Five years in China will not get you this certificate — the work-permit document foreign teachers most often get wrong

You have taught in China for five years. Your passport is full of residence permits. Renewal time comes round, the work permit file asks for a criminal record certificate, and your first instinct is to walk into the local police station or the exit-entry office and ask for one.

On the national wording that instinct is wrong, and it is wrong in a very specific way — though not every city publishes the national wording (see section 2). On that checklist, this certificate has to be issued by your country of nationality or your "habitual residence" — and 经常居住地 ("habitual residence") is a defined term in the clause. The definition excludes China.

That is not a rumour off a forum. It is a definition sentence sitting inside the material requirements, and it still appears word for word in a municipal service guide published in May 2026. But it is not uniform across the country either: the copy Shenzhen publishes does not contain that sentence, and puts something else in its place.

This article takes the item apart: what the clause actually says, where four published municipal texts diverge on a single sentence, what the "in-China criminal record certificate" really is, how many authentication routes there are, which kind of certificate gets rejected outright, how the six months are counted, and who to approach in Guangzhou now that Order No. 223 has re-published the delegation.

First, which checklist this is. What follows analyses item 4 of the checklist for a first application for a work permit. Extension, change and cancellation each have their own checklists, and whether this item is required there, and to what extent, is set by the list the receiving authority publishes for your type of business. If you are the renewal reader in the opening paragraph, confirm that first, before preparing anything on the strength of this article.

The other two items in the same checklist that bite foreign teachers — how the degree gets authenticated, and the medical — are covered in the degree authentication article and the Guangzhou work-permit medical. What the clause asks of a foreign language teacher personally (the degree, the two years, the certificate that job adverts present as compulsory) is in yesterday's article.

1. The clause in full, nothing left out

The national instrument is the Service Guide for the Work Permit for Foreigners Coming to Work in China (Provisional), issued by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs on 29 March 2017, in force 1 April 2017, as the annex to 外专发〔2017〕36号. Item 4 of the application checklist is the criminal record certificate: original, one copy, paper or electronic.

The "requirements" column and the "remarks" column for this item run to seven sentences between them. What follows is the complete text, with nothing omitted:

It shall be issued by the police, security, court or other such department of the applicant's country of nationality or habitual residence, and legalised by a Chinese embassy or consulate abroad, or by that foreign country's embassy or consulate in China.

A criminal record certificate issued in the Hong Kong or Macao Special Administrative Region or in the Taiwan region shall be notarised by a notarial body of that region.

Habitual residence means the country or region in which the applicant last resided continuously for one year or more after leaving the country of nationality, and does not include within the territory of China.

The date of issue of the criminal record certificate shall be within 6 months.

For foreign high-end talent (Category A), the undertaking system applies to this item.

A sworn criminal record statement consisting only of the applicant's own declaration of having no criminal record will not be accepted.

A non-sworn criminal record issued by a diplomatic authority (including a foreign embassy or consulate in China) may be accepted directly, without further legalisation.

Of the seven, the first governs who issues it and how it is legalised, the third governs whether a Chinese one can be used, the fourth the validity, the fifth who may undertake first and produce it later (not a waiver — see section 7), and the sixth and seventh what does not count and what needs no legalisation at all. Each is taken in turn below.

One qualification. This guide was issued in 2017 and carries the word "Provisional" in its title. We did not find a national service guide superseding it, and the current Guangzhou and Jinan documents still cite 外专发〔2017〕36号 and 40号 as their basis. That statement can only be made to that extent — "we did not find one" is not the same as "there is none".

2. "Habitual residence": four published texts, three of which say it excludes China

The third sentence is why this article exists. Set the four publicly available texts side by side:

First, these four are not of equal rank: the national and Jinan documents are service guides, while the Guangzhou and Shenzhen ones are FAQ pages. We did not find a Shenzhen service guide, so the Shenzhen row represents its published FAQ position.

Read them in date order and something stands out: the most recent of the four — Jinan, May 2026 — is the one that keeps the sentence, while the one that dropped it, Shenzhen, is from the end of 2024. So this is not an old formulation being replaced by a new one. It looks more like localities handling the same sentence differently.

