Internships and Part-Time Work for International Students in Guangzhou: the Residence Permit Endorsement, the 8-Hour Week, and Work-Study vs Internship

Checked on 28 October 2026. We are an interpreting and translation company in Guangzhou (Guangzhou GuanRi Translation Service Co., Ltd.). We are not a university, not the police, not a law firm and not an agency that handles applications. The service this article ends up recommending, translating the Chinese internship agreement you are asked to sign into English or another language we cover, is one we sell ourselves. This is not legal advice. Every rule below comes from an official text or a university's published guide, all linked in the sources; whether your school approves an internship and whether your residence permit is endorsed are decided by your school and by the public security exit-entry office, not by us. Where a sentence is our own reading rather than the wording of a text, we say so. This article does not use any company data of ours.

This article is for an international student at a university in Guangzhou who holds a residence permit for study and wants to do an internship or a part-time job off campus, and for the company that wants to take that student on. If you study at a university outside China and want to come to China for an internship, or if you have graduated and want to stay and work, the rules are different; both are in the table below.

1. Which line is yours

Your situation	What applies	What to do	Who decides
A paid job on campus (teaching assistant, research assistant, office or library work)	The regulation requires the endorsement for work-study or an internship off campus (section 2). The national work-study measures cap all work-study, on and off campus, at 8 hours a week and 40 a month in principle (section 3). The national guide and Guangzhou's list word the rule more widely (section 4)	Take the job through the school. If you are unsure whether it needs an endorsement, ask the international students office in writing before you start	Your school; the exit-entry office
An internship that is part of your study plan (a placement your programme requires or organises)	If it takes place off campus, the endorsement is required (Article 22 of the regulations). The work-study measures do not cover internships that the school organises under its teaching plan (section 3); your school's own rules do (section 5)	Get the school's approval and its letter, get a letter from the company, apply for the endorsement, and start only after the endorsement is on your permit (sections 4 and 5)	Your school; the exit-entry office
A paid part-time job off campus that is not part of your study plan	The national measures cover work-study that the school organises and manages (Article 3), and the 2017 order on international students allows work-study but not employment, business or other commercial activities (Article 30). If your school accepts the job as work-study, the measures' conditions apply, among them: 18 or older, six months or more left on the residence permit, one year or more of continuous study at your current school, the 8-hour week in principle, an agreement with a wage not below the local minimum, within the city where the school is, and one year at most per application (section 3)	Ask your school first whether it will treat the job as work-study at all. If it approves, apply for the endorsement within the time the measures set, and do not start before the endorsement is on your permit	Your school; the exit-entry office
You have been at your current school for less than a year, or have less than six months left on your residence permit	For off-campus work-study the measures require one year or more at the school and six months or more left on the permit (section 3). The measures do not set these two conditions for an internship in your study plan, but your school may, and the endorsement does not run past the end of your permit	Ask your school whether what you want counts as work-study or as an internship in your study plan. The one-year condition is met with time; the six-month one is not, because a residence permit for study is normally issued for the period of study, so in your last six months off-campus work-study will usually not be possible. For an internship near the end of your permit, ask the school and the exit-entry office how the dates fit before you agree them with the company	Your school; the exit-entry office
You are under 18	Off-campus work-study under the measures requires 18 or older (Article 9). Article 22 of the regulations applies to you either way	For an internship in your study plan, ask your school. Do not start any off-campus work or internship before your school has agreed and the endorsement is on your permit	Your school; the exit-entry office
You study at a language school or training institution, or on a non-degree programme	The work-study measures apply only to higher education institutions that run degree or diploma programmes (Article 2), and off-campus work-study is open to undergraduate and junior-college students, postgraduates, advanced-study students and research scholars (Article 9). Article 22 of the regulations applies to every holder of a residence permit for study	Do not start any off-campus work or internship before your school has agreed and the endorsement is on your permit; ask your school and the exit-entry office whether someone in your category can be approved	Your school; the exit-entry office
