Overseas professionals who launch businesses in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone could be put on a fast track to becoming permanent city residents, it was announced yesterday.

Their spouses and children would be included and the application and approval process would be much shorter than normal, according to the Pudong New Area’s human resources and social security bureau.

There are several categories of people who would qualify for this special treatment, officials said.

And winning a Nobel Prize could put you to the top of the list as preference would be given to those earning some of the world’s most prestigious honors. Being nominated would also count.

Apart from the Nobel, other prizes mentioned by officials included the Fields Medal (for mathematics), Israel’s Wolf Prize (for outstanding achievement in agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, physics and the arts) and the Turing Award (computing).

Another category to qualify would include winners of the Chinese government’s Friendship Award and the International science and Technology Cooperation Award. Winners of other nationally recognized awards and those taking part in China’s talent recruitment program could also qualify for the fast track to residency.

Also in this category would be honorary Shanghai citizens and winners of the city’s Magnolia Award.

Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, and members of national academies of sciences and engineering in other countries or those who act as principal or chief scientist on major scientific and technological projects in major developed countries. and those who preside over large-scale scientific research or engineering projects also qualify.

Professors and associate professors at prestigious universities and the world’s top 200 research fellows in the past three years, founders of new scientific areas, authors published in journals such as Nature and Science, those holding important positions at major international organizations and principals of state key laboratories and R&D centers of foreign-funded companies within the free trade zone would also qualify.