how could my parents withdraw USD out of a Chinese bank?

Submitted by sixstalks t3_10q6dmg in personalfinance

About 10 years ago, before lockdown of China and fallout with USA, my parents visited China and put about 10k USD into a bank in China. Now they've been told cash can't leave the country or something like that, and any withdrawal needs to have good reason? How did they even manage to deposit USD into a bank in China that uses RMB? They insist the money is deposited and kept as USD on th account as well. We're US citizens if that matters.

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Mysunsai t1_j6o3tqr wrote

China has significant restrictions surrounding capital leaving the country, you’re going to have to comply with those if you want to withdraw that cash.

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Liquidretro t1_j6o3cx2 wrote

"Or something like that" ya you need the exact details.

Why are they trying to take physical cash instead of electronically wiring the money to a US account?

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sixstalks OP t1_j6o4ets wrote

Elderly likes cash I guess. They've done this over 10 years ago, details are fuzzy without going back into China, and we definitely don't want to visit anytime soon.

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Liquidretro t1_j6o4n6h wrote

I would try instead of trying to take it out in cash (Presumably in person) to do an electronic wire instead. Without exact details my guess is the problem is the physical cash, not internationally moving money from China to the USA.

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retroPencil t1_j6o825z wrote

Fly out, get physical cash, fly back.

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rokilav t1_j6phess wrote

As an American citizen it is extremely easy for you (or your parents) to initiate a transfer of USD out of a Chinese bank and to a US or other foreign bank. It’s true that you “have to have a reason” but in my experience (as a foreigner in China) it’s a trivial process. My bank app has an option roughly 外籍人境外转账 or something similar (foreign national transfer funds abroad) which can be selected as the “reason”. The only challenging part is exchanging funds from CNY to USD, but if the funds are already denominated in USD in the Chinese bank account, you can transfer them out directly to any major US bank. If you use a smaller bank in the US it may be more complex as you’ll need an intermediary bank.

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BearMethod t1_j6o3vpu wrote

To deposit USD at BoC while in China, you walk into a branch with your ID and bank card (you need an account) and you hand it to the teller. It takes much longer than in the US.

To withdraw it, you need tax forms. Much more difficult process. To withdraw it without being in person, you may even need a 2FA token generator. If you've lost that, you're most likely fucked.

If you still have access to your mobile account a trick that worked for me two years ago was to use your mobile banking app, transfer that money from the bank app to Alipay, then you need to use a site like swapsy to find someone to trade Rmb for USD.

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sixstalks OP t1_j6o4qoh wrote

In regards to the tax forms, does that mean we're getting taxed to withdraw?

The mobile account method you mentioned means we need to pay like a transaction fee or conversion fee?

I would like to understand how did they even managed to deposited USD and kept it as USD in the bank. If I go to Wells Fargo with RMB and deposit it, won't it be converted to USD value in the account?

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meamemg t1_j6o7ybd wrote

>If I go to Wells Fargo with RMB and deposit it, won't it be converted to USD value in the account?

On a standard US Dollar based account yes. But you can open an account with banks that are denominated in other currencies. See https://www.expat.hsbc.com/multi-currency-accounts/ for example.

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kylejack t1_j6o8qqh wrote

HSBC and Citibank both offer accounts than can take deposits in other currencies for US customers.

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