Your programme or the company wants you to work in another city (for example Shenzhen) while your school is in Guangzhou	Work-study is limited to the city where the school is (Article 12 of the measures). For an internship in your study plan, none of the texts we read says whether a placement in another city can be endorsed; Guangdong University of Technology allows Guangzhou only (section 5)	Do not agree to the placement until your school and the Guangzhou exit-entry office have told you whether it can be endorsed and where you apply	Your school; the exit-entry office
You want two part-time jobs, or a job on top of an internship	The endorsement records a place and a period, so a second company is not covered by the first. The 8-hour week and 40-hour month, in principle, count all work-study together (Article 5). Guangdong University of Technology allows one internship employer at a time (section 5)	Ask your school whether it will approve a second one at all; do not start the second until it has its own endorsement	Your school; the exit-entry office
You want to change company or dates, or the work ends early	The endorsement records the place and the dates, so it does not cover a new company or new dates. For work-study, Article 11 of the measures gives 10 days to apply for a changed endorsement and 10 days, when the work ends early, to report to the school in writing and have the endorsement changed at the exit-entry office; for an internship in your study plan your school's rules apply, and Sun Yat-sen University uses the same 10 days (section 6)	Do not start at the new company, or work past the old dates, until the changed endorsement is on your permit. Tell your school first; it has to approve the change before you apply	Your school; the exit-entry office
You are graduating, suspending your studies or leaving the school	The school cancels your work-study eligibility and promptly reports it to the exit-entry office (Article 13 of the measures). Working after graduation cannot be done on an endorsement; it needs a work permit and a work-type residence permit (Article 41 of the law)	Stop the off-campus work when your studies end. If an employer wants to keep you, ask it about a work permit	The school; the work permit office; the exit-entry office
You study at a university outside China and want an internship in China	Not covered here. The national exit-entry administration's English residence permit guide, a page for reference only, says students of overseas universities invited by well-known Chinese enterprises and public institutions may apply for a visa valid for one year (section 6)	Before you travel, ask the company that invites you, and the Chinese embassy or consulate where you would apply for your visa, which visa covers the internship; the guide's one-year visa is applied for at an exit-entry office in China. Do not start an internship in China on visa-free entry, or on any visa, until the authority has confirmed that it covers the internship	The Chinese embassy or consulate; the exit-entry office
You are already working or interning off campus without the endorsement, past its dates, at a place it does not name, or beyond the hours the measures allow	The regulation says you may not work off campus without the endorsement. Article 43 of the law lists, as illegal employment, a foreign student working beyond the job scope or time limit set by the work-study rules; Article 80 sets fines and detention for illegal employment, and Article 62 allows repatriation (section 7). Whether your case falls under any of these, and what follows, is decided by the public security organ, not by the school, the company or us	Stop the off-campus work. Your school has to cancel the work-study eligibility of a student who breaks the law and report it to the exit-entry office (Article 13 of the measures), and citizens and organisations that find illegal employment are to report it promptly to the public security organ (Article 45 of the law). Whom to tell, and in what order, is a question for a practising lawyer, not for us or the company	The public security organ (Article 70 of the law lets its exit-entry office decide fines of up to RMB 5,000)
You are the company taking the student	Article 80 of the law provides a fine of RMB 10,000 for each foreigner employed illegally, up to RMB 100,000, with any illegal gains confiscated; whether it applies is decided by the public security organ	Ask the school which registration your company needs and complete it before the student applies; issue the consent letter the Guangzhou list asks for; for work-study, put a wage not below the local minimum in the agreement and keep total hours within 8 a week and 40 a month in principle (16 and 80 in the winter and summer holidays); see the endorsement, with your company and the dates on it, before the first day; end the work on the endorsed end date; and if the student tells you the endorsement has changed, follow the new one. Two of the four universities in section 5 require the company's registration as a unit dealing with foreigners (涉外单位), and one requires accident insurance for the internship period	The exit-entry office; the public security organ

2. What the regulation says

The rule is Article 22 of the Regulations on Administration of the Entry and Exit of Foreigners. It has two paragraphs, one sentence each; the 2025 revision of the regulations did not change it. In Chinese:

持学习类居留证件的外国人需要在校外勤工助学或者实习的，应当经所在学校同意后，向公安机关出入境管理机构申请居留证件加注勤工助学或者实习地点、期限等信息。

持学习类居留证件的外国人所持居留证件未加注前款规定信息的，不得在校外勤工助学或者实习。

The official English, also two sentences:

Where a foreigner holding a residence permit for study intends to engage in off-campus work-study or internship, he or she shall, upon the approval of the school, apply to the exit and entry administration authority of the public security organ to have such information as the location and duration of the work-study program or internship placement specified in his or her residence permit.

