china if you are not a resident? if yes what is the requirement?

Question

i want to open an account either saving or current account in china in order to make a life much more easier for me to do a business. but im not a resident of china. what are the requirement and step that i can follow to acquire and account overthere. an account with banks that has online services would be much more desirable.

Answer 1

Yes. Absolutely.. I've done this many times. All you need is your passport and some money to deposit. I suggest Industrial and Commercial bank of China. Because they offer excellent online banking similar to the best services here in the states.

They also let you wire money direct from your account to pay for things..

PS> If you are setting up your bank account for a business, you should clearly understand what is involved before hand. What I mean is that if you say exactly this to the bank manager, she will ask for your business license. (Your Chinese business License) This is a whoooooole another issue..

Technically, you cannot use your personal account for business, and most Chinese wont do business with a personal account anyway due to risks and liabilities and the simple fact that relationships matter in China more than doing business on a trust faith basis with a person having a personal bank account..

Your best option is to establish a way of payment that your customers can pay you in your country of residence..



Some things you should keep in mind however. If you deposit USD in a ICBC in one county in China, you will NOT be able to get your USD from an ATM machine anywhere, nor will you be able to withdraw USD from any other branch outside of your local branch where you setup the account.

This can be frustrating for some. However, your Chinese ICBC ATM card can work in ATMs across China, and most are now in English. Just peep out the network sybols on the back of the card and compare them with the network symbols on the ATM machine..

Good luck