The project will be a pilot project to support the Chinese authorities’ efforts, specifically, the Bureau of Exit & Entry Administration (BEEA) of the Ministry of Public Security, to explore effective solutions for developing an electronic residence permit for foreigners residing in China. BEEA requested IOM's support to explore advanced automated solutions for managing resident permits offoreigners living in China to serve also as an identity document. Currently foreigners in China are being requested to carry with them at all times their passport with their residence permit vignette in their passport. To the admission of Chinese authorities, this is a very unpractical setup for the foreigners residing in China, however, Chinese legal requirements, necessitate that everyone carries an identity document whilst residing in China. Thus, residence card solutions are being sought by the Chinese Government. IOM China has been involved in supporting BEEA on providing best practice from other countries for several years and providing capacity building measures. IOM China has also recently signed an MoU on technical collaboration with Alibaba Group, one of the biggest Chinese private companies that also provides data and software development services. IOM China has been studying also the use of blockchain technology in line with the efforts by many other UN agencies and IOM HQ (FM) to see how best to apply this revolutionary distributed ledger technology in the field of migration management. IOM China has shared its concept on developing an electronic residence permit based on blockchain technology to Alibaba Group. Alibaba Group is eager to collaborate on this project and provide its software development capacities through its Alichain Blockchain lab which so far has developed blockchain solutions in the financial space. The successful outcome of this project, can potentially lead to IOM being a global leader in the use of blockchain technology in the migration space, with potential other applications such as e-visa solutions, document verification, etc.