Why the K visa could be China’s answer to Donald Trump’s war on H-1B

There is, however, one potential gainer – China.

While the Chinese foreign ministry said it would not comment on American visa policies after Trump added a $100,000 fee to H-1B visas, it was quick to note that China “welcomes outstanding talents” from across the world. And key to that, at least from Beijing’s point of view, is a new category of visas – called the K visa – that China is in the process of rolling out.

The K visas

The State Council of the People’s Republic of China recently revised the ‘Regulations on the Administration of the Entry and Exit of Foreigners’, adding a new visa category of K visa from October 1. This new visa category is specifically aimed at foreign science and technology talents who meet certain conditions and requirements. While this was done before Trump’s curbs on H-1B, it is well known that a restriction on this visa category was on the cards and broadly aligned with the new US administration’s hardline immigration policies.

For the Chinese K visa, foreign youth who have graduated from “renowned domestic or international universities or research institutions” with a bachelor’s degree or higher in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and foreign professionals engaged in education and research in STEM-related fields would qualify.

Compared to existing ordinary Chinese visa types, K visa holders have been promised greater flexibility in terms of entry frequency and validity period and have an expanded scope of activities that include exchanges and collaborations in education, science, technology, culture, entrepreneurship, and business, according to a KPMG analysis of the new visa provisions. More importantly, applications will no longer require sponsorship from a local enterprise.

The K visa is essentially being seen as an extension of the R visa for high-level talent introduced by China in 2013. The new K visa specifically targets foreign young talent working in the science and technology sector, highlighting China’s new focus and emphasis on attracting the next generation of scientists and researchers. Details such as the specific age range for “young” individuals, the scope of specific tech industries, the exact validity period and duration of stay for K visas, and follow-up residency policies after entry remain to be further clarified, KPMG noted.

According to Yin Chengzhi, Associate Professor & Associate Dean, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, the new visa policy is reflective of China’s commitment to competing globally for talent, particularly in fields critical to modern developments such as technology innovation and scientific research. “For universities like us, it will be much easier in the future to attract top tier, international faculty researchers and post doctoral fellows. It may also accelerate innovation in critical fields like AI, biotechnology for the research institutes, especially in the private sector. In the long term, it could enhance the research and development capabilities, foster the creation of new high growth industries and improve the competitiveness of China’s industries”.

Impact of the move

According to analysts, a lot of what the US is doing currently, including its attack on the multilateral trading system, its universities, and the free movement of talent, is being seen in Beijing as actually being beneficial to them. And while the timing of the K visa launch might not have been intentional, the coincidence cannot be wished away. It could be yet another symbol of how the geopolitical importance of the two countries could be shifting, or at least starting to shift.

The K visa fits into China’s attempts to try to position the country as a science and technology superpower, given that President Xi Jinping and other top leaders have repeatedly talked about the need to make China more attractive to foreign talents. Given the US immigration policy twists and other measures aimed at cutting funding for science etc, this is being seen as an opportunity for Beijing. The K visa is an attempt to capitalise on this opportunity.

There could be some impediments to the K visas taking off. One is the general slowdown in the Chinese economy, with its high youth unemployment, that seems to be impacting white collar workers. The festering real estate crisis is not helping either. While the big draw of H-1Bs was the possibility of shifting from one company to another and finding jobs to stay on in the US, that could be a problem in China at this point in time.

On the flip side, though, the Chinese education system is on the upswing. China’s top two universities, Tsinghua and Peking, have edged closer to the global top ten, with both institutions consistently holding the top positions in Asian university rankings. Around two-thirds of Asia’s top universities are now based in mainland China and Hong Kong. China is also now a world leader in specialised sectors such as AI, electric vehicles, rare earth magnets etc. Its AI field is increasingly seen as being more open to the academics slogging in the background, including mentions and credits to data scientists working for entities such as DeepSeek. This is being seen as a very progressive move in global academic circles, helping China reposition itself to the academic world, a professor in a top Indian technology institution said.

All of this does put the pressure back on policymakers in the Indian education system to think long-term and see if the current policies align the country to be positioned as a research and education hub in at least the broader Asian region, the person quoted above said.