A foreigner holding a residence permit for study shall not engage in any off-campus work-study or internship unless the information prescribed in the preceding paragraph is specified in his or her residence permit.

Three things in it decide most cases. The school agrees first, and only then do you apply. The endorsement records where and for how long, so a new company or new dates means a new endorsement. And the second paragraph draws the line: no endorsement, no off-campus work or internship, whatever the company tells you.

The Exit and Entry Administration Law adds the other side. The second paragraph of Article 42 says the State Council's education authority, with other departments, sets up a system for foreign students' work-study, setting the scope of jobs and time limits; Article 43 lists, as the third kind of illegal employment, a foreign student who works in China beyond that scope or time limit in breach of the work-study rules.

3. Work-study or internship: which one you are doing changes the numbers

The regulation names two things, work-study (勤工助学) and internship (实习). Only one of them has a national rulebook: the Measures for the Administration of Work-Study by International Students at Higher Education Institutions, issued on 29 December 2021 by the general offices of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the General Department of the National Immigration Administration (Jiao Wai Ting [2021] No. 2). Article 3 defines work-study, in one sentence:

本办法所称勤工助学，是指国际学生在学校的组织和管理下，利用课余时间，通过劳动取得合法报酬，用于改善学习和生活条件的实践活动，不包括学校按照教学计划组织国际学生参加教学实习和社会实践。

In our translation: "Work-study, as used in these Measures, means practical activities in which international students, under the organisation and management of the school, use their spare time to earn lawful pay through work in order to improve their study and living conditions; it does not include teaching internships and social practice that the school organises for international students according to the teaching plan."

So the measures cover paid work in your spare time, and leave out the internship in your study plan. The numbers in them apply to work-study:

Hours (Article 5): in principle no more than 8 hours a week and 40 a month, on and off campus together; in the winter and summer holidays, in principle no more than 16 a week and 80 a month.
Who may work off campus (Article 9, six conditions): 18 or older and physically fit for the job; a valid residence permit for study with six months or more left on it; no record of breaking the law or school rules; one year or more of continuous study at the current school; academic progress and attendance that meet the school's requirements; and any further condition the school sets. The one-year condition is written for undergraduate and junior-college students, postgraduates, advanced-study students and research scholars.
Safety and insurance (Article 6): the school may not arrange or authorise toxic, hazardous or dangerous work, and has to make sure the student has insurance covering the work-study.
Pay (Article 8): off campus, not below the minimum wage set where the school is, agreed with the employer and written into the agreement.
Place and length (Article 12): within the city (a city divided into districts) where the school is; each application no longer than the residence permit, and one year at most.
Paperwork with the school (Article 10): a copy of your agreement with the employer, and a written undertaking from you covering, among other things, bearing the risks.

We quoted the main articles of the measures in our article on second jobs and part-time work.

An internship in your study plan is still off campus, so Article 22 of the regulation still applies to it: school approval, then the endorsement. What it does not get is a national rulebook of its own. The 2017 Measures on schools admitting and training international students say only, in Article 20, that universities organise teaching internships according to the teaching plan and that the choice of internship place must follow national rules. Article 30 of the same order lets international students take part in work-study but not take employment, do business or carry on other commercial activities. The details of internships come from your school (section 5).

Whether a placement is part of your study plan is for your school to say, not you or the company; how the exit-entry office treats it when it endorses or enforces is for the office (section 7). Guangdong University of Technology defines it in one sentence (our translation): "An off-campus internship for international students means an off-campus practical activity of degree-seeking international students (including undergraduates and postgraduates) organised and carried out according to the school's teaching and training plan." In our reading, a paid placement you found yourself, outside your study plan, may be treated as work-study at one school and not allowed at another. Ask before you sign anything.

