Where can Chinese citizens move to?
Ranked by what the move actually takes on a Chinese passport specifically, not in general. Every rating below comes from the same verified data as the full guide it links to.
Naturalising in any of these 12 means giving up your Chinese passport.
Open to you in Australia and New Zealand. Usually age-capped, so it closes quietly.
Easiest to keep driving on in Costa Rica and Thailand. Each guide has the exact terms. Elsewhere expect more steps, often a full local test.
An apostille is accepted in 11 of these 12. Thailand still needs the full consular legalisation chain, so start earlier.
Moderate 6 of 12
- AustraliaChinese nationals arrive largely through the student-visa-to-skilled-visa pipeline (especially into 190/491 state nomination) and business/investor-adjacent National Innovation nominations, alongside a longstanding family-reunion stream.Moderate
- Costa RicaChinese nationals relocating to Costa Rica most commonly come as Inversionista residents (real estate or business investment) or Rentista residents living off passive income; a smaller, growing group uses the Digital Nomad visa.Moderate
- JapanChinese nationals most often move via the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities visa in tech and trade, family/spouse visas, or as international students transitioning to work visas.Moderate
- New ZealandChinese arrivals typically come via international study followed by post-study work rights and the Skilled Migrant Category, or through investor/business pathways and family sponsorship.Moderate
- SpainWith Spain’s real-estate Golden Visa abolished in April 2025, most Chinese applicants now use the Non-Lucrative Visa, an entrepreneur/investor visa, a student visa, or family reunification.Moderate
- ThailandChinese nationals arrive heavily via property-linked LTR/retirement routes, Thai-employer work permits in trade and manufacturing, and a fast-growing DTV/digital-nomad segment; investment migration through condo purchases is also common.Moderate
Complex 6 of 12
- CanadaChina is Canada's third-largest source country (21,115 PRs in 2025), mostly through the study-permit route, family class, and provincial business streams.Complex
- IrelandChinese nationals come to Ireland mainly through postgraduate study at Irish universities, converting into an employment permit or the Stamp 1G graduate route once a job is secured — pharma, tech and fintech are the common landing sectors.Complex
- ItalyChinese nationals typically arrive via self-employment (textiles, wholesale and food-service businesses concentrated around Prato and Milan) or family reunification, with Decreto Flussi self-employment quotas as a secondary route.Complex
- NetherlandsMost Chinese nationals arrive via the Kennismigrant visa in tech and finance through recognized sponsors, plus a large student-to-work pipeline converting a Dutch degree into a search-year (zoekjaar) visa and then a job offer.Complex
- PortugalChinese nationals mostly arrive via the Golden Visa's successor investment routes, D2 entrepreneur visas tied to Lisbon and Porto retail businesses, and family reunification into an already-established trading community.Complex
- United StatesDominated by F-1 student arrivals transitioning to OPT and H-1B, plus employment-based green cards (EB-1/EB-2/EB-3) — China-born applicants share India's severe per-country backlog problem, though somewhat less extreme.Complex
Ratings weigh entry class, working-holiday access, licence exchange, dual citizenship and document legalisation. Each is checked against the issuing government. Open any destination for the full guide written for Chinese citizens.