Since China’s opening up and reform in 1980s, people’s daily life has been getting richer and richer, and more and more people chose immigration to other countries in order to pursue better life standard or educational environment for their children.

Chinese people mostly chose to immigrate to the developed western or European countries, such as the U.S., Canada, Australia, France, Italy, Germany and so on. The immigrants from China’s coastal areas and border regions like Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian account for majority of total immigrants from China and become a primary immigrant source of the U.S., Canada and other countries. According to the statistical report from Canada’s citizenship and immigration department, the population of Chinese immigrants to Canada reached 29336 in 2008, occupying the first place among all source countries of immigrants to Canada. The newest number of Australian Bureau of Statistics also shows that China, instead of the U.K., has already become the biggest source country of immigrants to Australia in 2009. Furthermore, Chinese immigrants to the U.S. have increased 4 times over the past 26 years. It is obviously from these figures that China has become a big source country of immigrants with ever-increasing quantity of immigrants.

How do Chinese people immigrate to other countries? There are two means: legal immigration or illegal. Legal immigration includes immigration of technology, investment, federal and other methods; while illegal immigration generally contains two types. One is legally entry but illegally overstay in the destination country. These immigrants legally enter other countries by holding regular passports and visas but lose their legal identities for exceeding expiration of validity of visa. The other one is illegally entry and stealthy stay in the destination country. These immigrants neither process legal exit procedures nor obtain valid visas, and usually steal into another country and illegally reside in it.
Nowadays the population of Chinese illegal immigrants still keeps increase, especially in recent years China’s illegal immigration problem, with the principal part of illegal immigration activity in coastal areas like Fujian, not only attracts worldwide concerns but also arouse worries from Chinese fellows. In the light of statistics of the United States Department of Homeland Security, of total 11.55 million illegal immigrants to America in January 2006, Chinese illegal immigrants accounts for 2 percent amouting to 190,000 persons. Besides, according to statistics of Department of Interior of France, Chinese illegal immigrants were up to 30,000-50,000 as of August 22, 2009. The relevant problems have emerged with the increasing quantity of illegal immigrants. Developed countries’ security, social stability and future international relations with other countries are suffering direct or indirect damage. Illegal immigration has become an important non-traditional secure element commonly recognized over the world. Some countries and regions began to hoist the banner of strengthening border monitor and cracking down on illegal immigrants.

During the process of reducing illegal immigrants, immigration offices of quite a few countries also found another phenomenon -- many Chinese applicants fabricated their application materials. Applicants hided their real identity information and criminal records and magnified their wealth and educational degree with the purpose of successful immigration to other countries. To decline the probabilities of disqualified applicants getting their visas, immigration offices should intensify qualification check procedure. Objective and real identity information serves as the most important way to learn about an applicant, followed by screening personal properties and employments. It is advised to review the materials of applicants by public database search as a legal, convenient and prompt approach.

Now public check channels have been available in China, but it is noted that there is a little difficult for foreigners to find and check on their own due to the obstacles from different cultures and languages. Accordingly it is recommended to make use of local database resources or conduct site investigation to achieve the perspective effect.