4. What Guangzhou's exit-entry list asks for

The Guangzhou Public Security Bureau publishes application lists for each kind of residence permit. The list for a residence permit for study ends with two notes. The first has two sentences, the second one:

1、持学习类居留证件的外国人，需要勤工助学或在校外实习的，向广州市公安局出入境管理部门申请居留证件加注。需提供就读院校和实习单位同意勤工助学或校外实习的证明函件，按办理学习类居留证件要求提交申请材料。

2、办理时限:7个工作日办结。

In our translation: "1. A foreigner holding a residence permit for study who needs to do work-study or an off-campus internship applies to the exit-entry department of the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau for an endorsement on the residence permit. Letters from the school and from the internship employer agreeing to the work-study or off-campus internship are required, and the application materials are submitted as for a residence permit for study. 2. Processing time: completed in 7 working days."

So in Guangzhou you bring two letters, one from the school and one from the company, plus the documents for a residence permit for study. On the same list those are: passport and visa with copies, the visa and permit application form, a digital photo with its Guangdong photo receipt, a valid accommodation registration form for Guangzhou, a health certificate (first application only), the school's letter stating your student category, major and period of study together with the school's local registration certificate, the admission notice, the Visa Application Form for Study in China if you entered on another kind of visa, and any other proof the police ask for. The exit-entry office may keep your passport while it decides; Article 18 of the regulations says that while a passport is held for a residence permit application, the applicant may reside legally on the receipt, and in our reading that covers this application too. The receipt covers your stay while the passport is held; it is not the endorsement, and under Article 22 you may not start off-campus work until the endorsement is on your permit. The list does not say whether the endorsement itself carries a fee; ask at the counter.

Note one difference in wording. The regulation puts "off campus" in front of both words: off-campus work-study or internship. The national exit-entry administration's Chinese residence permit guide and the Guangzhou list put it in front of the internship only, so their sentence can be read as covering work-study on campus too. The national guide's Chinese text (2019), one sentence:

持学习类居留证件的外国人，需要勤工助学或者在校外实习的，应当提交就读学校和实习单位出具的同意勤工助学或者校外实习的函件，向公安机关出入境管理机构申请居留证件加注。

Its English page (2021), which says it is for reference only and that the Chinese version is authoritative, follows the regulation instead, in two sentences:

Where a foreigner holding a residence permit for students intends to work part-time or take internship outside the school/university, the applicant shall, with the approval of the school/university, apply to the exit and entry departments of public security organs for remarks on residence permit indicating the location and duration of the part-time job or internship.

Foreigners holding student-type residence permits without the required remarks shall not be allowed to work or take internship outside the school/university.

Our reading is that a job on campus needs no endorsement, because the regulation and Article 11 of the work-study measures both speak of off-campus work. The hours cap, in principle 8 a week, still applies to it. If your school or the exit-entry office tells you otherwise, follow them; ask in writing before you start.

After the office returns your passport, two of the universities in section 5 tell students to go to the local police station and register with the passport they got back. The rules for that are in our article on accommodation registration.

5. What four Guangzhou universities add

Each school writes its own procedure, and the school's approval comes first, so the school's page is the one to read. Four pages, as published:

