Most of us take the freedom to pack up and relocate for granted. Need a fresh start in another city? Just book a moving truck and go. Looking for better job opportunities across the country? Nobody’s stopping you. Yet for millions of people worldwide, this simple act requires official approval, paperwork, and sometimes years of waiting. The idea sounds almost dystopian to those living in countries with unrestricted movement rights. You might be surprised to learn which nations still maintain these rigid systems in our modern, connected era.
These restrictions aren’t relics of the distant past. They shape daily life for hundreds of millions today, determining where people can work, where their children attend school, and what social services they can access. Let’s dive into the three countries where moving cities isn’t just a logistical challenge but a legal one.
China: The Hukou System’s Invisible Walls
China’s hukou system originated in 1958 as the People’s Republic of China Hukou Registration Regulation, classifying each citizen as either agricultural or non-agricultural, commonly known as rural or urban. Think of it like an internal passport that ties you to your birthplace. Under this system, individuals are categorized as either rural or urban residents based on their place of origin and family’s registered status, which determines eligibility for employment, education, housing, healthcare, and even the right to move freely and reside in cities.
Currently, roughly 177 million workers in China live in places other than the area registered in their hukou, employed mainly in flexible, low-skilled jobs with limited access to healthcare, pensions, and public education. These migrant workers often can’t send their children to local schools without paying hefty fees or enroll in city health insurance programs. In megacities with populations over five million people, a points-based hukou system was implemented, making permanent relocation nearly impossible for ordinary citizens.
While China has made efforts to reform the hukou system in recent years, aiming to gradually relax restrictions and promote urbanization by allowing some migrants to obtain urban status in smaller cities and expanding social benefits for rural residents, the system remains complex and deeply ingrained in China’s social and administrative structure. The 2014 reform created different tiers of restriction depending on city size, but major urban centers like Beijing and Shanghai remain largely closed to new permanent residents.
North Korea: Travel Permits for Everything
North Korean citizens usually cannot freely travel within, let alone outside, the country, and must obtain a permit to travel outside their county of residence, reporting their arrival to local authorities upon reaching their destination. I know it sounds extreme, but this is the reality. Internal movement between provinces or cities is illegal without official travel permits, requiring citizens to obtain permission from their work supervisor for any relocation.
The regime uses a social classification system called songbun to determine who gets travel privileges. Songbun classifies citizens’ attitudes toward the regime as core, wavering, or hostile, with an individual’s status influenced by their family’s status and helping determine career prospects, housing, and even access to food. The government determines where each citizen will live, and travel within the country is strictly limited.
Even in North Korea, travel permits to visit family, relatives, or friends living in other parts of the country are only issued for special occasions such as weddings, graduations, military enlistments, and funerals. Imagine needing government permission just to attend your cousin’s wedding in the next province. Moving from one province to another, or traveling abroad without prior approval, remained illegal, with border guards under orders to “unconditionally shoot” anyone entering or leaving without permission.
Vietnam: The Ho Khau Legacy Slowly Fading
Vietnam’s household registration system known as ho khau has been part of the fabric of life for over 50 years, used as an instrument of public security, economic planning, and control of migration when the state played a stronger role in direct management of the economy and citizens’ lives, though the system has become less rigid over time with concerns persisting that ho khau limits rights and access to public services. Drawing from historical roots as well as China’s similar hukou model, the ho khau system was established in Vietnam in 1964, with the law establishing that every citizen be registered as a resident in one household at the place of permanent residence.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Since reforms starting in 2006, it is no longer necessary to obtain permission from local authorities in the place of departure to register in a new location, and obtaining temporary registration status in a new location is no longer difficult. Vietnam has been actively loosening its grip. According to a World Bank report released in June 2016, at least 5.6 million people in Vietnam lack permanent household registration in their current places of residence, including 36 percent of Ho Chi Minh City’s population and 18 percent of Hanoi’s population.
In 2017, the government of Vietnam changed the registration system to use an online database instead of registration books, though the effects of this transition remain unclear since use of registration books continues throughout many provinces, with the new issuance of paper household registration books stopped from July 1, 2021. The country is transitioning away from these restrictions, but millions still face barriers to full urban residency rights. The ho khau system prevents migrants from obtaining urban citizenship and related services such as public education and health insurance, with migrants classified as temporary residents often facing severe obstacles in obtaining employment in the formal sector.
Final Thoughts
These three countries demonstrate how government control over internal movement remains a powerful tool for managing populations, economies, and political stability. While China maintains its system with gradual reforms, North Korea enforces one of the world’s most restrictive regimes, and Vietnam appears to be slowly dismantling its barriers. The impact on ordinary people is profound: families separated, opportunities denied, and basic freedoms curtailed.
What strikes me most is how these systems create invisible borders within nations, often more difficult to cross than international boundaries. What do you think about these restrictions? Could you imagine needing permission just to visit another city in your own country?
<p>The post The 3 Countries Where You Need Government Permission to Move Cities first appeared on Travelbinger.</p>