Sending Money from Korea to China: The Limits on Both Sides

Two limits, not one

When you send money from Korea to China, two separate sets of rules apply, and they are often confused with each other:

• Korea-side rules govern how much you can send out of Korea without documentation.
• China-side rules govern what a person in China can receive and convert into yuan (renminbi, 人民幣).

A transfer can fail because of either side. This article looks at both. Korea’s general outward-remittance structure — account transfer caps, the transfer-operator annual cap, and the foreign-exchange reporting threshold — is covered in our Korea remittance limits guide and sending money out of Korea guide.

The Korea side: sending out

Korea’s foreign-exchange rules set a no-documentation threshold for outward remittance: below it, basic identification suffices; above it, the bank asks for evidence of where the money came from — typically payslips, an employment certificate, withholding tax receipts, or a lease or sale record.

Two practical points:

• The threshold is applied per person and aggregated across banks and transfer services, so you cannot simply split one large transfer across several providers to stay under it.
• The amount is set by foreign exchange regulation and is revised periodically, and the limit can differ for residents and non-residents. Ask your bank for the current figure for your status rather than relying on a number quoted online.

For a first transfer to China, a bank wire or a licensed transfer service both work; compare the total amount the recipient receives rather than just the advertised fee.

The China side: the USD 50,000 annual quota

China is a foreign-exchange control country, and individuals are subject to a personal annual foreign-exchange quota of approximately USD 50,000 (or its equivalent) per person per year. The quota applies to foreign-currency purchase and settlement — in practice, when a remittance received from abroad is converted into yuan, that conversion counts against the recipient’s annual quota.

Key points:

• The quota is per person, resets on the calendar year, and is shared across banks for the same person.
• A remittance received in foreign currency and kept as foreign currency may not use the quota, but converting it to yuan does.
• Amounts beyond the quota, or conversions that the bank questions, require documentation of the purpose and source — salary and tax records, an employment contract, or tuition/expense evidence.

China’s foreign-exchange rules are enforced by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) through banks and are revised periodically, so confirm the current threshold with the recipient’s bank before planning around it.

Practical planning

• Size the transfer to the quota. If the recipient expects to convert the full amount into yuan, keep the year’s total in mind. Converting in one amount vs. splitting across the year can matter, and misusing small-amount splitting to bypass the quota is not a permitted workaround.
• Keep income evidence. On both sides, documented salary and tax records are what unlock larger transfers, so hold on to payslips and tax documents.
• Prefer documented large transfers to risky workarounds. For genuinely large amounts (tuition, property, business), present the purpose and documents through a bank rather than circumventing limits.
• Check currency of receipt. Receiving in USD and converting in China, versus receiving in yuan directly, affects which side’s limits and documentation apply.

Note — both Korea’s outward-remittance rules and China’s foreign-exchange controls change periodically, and banks apply their own verification. This article is general information as of August 2026. Confirm the current limits with your bank in Korea and the recipient’s bank in China before transferring.