University (page date)	Conditions the school adds	Who approves inside the school	What the page says to bring or do
Guangdong University of Technology, School of International Education (12 July 2024)	Currently enrolled degree-seeking students who already hold a residence permit; one internship employer at a time; the internship related to your major; the employer in Guangzhou and registered with the Guangzhou exit-entry authority; accident insurance covering the internship period; each application normally no longer than six months	Your supervisor or class adviser, then the official in charge at your college, then the School of International Education, which issues the school's consent letter	Start the internship only after the endorsement procedure is complete and you have the corresponding receipt (our note: the receipt you are given when you hand in the application is not the endorsement). If you are also applying for the residence permit itself at the same time, bring its materials too
Sun Yat-sen University, Academic Affairs Office (22 September 2023)	The employer's registration as a unit dealing with foreigners complete, and an employment agreement issued to you	You apply to your school or department, which sends it to the Student Affairs Department, the Graduate School (for postgraduates) and the Academic Affairs Office	Apply with the materials of a residence permit for study extension plus the agreement. Changing employer or dates: apply within 10 days. Ending early: report in writing within 10 days and change the endorsement
Guangzhou Medical University, international office (17 March 2026)	None beyond the rule	Not stated on the page	Passport, the company's internship acceptance letter, the accommodation registration form, the Guangdong photo receipt; after the passport comes back, register at the police station, then start at the company
South China University of Technology, School of International Education (7 June 2021, English page)	None beyond the rule	Not stated on the page; materials go to the Student Affairs Office	The same four items as Guangzhou Medical University, and the same steps

Three things from the table. The two pages that list only four items do not list the school's letter, while Guangzhou's list asks for one; ask your international students office at which step it issues it. Guangdong University of Technology's "normally no longer than six months" is the school's own rule for internships; the one-year limit in the national measures is for work-study. And several of these pages call it an internship "visa"; what changes is the endorsement on your residence permit, not a visa.

Guangdong University of Technology attaches a manual for the Guangzhou exit-entry authority's online system for units dealing with foreigners, marked as a reference for internship employers; Guangzhou's list for a residence permit for study tells schools to register in the same system. A company that has never had a foreign intern should ask the school which registration it needs, and complete it before the student applies.

6. Changing company, ending early, graduating

Article 11 of the work-study measures has three paragraphs. The first sets the application; we quote it in full, two sentences:

国际学生在校外从事勤工助学活动，须持协议书、学校证明函件及相关材料，按照有关规定于十日内向学校所在地公安机关出入境管理部门申请居留证加注工作单位、期限等勤工助学相关信息。持用未加注勤工助学相关信息的居留证不得进行校外勤工助学活动。

In our translation: "International students engaging in off-campus work-study shall, with the agreement, the school's letter and related materials, apply within ten days in accordance with relevant provisions to the exit-entry department of the public security organ where the school is located for the employer, period and other work-study information to be endorsed on the residence permit. A residence permit without the work-study information endorsed may not be used for off-campus work-study."

The text does not say from which day the ten days run; ask your school. The second paragraph gives ten days to apply for a changed endorsement when the employer or the dates change, with a new agreement and a new school letter. The third gives ten days, when the work ends early (for example because the employer ends the agreement), to report in writing to the school and to change the endorsement at the exit-entry office. Sun Yat-sen University's page applies the same ten days to internships.

When you complete your studies, leave without completing them, suspend them or drop out, Article 13 says the school cancels your work-study eligibility and promptly reports it to the exit-entry office. Staying on to work after graduation is a different procedure: Article 41 of the law requires a work permit and a work-type residence permit. We wrote about Guangzhou's published work permit cases.

For students of universities outside China, the national exit-entry administration's English residence permit guide (2021), a page that says it is for reference only, lists among its facilitation measures:

For foreign students studying in overseas colleges and universities who are invited by well-known Chinese enterprises and public institutions for internships in China, the applicant may apply for visas valid for 1 year at the exit and entry administration authorities of relevant public security organs by providing invitation letters of the entities providing the internship and proof on their study in the relevant universities.

That sentence is one of two in that item; the other is about internships under agreements between governments. The 2019 Chinese guide that we read does not have this section. Ask the exit-entry office before you rely on it.

