Working in Mainland China
Work permit notification, Z visa, permit card and residence permit
Four documents, in one order, half of them obtained before the person travels and half within thirty days of landing. Nothing in the chain can be taken out of sequence, and the part that goes wrong most often is not the application itself — it is the authentication of the diplomas and the criminal record certificate, started too late.
The chain
China does not issue a single “work visa”. A foreign national who is to be paid by a Chinese entity passes through four instruments, two abroad and two after arrival.
| Instrument | What it does, and who applies |
|---|---|
| Notification Letter of Foreigner’s Work Permit | The pre-approval. Applied for online by the employer in China, on the foreigners’ work management service system. It authorises the hire; it is not a visa and gives no right to enter. |
| Z visa | Issued by the Chinese embassy or consulate in the country of residence, on production of the notification letter. Single entry, and it must be used within its validity — count on thirty days from issue. |
| Foreigner’s Work Permit card | The physical permit, collected after arrival. It carries the permit number that follows the person from one employer to the next. |
| Residence permit for work | Issued by the exit–entry administration of the local public security bureau. It replaces the Z visa, allows multiple entries and normally runs one to five years, aligned on the contract. |
Medical examination, collection of the permit card and lodging of the residence permit application must all be completed within thirty days of entry. This is the single deadline that catches people out, because it starts running on a date nobody has diarised. Overrunning it is an immigration infringement, with a fine and, in aggravated cases, a decision to leave. Book the medical examination before the flight.
Categories A, B and C
Every application is graded. The grade decides how fast it moves, what evidence is asked for, and in practice whether it is granted at all.
| Category | Profile | What it takes |
|---|---|---|
| A | High-level talent — senior executives, recognised experts, scientists, holders of international awards | 85 points or more on the points scale, or a qualifying salary. Expedited handling, and no quota. |
| B | Professional personnel — the ordinary category for a manager, an engineer, a technical or commercial specialist | 60 to 84 points. In principle a bachelor’s degree plus two years’ relevant experience since graduation, or a qualifying salary. |
| C | Other personnel — seasonal, temporary, interns, some categories of teacher | Below 60 points. Subject to quota and much the most difficult route. |
The points scale rewards salary, education, professional experience, age, language and the location of the post. Since the beginning of 2026 the salary-based pathway for categories A and B has been reimplemented and is strictly applied in Beijing and Shanghai: category A requires a gross monthly salary of at least six times the local average monthly social wage, category B at least four times. On 2025 wage data that puts the Beijing thresholds around RMB 71,600 and 47,700 a month, and the Shanghai thresholds around RMB 74,600 and 49,700. The figures are recalculated each year and differ from city to city — confirm them for the city of the post before promising anything to the candidate.
The “work and education experience” section must now show a continuous timeline with no unexplained gaps — a period of study, unemployment or illness has to be declared and dated rather than skipped. Names are accepted in 26 English letters with space, hyphen, apostrophe and full stop only, and must match the passport exactly. All uploaded documents other than the passport must be PDF. And a permit whose extension, alteration or cancellation is still pending on the day it expires is terminated automatically, which puts the holder out of status through no fault of their own — file extensions early. Renewals in categories B and C for applicants aged sixty or over are being refused systematically.
Who produces what
| Item | Produced by |
|---|---|
| Degree certificate, authenticated; criminal record certificate, authenticated; curriculum vitae covering every year since the age of eighteen; passport; photographs; medical report | The applicant |
| Business licence, application on the work management system, job description and justification of the post, employment contract in Chinese and English, invitation and guarantee letters | The Chinese employer |
| Evidence of professional experience — employment reference letters on letterhead, stating post, dates and duties, signed and contactable | The previous employers |
| Lodging of the Z visa application, the permit card and the residence permit; translations into Chinese | Applicant and employer, each for their own stage |
The degree and the criminal record certificate have to be authenticated for use in China. Since China acceded to the Apostille Convention in November 2023, documents from a member state carry an apostille instead of the old consular chain — a real saving in time and cost. Documents from a non-member state still go through notarisation, the foreign ministry and the Chinese embassy. Two cautions all the same: the receiving authority sometimes still asks for the consular form, and the criminal record certificate has a six-month life that starts on the day it is issued, not the day it is filed. Order it once the rest of the file is nearly ready.
The sequence and the realistic timeline
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| Before anything | The employer registers on the work management system, or reactivates its account. A first-time employer should count one to two weeks for that alone; it is invisible work that nobody plans for. |
| Weeks 1–4 | The applicant obtains the criminal record certificate and has it and the degree authenticated; assembles the CV, the reference letters and the photographs. The employer prepares the post justification and the contract. |
| Weeks 4–7 | Online application for the notification letter — ten to fifteen working days for the decision, longer if the file draws a request for further evidence. |
| Weeks 7–9 | Z visa at the embassy or consulate, five to ten working days. Travel. |
| Days 1–30 after entry | Medical examination at an approved centre; temporary accommodation registration at the local police station within twenty-four hours of arrival; collection of the permit card, around ten working days; residence permit application, seven to fifteen working days. |
Eight to twelve weeks from a clean start to a residence permit in hand is the honest span. The two stages that slip are the authentication chain at the front and the request for further evidence in the middle; neither is helped by pressure, and both are avoided by ordering documents in the right sequence.
Being an employee in China
Once the residence permit is issued the person is an ordinary employee of a Chinese company, with the consequences that follow.
Individual income tax
Employment income is taxed on a progressive scale from 3% to 45%, withheld monthly by the employer with an annual reconciliation. Presence of 183 days or more in a calendar year makes the person a tax resident. Foreign employees may still elect, in place of the itemised deductions, the historic exemption for certain benefits in kind — housing, children’s education, language training, relocation, home leave — where these are properly substantiated by invoices; that regime has been extended and should be checked against its current end date.
Social insurance
Foreign employees are in principle covered by the five compulsory funds — pension, medical, unemployment, work injury and maternity — with employer and employee contributions on a capped base. Enforcement has historically varied from city to city and is tightening. Where a bilateral social security agreement exists between China and the home state, it can exempt specified branches, usually pension and unemployment, on production of a certificate of coverage. Confirm both points for the actual city.
A foreign individual is taxed in China on worldwide income only from the seventh consecutive year in which they have been present 183 days or more, and only if in none of those six years they left China once for more than thirty consecutive days. A single trip of more than thirty days resets the count. Until that point, foreign-sourced income paid by an overseas entity is outside the Chinese net. This is the most valuable planning point in the whole file and the easiest to lose by accident.
The written rules are national; their application is municipal. Beijing and Shanghai enforce the salary thresholds strictly, second-tier cities less so; the same file can be graded B in one city and refused in another. The category is decided by the evidence, not by the job title, so the reference letters do more work than anything else in the file. And the employer’s own standing on the system — its record, its filings, whether it has hired foreigners before — is read alongside the application.
How we help
Lo On Shing works the two ends of this file. Where the applicant’s professional experience or qualifications come from a Hong Kong company, we produce and authenticate the evidence — certificate of incumbency, board resolution, annual return, a reference letter signed by a director on letterhead — through the Hong Kong notarisation and China-appointed attesting officer route, which is the correct one for use on the mainland and is not the same as an apostille. On the mainland side, where we have helped incorporate the employing entity, we prepare the corporate half of the application and keep the thirty-day clock visible to everyone. Before the heaviest authentication is commissioned, we ask the receiving city what it actually requires: the maximal chain is expensive and is frequently more than the file needs.