Recently, a hot topic has been trending on Zhihu. The upcoming K visa issued by the government has sparked anxiety among many—will foreigners also come to compete for jobs?
From my perspective, Old T has also attempted to provide a brief response.
Overall, I believe this visa policy will have little impact on ordinary people. Essentially, the K visa is still a skilled immigration visa. Although the government has not yet formulated specific implementation measures, it is likely to follow the model of the U.S. H1B visa.
Why Recruit Foreigners for Technical Roles Now?
The primary focus is to serve the upgrading of domestic manufacturing industries and the needs of related sectors. The key requirement is to bring in individuals who understand the languages, customs, social norms, and consumption habits of third-world countries to participate in upstream production.
Undoubtedly, the large number of Indian employees in U.S. IT and internet giants has played a crucial role as catalysts, accelerators, and bridges in helping these companies expand into the Indian market, understand Indian user needs, and incorporate certain Indian cultural elements into product design.
For “Made in China” to achieve global influence, it’s not enough to simply set up R&D centers in end markets. Inevitably, more foreigners with native cultural backgrounds need to be involved.
These professional roles hardly compete with the domestic workforce.
How Will It Affect Ordinary People?
For ordinary people, the implementation of the K visa will have almost no direct impact. It is not intended to fill a “quantitative gap” in domestic technical talent but rather to precisely address a “specific capability gap”—namely, the scarce ability to deeply embed Chinese manufacturing into the local context (language, culture, consumer psychology, social networks) of emerging markets.
The core value of such imported talent lies in helping Chinese manufacturing and related industries accurately target the real needs of overseas markets from the design and production stages, reducing issues of “cultural misfit.” This complements, rather than competes with, the core competencies of local talent in areas such as technological R&D, production management, and domestic market expansion.
In essence, the K visa represents a strategic optimization of talent allocation as China’s industrial globalization deepens. It aims to enhance “localization capabilities” and “source innovation adaptability,” with the goal of boosting the global competitiveness and penetration of Chinese manufacturing, rather than competing with ordinary people for jobs.
Will It Bring in “Foreign Trash”?
Old T fully understands the concerns many people have about this issue, often linking it to problems related to international students.
However, at the end of the day, a work visa requires a job offer—domestic companies must be willing to hire foreigners, and employers must be prepared to pay foreign employees with real money. They also need to address internal communication and management challenges. No employer would hire someone to act like a “boss” in the workplace. If these individuals fail to contribute effectively or face internal rejection that hinders their work, their visas will naturally become invalid.