A foreign national working in China can convert foreign currency into yuan inside an annual allowance and with nothing but a passport. Going the other way, the same person has no allowance at all unless they hold a permanent-residence ID card. The difference sits in two articles that bank staff work from at the counter.
The document is the Current-Account Foreign-Exchange Business Guide, 2020 edition, issued as 汇发〔2020〕14号 and amended three times since (full text in the State Council gazette, 2020-08-28, read 2026-11-05). The provisions used here run from Article 54 to Article 71, in the guide's personal-conversion section. Everything below comes from that text unless another document is named.
A foreign passport gets the $50,000 allowance one way only
A foreign passport carries a $50,000 annual allowance into yuan and no allowance out of yuan without a permanent-residence card (Articles 54, 55 and 59, read 2026-11-05).
| Direction | Annual allowance | What the counter asks for | Article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foreign currency into yuan | $50,000 per person | passport | 54, 55 |
| Foreign currency into yuan, above the allowance | none | ID plus documents on what the yuan is for, with the amount | 58 |
| Yuan into foreign currency | none without a permanent-residence ID card | ID plus documents on where the yuan came from, tax receipts named | 59 |
| Yuan into foreign currency, permanent-residence ID card held | $50,000 per person | ID | 54, 59 |
| Yuan converted back to foreign currency | not an allowance | ID plus the original exchange receipt | 60 |
The first line of Article 54 sets both halves in one sentence: individual conversion into yuan, and conversion into foreign currency by a domestic individual, are each under an annual facilitation allowance of $50,000. A foreign national is not a domestic individual, so only the first half reaches them. Article 59 then opens the purchase route for them, and its second paragraph hands the allowance back to anyone holding a 外国人永久居留身份证.
The figure sets paperwork, not a ceiling
The $50,000 marks the point where documents start, and Articles 56 and 58 both provide a route above it for anyone with the transaction on paper.
For a domestic individual, above-allowance conversion into yuan needs identity documents plus source-of-funds documents stating the amount; above-allowance purchase needs identity documents plus purpose documents stating the amount (Article 56). For a foreign national, above-allowance conversion into yuan needs identity documents plus documents on the purpose of the yuan, again with the amount (Article 58). The document follows the money's destination, not its origin.
One sentence in both articles catches people out. Where a single conversion into yuan exceeds $50,000, the yuan must be paid directly into the counterparty's domestic renminbi account (Articles 56 and 58). A salary conversion that large does not land in your own account first.
Capital-account money sits outside all of this. The 2006 framework says current-account business is managed by the principle of convertibility and capital-account business by the process of convertibility, which is a polite way of saying the second list is shorter (个人外汇管理办法, Order No. 3 of 2006, Article 3, in force 2007-02-01). Selling a flat and sending the proceeds abroad is a capital-account question, not the one answered here.
A passport is the whole definition
A passport holder is a 境外个人 in these rules, whatever the visa inside it says, because the definition turns on the document rather than the permission (Order No. 3 of 2006, Article 37).
The same article defines a domestic individual as a Chinese citizen holding a resident ID card, a military ID or an armed-police ID. Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents with their travel permits fall on the foreign-national side. A work permit, a residence permit for work and a permanent-residence card are three different things in this taxonomy: the first two leave you where you were, and only the third moves you into the allowance.
What the visa list means for opening an account in the first place is a separate question, covered in Opening a bank account in China as a visitor.
Salary out: the tax receipt is the document named
A bank selling foreign currency against yuan earned in China asks for your ID and for documents on where the yuan came from. Article 59 names tax receipts as part of that evidence.
The article's words are 税务凭证, tax vouchers. In practice that means the after-tax picture of the income has to exist before the conversion does, which matters if part of your pay arrived informally or the tax was handled by someone else. The rule also says 合法收入, lawful income, and current-account income, both of which are checked rather than assumed.
Article 68 then hands the branch the pen: a bank may decide for itself which documents to examine, in what form, and to what depth, may refuse a transaction whose authenticity it doubts, and must explain a refusal and the appeal channel (Article 68). Two branches of the same bank can therefore ask for different paper. That discretion is the reason this page describes articles rather than promising a checklist.
The declaration form is written for residents
Article 57 binds the domestic individual to the personal purchase declaration form. Article 59 gives a foreign national a documents-based purchase instead.
That distinction is worth knowing when a counter hands over the form anyway. The form is also where the six prohibitions are printed, and the fifth one answers a common question (form and filing instructions, 汇发〔2021〕13号, in use from 2021-04-01, each bank setting its own start date before the end of June 2021):
| Line | What it forbids |
|---|---|
| 1 | false declarations about the purchase |
| 2 | false supporting documents |
| 3 | lending your allowance to someone else |
| 4 | borrowing another person's allowance, or splitting |
| 5 | using purchased foreign currency for overseas property, securities, life insurance, or investment-type insurance that pays returns or dividends |
| 6 | money laundering, gambling, tax evasion, underground banking |
Line 5 is about the nature of the transaction, not the size of it. A purchase of $10,000 for a deposit on a flat abroad fails on the same line as a purchase of $200,000. It restricts what purchased foreign currency may be spent on; a salary conversion under Article 59 carries its own documentary test.
