Opinion of General Office of the State Council on resolving the issues of household registration (Hukou registration) for persons without hukou

State Council General Office Opinion on Resolving Issues of Hukou Registration for Persons with no Hukou
State Council Release (2015) No. 96

Source: http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2016-01/14/content_10595.htm

People’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions, and cities directly under the jurisdiction of central government, and all State Council ministries and commissions and directly managed agencies:
Registering a household by statute is a basic right granted by law to citizens as it is related to equity, justice, harmony and stability within the society. The Party and State Council attach great importance to the management of household registration and put forward the demand on the problems of strengthening the management of household registration and solving the registration without household account repeatedly in recent years. In accordance with the decision of CPC Central Committee and State Council, the Public Security Bureau and the related department solve the problem on the household registration without hukou under great efforts and achieved significant results. However, due to the policy barriers and other factors that some localities and departments exist, some citizens still do not have hukou and this problem is relatively conspicuous. Not only it is unfavorable to protect citizens' legitimate rights and interests, but also directly affects the launch of the new national household registration system. To solve the household registration problem for the people without hukou, with the consent of the State Council, requirements are mentioned below.
I. General Requirements
(1) Guiding thoughts. Thoroughly put the guidelines of the 18th National Congress of CPC and its Third, Fourth, Fifth Plenary session into practice, according to the Party and State Council agreed "Framework on deepening the reform of a number of major issues of public security", adhere to problem-oriented, to reform as a driving force and put efforts to solve the problem of household registration for people without hukou. To lay a solid foundation for the promotion of the reform of public security, innovation on population management and development on new household registration system in order to better serve and protect people's livelihood, foster social equity and justice and modernize the national governance systems and capability.
(2) Basic Principles. Adhere to handle the cases and protect the legitimate rights and interests that every citizen enjoys on household registration according to law; adhere to differentiate the cases and implement the household registration on no hukou people with classification; adhere to adopt complementary measures so as to solve the household registration problem for no hukou people and to improve and perfect family planning, adoption registration, begging rescue, nationality policy, and related areas and policies.
（3）Target Goals. To further improve the policy on household registration, any preconditions which comply with the requirement of household registration are prohibited. In order to reach the accuracy, uniqueness and authority on the households and citizen identification numbers in the entire country by strengthening the management of household registration, solving the problem of household registration on no hukou people fully and protecting each citizen legally register a permanent residence.
II. Legally permanent residence registration for no hukou people
(A) People without hukou do not meet the requirement of family planning policy. Those people with no hukou owing to unapproved birth or birth out of wedlock, themselves or their guardians can apply for permanent residence registration in accordance with hukou system that voluntarily follows father's or mother's hukou, by birth certificate and household booklet of father or mother, marriage certificate or illegitimate birth certificate. People of illegitimate birth and without hukou, who want to settle the household registration according to father's hukou, have to provide paternity appraisal by qualified verification agencies.
(B) Unregistered persons not yet applied for birth certificate. Unregistered persons that were born in midwifery institutions, themselves or their guardians can apply birth certificate to those midwifery institutions; otherwise for those that were not born in midwifery institutions, themselves or their guardians have to provide identified paternity appraisal by qualified verification agencies to the agencies commissioned by administrative department of health planning agency in counties for a birth certificate. Unregistered persons or their guardians can apply for permanent residence registration with birth certificate and household booklet of father or mother, marriage certificate or illegitimate birth certificate.
(C) Unregistered persons under de facto adoption that not yet handled adoption process. People who have not settled the adoption registration can apply for permanent household registration by applying for adoption registration first with the "adoption registration certificate" and the household booklet of adopter. to the civil affairs departments in accordance with the provisions for adoption registration, with the "adoption registration certificate" to apply, the adopter's residence booklet, apply for permanent residence registration. 1999年4月1日《全国人民代表大会常务委员会关于修改<中华人民共和国收养法>的决定》施行前，国内公民私自收养子女未办理收养登记的，当事人可以按照规定向公证机构申请办理事实收养公证，经公安机关调查核实尚未办理户口登记的，可以凭事实收养公证书、收养人的居民户口簿，申请办理常住户口登记。
