Former NBA star Stephon Marbury, who left a $20 million NBA contract behind six years ago to play basketball in Beijing, has applied for a Chinese "green card".

Now a settled superstar in China, Marbury also wrote about the application on Friday on his micro blog: "I'm applying for a Chinese 'green card'."

The application for a permanent residence permit will behandled in accordance with relevant procedures, a source at the ExitEntry Administration of the Beijing Public Security Bureau told China Daily.