Splitting puts you on a two-year list
Converting in several slices, or through several people's names, to stay under the allowance is 分拆, and the guide treats lending your allowance and borrowing someone else's differently (Article 62).
| Act | Consequence | Provision |
|---|---|---|
| lending your allowance to help someone avoid the allowance or the authenticity check | a written risk warning through the bank; a second occurrence puts you on the watch list | 62(1) |
| borrowing another person's allowance, or avoiding the rules another way | watch list directly | 62(2) |
| while on the list | listed year plus the next two; every conversion needs identity documents and amount-bearing supporting documents | 62(3) |
A 2009 notice that is still quoted online, with six named patterns of splitting, was repealed by the 2020 guide's own annex of abolished rules. The general prohibition survives in Article 7 of the 2006 framework: no splitting to evade the limit, and no false documents to evade the authenticity check.
Keep the exchange receipt
Yuan left over from an earlier conversion turns back into foreign currency with the original exchange receipt, which stays usable for 24 months from the conversion date (Article 60).
Two daily exceptions need identity documents alone: up to $500 equivalent in a day at a bank, and up to $1,000 equivalent in a day at a shop inside the departure area before leaving the country.
Cash and cards have their own numbers
Cash limits are counted per trip and per day, and a card issued in China carries an annual overseas withdrawal cap that follows the person rather than the card.
| Action | Limit | Source |
|---|---|---|
| bringing foreign cash in | above $5,000 equivalent, declare in writing to customs | guide, Article 89 |
| taking foreign cash out, with nothing on your inbound declaration to cover it | $5,000 to $10,000: permit from a bank; above that, only for travel to countries in financial disorder, with a permit from the local SAFE office | guide, Article 89 |
| taking renminbi cash in or out | 20,000 yuan per person per trip | PBOC announcement No. 18 of 2004, cited below |
| withdrawing foreign cash at a bank counter | above $10,000 equivalent in a day needs prior SAFE filing, and only for travel to countries in financial disorder | guide, Article 86 |
| overseas cash withdrawal on a card issued in China | 100,000 yuan equivalent per person per calendar year, 10,000 yuan per card per day | 汇发〔2017〕29号, in force 2018-01-01 |
| overseas card spending | ordinary current-account purchases, not counted against the $50,000 | same notice, in the accompanying questions and answers |
The 20,000 yuan figure predates the baggage rules, which say only that cash above the prescribed amount must be declared. The central bank raised the renminbi limit from 6,000 to 20,000 per person per trip in an announcement effective 2005-01-01 (PBOC announcement No. 18 of 2004, PDF, read 2026-11-05; baggage rules, Order No. 276, in force 2025-04-01).
How I checked
Three passes, all on 2026-11-05.
First, the version. The regulator's list of valid foreign-exchange rules, updated to 30 June 2026, carries the 2020 guide and the 2006 framework, and lists the guide under three amending notices (SAFE list, PDF, read 2026-11-05). It carries 168 documents and no 2026 edition of the guide, although agency pages in search results claim one; those pages attribute the same document number to three different titles, which is enough to leave them out.
Second, the text. I read the gazette version of Articles 54 to 71 and checked the same articles on the regulator's own site, including Articles 62, 68 and 86 to 89.
Third, the pipeline. A draft notice published on 2026-11-02 would add current-account business to what a relative may handle on your behalf, allow a non-relative with a written reason, and exempt foreign athletes, referees and delegation members at accredited sports events from submitting documents for each transaction (draft and covering note, comments due 2026-12-01). It is a draft. Nothing in it changes the allowances above today.
What I could not check
- What a specific branch asks for a salary conversion. Article 68 lets each bank set its own document list. I did not survey branches, so the contract, the tax record and the employer letter are described as the shape of the requirement, not as a fixed set.
- Whether the 2026-11-02 draft becomes rules, and in what form. The comment window closes on 2026-12-01.
- Capital-account routes. Sale proceeds of property, equity and investments follow a different chapter with different approvals, and I did not work through it here.
- Whether an unused allowance carries into the next year. I found no article in the guide, the 2006 framework or its implementation rules that addresses carry-over, and I am not repeating the version that circulates on bank pages without a citation.
- An official English translation of the guide. The regulator runs an English site, but I read this guide in Chinese, and every article number here refers to that text.
The friendlier version of the same material for Chinese citizens moving money abroad, including the nine categories of source documents, is in the Chinese piece 个人购汇与结汇：5 万美元额度管什么. Where the yuan is priced, and why a bank's counter rate differs from the published parity, is in How the yuan is quoted.
Read next, from the same notebook:
- Opening a bank account in China as a visitor — The visa list a branch works from, and what changes after the account exists.
- How the yuan is quoted — The parity, the bank's counter rates, and why the spread is the bank's decision.
Originally published at Field Notes.
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