Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, unveiled a new policy on household registration on Aug 13, local media reported. 

The policy, which takes effect on Sept 11, will make it easier for non-native residents to apply for household registration, known as "hukou" in Chinese. 

The requirement to pay social insurance for three years will be waived for non-native residents who or their spouses own property in the city's urban area.

Those leasing a property now only need to live in the same town or sub-district in the city's urban area and pay social insurance there for two years, rather than the previous five years. They can now apply for a collective hukou at their place of residence. 

In addition, the three-year minimum on tax and social insurance payments will be waived for those who have invested and started a business in the city.

Meanwhile, the requirement to pay for social insurance for at least one year for those who received at least a bachelor's degree from a full-time university or technical school within the past 15 years is set to be eliminated as well.

Social insurance payments made by those working in the Yangtze River Delta, a region encompassing Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui, will also be recognized and included as part of the total payment period when applying for a hukou in Ningbo.

Those who have a hukou for a region within the Yangtze River Delta and own property in Ningbo's urban area are now eligible to directly transfer their hukou to Ningbo. 

This is the third time the city has relaxed hukou requirements, following similar moves in 2018 and 2019, in an effort to attract more talent and encourage more people to find employment and start businesses in the city.

The city's sustained efforts to improve the household registration system have already proved successful.

Official statistics show that Ningbo's permanent resident population climbed from 8.005 million in 2017 to 8.542 million in 2019, meaning more than 537,000 people moved to the city over this period.