7. If it has already gone wrong

The work-study measures say, in Article 14, that a student whose work-study goes beyond the permitted job scope or time limit is investigated and dealt with by the exit-entry department according to law. Among the penalties the law sets:

The student (Article 80): illegal employment is fined RMB 5,000 to 20,000; where circumstances are serious, detention of 5 to 15 days and a fine of RMB 5,000 to 20,000.
Repatriation (Article 62): a foreigner who works illegally may be repatriated, and a repatriated person may not enter China for 1 to 5 years.
Leaving within a set time (Article 81): a foreigner whose activities do not match the reason for residence may be ordered to leave China within a set time; where a violation is serious but does not amount to a crime, the Ministry of Public Security may expel the foreigner, who may then not enter China for 10 years.
The company (Article 80): RMB 10,000 for each foreigner employed illegally, up to RMB 100,000, and any illegal gains confiscated. Anyone who introduces a foreigner into illegal employment is also fined, RMB 5,000 for each person, up to RMB 50,000 for an individual and RMB 100,000 for an organisation.
The school (Article 13 of the measures): cancels the work-study eligibility of a student who breaks the law or school rules, and reports it.

Whether a particular case is illegal employment, and which penalty applies, is decided by the public security organ, not by the school, the company or us; warnings and fines of up to RMB 5,000 may be decided by the exit-entry office, heavier penalties by the public security organ (Article 70 of the law). If you are in this position, stop the off-campus work. Before deciding whom to tell and when, bear in mind that the school has to report breaches (Article 13 of the measures) and that citizens and organisations which find illegal employment are to report it promptly to the public security organ (Article 45 of the law); that decision is one to take with a practising lawyer.

8. Does any of this need translating?

Usually not for the exit-entry office. The letters come from a Chinese university and, in most cases, a Chinese company, and they are in Chinese. If your company can only issue its letter in another language, the national exit-entry administration's residence permit guide says, in one sentence, that foreign-language supporting materials are to be translated into Chinese ("Relevant supporting materials in foreign language shall be translated into Chinese", in its English page, which is for reference; the Chinese text says the same). Guangzhou's list does not say who may do the translation; ask the counter before you go.

What you may want translated is for you, not for the office: the agreement with the company and the written undertaking on risks that the measures ask you to give the school. They are usually in Chinese, and you sign them. A translation helps you read what you are signing; the signed Chinese text is the one that counts, and a translation is not legal advice on its terms.

9. What we do

We are a translation and interpreting company in Guangzhou. We do not apply for endorsements and we do not judge whether you qualify; your school and the exit-entry office decide that. What we can do is translate the agreement or the undertaking, before you sign it, into English or another language listed on our FAQ page, and translate a letter in one of those languages into Chinese if the counter asks for one. Our FAQ page lists contracts under the Specialized tier: from RMB 180 per 1,000 Chinese characters for Chinese into English; other languages are quoted per job, and quotes are free, with rare-language pairs listed at RMB 220–650 per 1,000 characters depending on tier; prices exclude tax, plus 6% for a VAT special invoice or 3% for a general invoice. A short deadline can carry the rush surcharge listed there, and the minimum job is 400 characters for Chinese–English and 1,000 for other languages.

Send the document and tell us the date you need it: WhatsApp / 微信 +86 139 2416 6640 (WeChat ID: Saralee93), or our contact page.

Sources

Regulations on Administration of the Entry and Exit of Foreigners, Articles 18 and 22, official English (2013 text): National Immigration Administration; 2025 revision as published by the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau
Exit and Entry Administration Law, Articles 41, 42, 43, 45, 62, 70, 80 and 81: Chinese; official English
Measures for the Administration of Work-Study by International Students at Higher Education Institutions (Jiao Wai Ting [2021] No. 2, signed 29 December 2021): Ministry of Education, Chinese
Measures on Schools Admitting and Training International Students (Order No. 42 of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security, 2017), Articles 20 and 30: Ministry of Education, Chinese
Service Guide on Issuance of Residence Permit for Foreigners: Chinese, 2019-09-05; English, 2021-04-01
Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, exit-entry guides including the residence permit application lists: page
Guangdong University of Technology, guide to the off-campus internship endorsement (12 July 2024): page
Sun Yat-sen University, how to apply for the internship endorsement (22 September 2023): page
Guangzhou Medical University, process for the off-campus internship endorsement (17 March 2026): page
South China University of Technology, process to have an off-campus internship specified in the residence permit (7 June 2021): page
Our FAQ page, read on 28 October 2026: translationchina.com/m/en/faq/