The documents a foreigner needs to work in China

Article 41 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law states the base rule: a foreigner who works inside China shall obtain a work permit and a work-type residence permit, and no entity or individual may employ a foreigner who holds neither (law, art. 41, in force since 2013-07-01, read 2026-10-12).

Article 43 names three things as illegal employment: working without those two documents; working outside what the permit allows; and a foreign student working beyond the posts and hours set aside for part-time work (law, art. 43). Article 80 sets the penalties. A foreigner working illegally pays 5,000 to 20,000 yuan, and in serious cases serves five to fifteen days of detention plus a fine in the same range. An employer pays 10,000 yuan per illegally employed foreigner, capped at 100,000. Anyone who introduces a foreigner to illegal work pays 5,000 yuan per person, capped at 50,000 yuan for an individual and 100,000 for a unit (law, art. 80). An activity inconsistent with the purpose of stay can bring an order to leave, and serious cases expulsion with a ten-year bar (law, arts. 37 and 81).

One older rule still applies: individuals and sole traders may not employ foreigners at all (Employment rules, art. 33, MOHRSS orders No. 7 and 32, in force since 1996-05-01, amended 2010 and 2017, read 2026-10-12).

The order the papers arrive in

The employer moves first, from inside China. The foreigner moves second, from outside. The work permit service guide sets that sequence, and the 2026 edition of the inter-agency guide for foreign business people repeats it (service guide, issued 2017-03-29, in force 2017-04-01, read 2026-10-12).

The guide is explicit that the work permit is not a visa and cannot stand in for one, and that the Notification Letter replaced the old invitation letter: with the letter in hand, the applicant goes straight to a visa office (service guide).

Step three changed shape in December 2024. The human resources ministry put the work permit on the social security card and stopped issuing the physical card. A foreigner entering on a Z visa goes to the local exit-entry department for the residence permit with the Notification Letter, or with the electronic social security card carrying the permit information. Applications, extensions, changes and cancellations run online (人社部发〔2024〕75号, dated 2024-10-27, effective 2024-12-01). Cards already issued stay valid until the next extension or change.

The letters that appear on the visa sticker

Not everyone who works in China enters on a Z visa. The regulation lists the ordinary categories by letter (regulations, art. 6, as amended by State Council Decree No. 814, signed 2025-08-07, in force 2025-10-01).

The R route runs on a separate document, the Confirmation Letter for Foreign High-end Talent, issued by a provincial foreigners-working department within five working days of the employer’s application. Holders then apply for the work permit from inside China, decided in three working days (Talent Visa measures, arts. 5 and 10).

The K visa is the newest entry. The briefing of 2025-08-15 states the conditions at a summary level: a degree at bachelor’s level or above in science, technology, engineering or mathematics from a well-known university or research institute, or teaching or research work in those fields. It says K holders may take part in education, science, technology and cultural exchange, entrepreneurship and business after entry, that the visa asks about age and education or work background only, and that no domestic employer or inviting unit is required (joint briefing).

The A, B and C tiers

The tiers are administrative categories, not visa types. They set the paperwork load, the age and degree thresholds, whether a quota applies, and how long a permit runs (Evaluation Criteria for Foreigners Employed in China (Trial), attached to the 2017 work permit framework, read 2026-10-12).

Category A runs as a green channel with acceptance of incomplete documents, and its applications, extensions and cancellations are decided in five working days (criteria, A class; guide, facilitation).

Foreign language teaching sits inside B: teaching the applicant’s native language, a bachelor’s degree or above, and two years of language teaching experience. A degree in education, language or teacher training, a home-country teaching certificate, or a recognised international language teaching certificate removes the experience requirement (criteria, B(3)).

The points system scores salary, education, years of work, months worked per year, Chinese level, region, age, and university or Fortune 500 background. Salary can be worth 20 points, a doctorate another 20 (points table).

