BEIJING, June 29 (INP) Since the establishment of the State Administration of Immigration in April this year, 1881 eligible foreigners have been approved for permanent residence in China and of those, 606 have received Beijing permanent resident identity cards. Those who have obtained permanent residence status in Beijing include individuals from China’s Global 1000 Talent Program, high-level foreigners who work in Zhongguancun, high-level professionals from Beijing's service industry, foreigners of Chinese descent, outstanding entrepreneurs in key industries, senior managerial and technical personnel and their spouses and children. In 2016, China's Ministry of Public Security introduced 20 entry and exit measures to support Beijing's innovative development. Pertaining to foreign visas, entry and exit practices and residence status, the measures aimed at serving four major categories of foreigners in Beijing, namely, high-level foreign talents, foreigners of Chinese descent, foreign members of startups, and foreign students. The measures were first implemented in Zhongguancun, China's Silicon Valley. A service hall was set up there, making it the only one in China authorized to deal directly with applications for permanent residence status by foreigners. The application time has been shortened to 50 working days, and 468 people have been approved to date. In 2018, Beijing announced seven policies to further support the introduction of foreign talent into Zhongguancun. Foreign family members of high-level Chinese talent are allowed to apply for permanent residence status through the one-stop service hall, children of foreign talents can apply for study visas at the Beijing entry, and foreign scientific research assistants can apply for work-and-residence permits. In 2016, a total of 598 applications for permanent residence were processed by Beijing's entry and exit authority, 2.8 times the number from the previous year. This number rose to 662 in 2017, an increase of 10.7 percent year on year. In May 2017, Beijing's Chaoyang and Shunyi districts opened entry and exit service halls, enabling district agencies to deal with such matter for the first time. This is part of the ten entry and exit measures Beijing released to support its comprehensive pilot project of opening up. Following the launch of the ten measures, Beijing has roughly formed a three-dimensional system to attract foreign talents, namely, scientific and technological service professionals in Zhongguancun, business service professionals in Chaoyang district, and airport-related economy and service professionals in Shunyi district. INP/J/AJ