After working here for more than 10 years, and waiting for several months, I eventually got the permanent residency on last Friday. I am very happy with this since now I have much bigger freedom than before.
Ordinary visas have strict limitations. I hadn’t been aware of this before, until a friend of mine was sent back to China for working on another job, that is not in the same area as indicated by her visa… That was a terrible lesson.
Getting a permanent residency has following benefits:
- Do what you want to with no limitation (if it’s legal…)
- much higher creditworthiness (for example, when you apply for a mortgage loan, or do business)
- no expiry (but reentry permission has)
- unemployment protection: according to the law, a foreigner is to be sent back if he cannot get a job in three months after losing his job. Since unemployment insurance starts the first payment after three months from the time when one loses his job, this is unfair for foreigners who also keep paying for unemployment insurance (and have to do so). With PR, this won’t be a problem.