How long each document runs

The letters expire on their own clock. The permits carry a second set:

Review times and money

The service guide gives the work permit track 20 working days for a decision on a permit of 90 days or more, extendable by 10, and five working days below that. After entry, material verification produces a decision within 10 working days (service guide, timelines). The residence permit has a 15-day review period in the law, and the regulation caps the counter receipt at 15 working days (law, art. 30; regulations, arts. 18 and 36).

The work permit carries no government fee (service guide, fees). Residence permit fees run on the 2004 pricing scale in the immigration administration’s guide (NIA residence permit guide):

Visa fees are separate and are set by the visa authorities (law, art. 92).

Working for an employer outside China

The employment rules define the activity by where the work happens: foreign employment in China means a foreigner without permanent residence status engaging in social labour inside Chinese territory and receiving pay for it (Employment rules, art. 2). The sentence says nothing about who pays.

Article 41 states the rule in the law’s own words. Article 37 bars activities inconsistent with the purpose of the stay, with an order to leave as the sanction (law, arts. 37 and 41). The State Council regulation in force since 2026-09-15 requires the stated purpose of entry, stay and residence to be true and lawful, and lets the authorities refuse a document or an entry over false statements (State Council Order No. 841, art. 3, published 2026-07-31).

The service guide contains one category in which a foreign employer pays the salary. It calls the person a contract service provider from abroad: an employee of a foreign enterprise with no commercial presence in China, entering to provide temporary services under a service contract the employer obtained from inside China, paid by the foreign employer during the stay. It asks for one extra document, the service contract obtained inside China, and lists what that contract has to contain (service guide, notes). The definition ties the category to a contract obtained inside China, so the work it covers runs to a client there — a reading of the definition, not a sentence the guide prints.

The rules also name visa holders who may not work: holders of F, L, C and G visas, foreign students and interns, and the dependants of work visa holders (Employment rules, art. 8). The employer on the record must match the employer in fact, and a change of employer needs approval and a change of the record (art. 23, same source). Article 43 makes working outside a permit’s scope illegal employment.

I found no text from the National Immigration Administration, the human resources ministry or the science and technology ministry that addresses a foreigner living in China and working remotely for an employer abroad. The 2026 inter-agency guide runs to 24 pages and does not use the term. Its social insurance section lists the people who join the system: those with a work permit and residence permit or a permanent residence card, and those who signed a contract with a domestic employer that pays them, or who were dispatched to China under a contract with a foreign company. There is no third case (2026 guide, social insurance).

How I checked this

Everything was read on 2026-10-12, and each figure carries the date of its own document. I worked from consolidated legal texts and primary service documents, and ran the article numbers back to the law text.

The permit chain comes from four national documents: the 2017 service guide, the classification standard attached to the same framework, the talent visa measures as printed in the State Council gazette, and the 2026 guide for foreign business people. Residence permit lengths, fees and review periods come from the 2019 residence permit guide and from the regulation text republished with Decree No. 814, which carries the 2025 K visa amendment. The December 2024 card change comes from the ministry notice. Chinese-language documents were read in Chinese. Where I quote a rule I have paraphrased it and given the article number.

What I could not check

• Any official statement on remote work for an employer abroad. I could not find a rule permitting it, exempting it, or naming it, in the law, the regulation, the service guide or the 2026 guide. Whether it falls under article 43 as work beyond a permit’s scope, or under article 37 as an activity inconsistent with the purpose of stay, is not stated on any page I could load.
• What follows if the 15-day post-entry step is missed. The 2017 guide asks for the work permit card within 15 days of entry. The law and the 2026 guide give the residence permit 30 days. No page I could load states a sanction for the first (guide; law, art. 30).
• K visa conditions as published. The briefing of 2025-08-15 gives the degree and field conditions and no age range, and says the detailed conditions would appear on embassy websites. I could not load a page stating them. Third-party pages print 18 to 45 as embassy practice; that number has no official source I could reach, so it is absent from this post.
• Whether a K visa holder may take up employment without a work permit. The briefing lists exchange, entrepreneurship and business activities. It does not mention employment.
• Anything about my own situation. Deliberately absent.