The work permit for China: the threshold, the class and the chain

Whoever has looked at Canada or Australia expects a pool, a ranking and an invitation round. China works differently: there is a threshold, and whoever gets over it is in — no contest against other candidates, no queue. The threshold is called class B, and it's lower than the stories suggest.

The threshold: reaching class B

China divides foreign workers into three classes. Class B is the standard route and has two entrances: a bachelor's plus two years of relevant work experience, or sixty points on the classification table. That table counts mainly salary (up to 20 points), education (bachelor's 10, master's 15, PhD 20), work experience and age — whoever is between 26 and 45 gets 15 points as a gift. Speaking Chinese is not a requirement: HSK levels count for at most five bonus points. A Dutch knowledge worker in their thirties with a bachelor's and a normal expat salary reaches the threshold almost always by both routes.

Class A is the talent track: 85 points, a salary of six times the local average wage, or a place on a recognised talent list. It delivers accelerated processing, no age limit (B stops in principle at 60), more lenient document requirements and a work permit of up to five years. Class C is for short and quota-limited work and plays no role for emigrants. Since October 2025 there is also the K visa for young STEM talents from recognised universities — as the only route without an employer in advance, but implementation differs per embassy; check the current requirements before you build on it.

The chain: notification → Z visa → two clocks

The order is fixed, and your employer is the pivot. First they apply online for the Foreigner's Work Permit Notification — free, legally twenty working days, in big cities often faster. With that digital document you go to the Chinese visa centre (CVASC) on the Willem Lodewijklaan in The Hague for the Z visa: submit in person with fingerprints, regular four working days, € 111.55 per person all inclusive. The bare visa fee is a flat amount of € 45 per application — sites that mention the old, higher tiers by number of entries are out of date.

After landing two clocks start running: within fifteen days your employer converts the notification into the work permit itself, and within thirty days you apply to the police for the residence permit (¥ 400 to ¥ 1,000, decision within fifteen working days) — the document that replaces your visa and with which you enter and leave freely. And don't expect a card: since 1 December 2024 the work permit lives digitally in the Chinese social security card.

What no longer exists

Three things older guides still describe have disappeared. The PU invitation letter was a Covid measure and has been abolished since mid-2022 — the embassy's current document list no longer mentions it. The double legalisation of diploma and certificate of conduct (VOG) (first Foreign Affairs, then the Chinese embassy) has been replaced since 7 November 2023 by one apostille from the Dutch court, since China is a party to the Apostille Convention. And the "TEFL visa" has never existed: teaching requires the ordinary class B, and for English lessons the native-speaker principle applies as well — for Dutch citizens that track is formally closed.

The honest footnote: thirty days visa-free is no back door

Dutch citizens currently travel to China visa-free for thirty days. That's for holidays and business visits — working on it is expressly not allowed, not for a day, and illegal work is a ground for deportation. The visa exemption is useful as a trial trip, though: a week in Shanghai in winter says more than ten forums.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 2 of 5 of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the clocks of 15 and 30 days watched. See the whole journey to China.