(D) Missing persons or deceased persons whose hukous were cancelled People who were declared by people's court as missing persons or deceased persons reappeared, themselves or their guardians could ask for the people's court to cancellation of written judgement and apply for the restoration of permanent household registration.
(E) People who got married in rural areas, their original hukous were cancelled People, who got married in rural areas and their native hukou were cancelled, once examined by the government that they did not settle down in other places, can apply for the restoration of permanent household registration in their native places. After restoring the permanent residence registration, in line with the conditions of living in the current residence, citizens can apply for the transferring residence of household registration.
(F) People without hukou due to the lost or expiration of migration documents People without hukou caused by the lost and expired documents can apply for reissue of transfer documents issued by the public security organs. The reissue of ducuments can be used to apply for the transfer of residence registration. The undergraduates that are not conformed with the current transfer of hukou policy may apply for the restoration of permanent residence registration in their native residence. Other persons may apply for the restoration of permanent residence registration in the place they moved out before.
(G) People who were illegitimately born by local citizens and foreigners or stateless persons. People who were illegitimately born by local citizens and foreigners or stateless persons and have not got other countries' nationality, themselves or their guardians with Chinese nationality can apply for permanent residence registration by birth certificate, certificate of illegitimate birth and household booklet of the local citizen. Those do not have the birth certificate have to provide identified paternity appraisal by qualified verification agencies.
(8) Other persons without Hukou. People without hukou due to other reasons, themselves or the regarding departments can apply for permanent household registration by the examination of public security organs.
III. Get a firm grasp on organizational implementation
(1) Strengthen leadership of the organizations. All localities and departments should proceed from observing the overall situation and launch strategies to fully understand the importance and urgency to settle the unregistered people, put the thoughts and action together, strengthen organizations' leadership, elaborate policies and measures, clear the working requirements, ensure the policies are effectively launched and truly tackle the household registration problem for no hukou people. Provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities with the people's governments implement the specific policies based on the current situation and make them public.
(2) Conscientious verification and management. Each region should carry out thorough investigation, carefully study the key issues of the local household registration problem and sort out the base and unregistered persons and the circumstances in local administrative area. To standardize acceptance or approval procedures, highly-regulated working requirement and settle the household registration for no hukou people in time. To upgrade and improve population information system, strengthen the verification of records and comparison of personnel portrait and fingerprint comparison and ensure the accuracy and uniqueness of the registered identity information. Have a good management on the archives of household registration, filing one by one for the registration materials of unregistered persons to ensure the completeness and effectiveness of archives. The public security organs should timely report the issues of the unregistered people registering hukou to the regarding departments.
(3) Implementing supporting policies. All departments should rectify the policies or measures which are not matched with the opinion of the State Council on resolving the hukou problem and to modify and abolish all the mistakes. Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Civil Affairs, National Health and Family Planning Commission and other departments must revise and improve the laws and policies regarding household registration, vagrants and beggars and family planning according to the division of labour.
(4) Actively work on publicity and guidance. Issues of household registration for persons without hukou is a policy-based topic with widespread social concern. Step up the publicity efforts for guidance and create a good atmosphere for public opinion. Step up publicity efforts to widely publicize the policy measures of household registration of unregistered persons and the rights and obligations of civilians to registration their account to the grassroots, rural areas and among the masses in order to strive for the support and cooperation of people, and actively take the initiative to mobilize people without hukou settling down the permanent household registration.
(5) Strengthen the implementation of duties. All relevant departments should further classify the duties in detail and carry out division of labour to ensure the implementation of various policies and measures. The Ministry of public security, in conjunction with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, National Health and Family Planning Commission and other departments to strengthen supervision and provide guidance to regions and call to account to those are not responsible and work ineffective.
For the previous documents which are not consistent with this opinion, the regulations and enforcement are implemented in accordance with this opinion.

General Office of the State Council
31 December 2015