Chinese local governments and enterprises are seeking Chinese students and working professionals in the US who want to return home as US working visa is difficult to acquire and opportunities emerge in China.

At a job fair aimed at overseas-trained students and workers on Nov 8 in Somerset, New Jersey, businesses, development zones and colleges offered incentive packages that included free housing and start-up financing up to 10 million yuan or $1.6 million to entrepreneurs.

The event, called Zhejiang and Overseas High-Level Talents Exchange and Cooperation Conference, is sponsored by East China's Zhejiang province and is in its sixth year.

"(It) allows Chinese students and professionals in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) a chance to connect with prospective employers and universities in Zhejiang province," said Tong Fang, a conference organizer and a former president of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology USA.

"Some of the students and professionals can no longer stay in the US, so immigration issues are a major reason why many of the students and professionals are here today," Fang told China Daily.

For 2015, about 172,500 applications were filed for H-1B visas with the US government. H-1B is a program that enables US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in designated occupations. Only 85,000 could be approved, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Zhejiang province is ready to step in and provide opportunities in China for those who can't stay in the US.

"In the United States, everything has been established, and you have fewer opportunities," said Zhang Yuanlong, vice-president of Zhejiang Ocean University, who was seeking marine science researchers at the job fair. "But China has been going through a lot of changes and is hungry to attract talent."

Zhejiang has been supported by the central government to develop its marine economy, and new development zones have been established. "There might be more risks here, but definitely there is a lot more you can do," said Zhang.

The province, south of Shanghai, is "rich in capital and prosperous in the private sector", said Ye Dongbai, counselor of science and technology at China's consulate general in New York. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the online retail giant, and Geely Holdings, the owner of Volvo cars, are based in Zhejiang.

"As we are expanding globally, we definitely need people who know the US market," said Ye Zhong, chief engineer of Zhejiang-based Hangzhou Steam Turbine Co Ltd, who was seeking engineers.

"The greater New York area is the world's first metropolitan area and has the world's strongest innovation capabilities and the best talent," said Hu Heping, head of the organization department from the Zhejiang's Party Committee. More than 800 registered for the conference, and nearly 1,200 positions were available at the fair.

But job-seekers still have their own concerns, according to one student who requested anonymity. She studied public relations at New York University and went to the fair because there are not a lot of vacancies in that field in the US.

"We have been educated in the US for so long, so I might not be willing to go back to a Chinese environment," she told China Daily. She said her classmates who went back to China complained often that things are so different from what they learned in the US.

Lu Huiquan in New York contributed to the story.

Contact the writer at [email protected].

(China Daily USA 11/10/2014 page2)