For a foreign teacher the practical meaning splits in two:

• If the city handling your file follows the national wording (both the Guangzhou and Jinan published texts do), then no number of years lived in China creates a "habitual residence". This item is issued either by the competent authority of your country of nationality, or by the last country or region in which you lived continuously for a year or more after leaving your country of nationality. Two things are easy to lose here. First, the clause says the last such place — if more than one qualifies, only the most recent counts. Second, the clause excludes only the territory of China; it does not require that the stay happened before you came to China, so someone who left China, spent a year in a third country and came back may fall under this limb too — whether it is accepted is for the receiving authority. And "issued by your country of nationality" does not mean flying home: most countries accept postal or online applications from abroad, and your country's mission in China may be able to issue one directly (route 4 in section 4). Your years in China produce no effect at all in this box.
• If the city handling your file works to the Shenzhen wording, habitual residence can sit inside China, and in that case no legalisation is required. But look carefully at which sentence Shenzhen lacks: it has no "does not include within the territory of China", and it keeps the definition "last resided continuously for one year or more". It is also worth marking what kind of sentence Shenzhen's is: "where the habitual residence is within the territory of China, no legalisation is required" is a legalisation carve-out. It presupposes that habitual residence can sit inside China rather than saying so expressly — that layer is inferred, not stated. So even under the Shenzhen wording, China becoming your habitual residence still requires a continuous year or more of residence, and the same Shenzhen sentence also requires the visa or residence permit for the corresponding period to be submitted. Do not confuse this with the 180 days in the next section — that is the threshold for obtaining the in-China certificate, not the threshold for habitual residence.

The difference between the two is not wordplay. For someone who arrived in 2015 and has not since lived a continuous year anywhere else: the first wording requires a fresh certificate from their home country plus legalisation; the second lets them resolve it inside China. Between the two lie an international courier, a legalisation fee and a wait of very variable length — issuing authorities and legalisation authorities differ widely, so go by the processing times they publish at the time.

Do not infer from this article which of the two your city applies. We read all four texts at source, but we have not read every city's, and a published text and a counter's actual practice can be out of step. Before ordering any translation or legalisation for this item, this is worth one phone call — to the authority handling your application, not to an agent, and not to us.

3. The "in-China criminal record certificate" is a different thing, but it does exist

Saying that China does not count as habitual residence is easily misread as "China does not issue criminal record certificates to foreigners". It does. Keep the two apart.

The Guangzhou Public Security Bureau publishes an application guide, Application for a Foreigner's Criminal Record Certificate in China, hosted under "Guides for Foreigners' Exit-Entry Business" on the bureau's website, alongside an official English version. Its eligibility condition reads:

A foreigner who, since first entry, holding a residence permit or a foreigner's permanent residence certificate, has resided within the territory of China for a cumulative total of 180 days or more (inclusive). Applications are received by the exit-entry administration authority of the public security organ at county level or above of the place of residence.

Several things are easy to get wrong here:

1. It is cumulative, not continuous. The Chinese says 累计 — a cumulative total of 180 days or more. On this wording, leaving and returning still adds up.
2. The "inclusive" matters. 以上 in Chinese legal drafting includes the number itself, so day 180 counts. This is the standard reading, and it is not what "more than 180 days" would mean.
3. You can choose where to file. The guide states that the place of residence includes the place of issue of the residence permit or permanent residence certificate, and any area where the person has actually resided for 180 days or more (inclusive), and that "the individual foreigner may choose any of the above places".
4. Processing time is within 3 working days; an online appointment and completion of the query application form online are required.
5. An individual applicant making three or more applications in a single calendar year (the Chinese is 3次以上, and 以上 includes the number, so it is the third that triggers it, not the fourth) must submit material showing the certificate is for a legitimate purpose. Worth noting if you change employers often.
6. If someone applies on your behalf, a letter of entrustment in a foreign language must be translated into Chinese.

All six points come from the Guangzhou guide. Other cities' exit-entry authorities set their own thresholds, processing times, appointment systems and frequency limits, which may differ; if you are filing elsewhere, go by that city's published guide.

One detail deserves separating out. The official English version published in the same column, Instructions on Application for Foreigner's No Criminal Record Certificate, renders that threshold as "have resided in China for at least 6 months since his/her first entry into the country". "A cumulative 180 days" and "at least 6 months" are not the same number — six calendar months is 181 to 184 days — and the English does not carry "cumulative" across at all, so it reads as though continuous residence were required. The English also contains "hold residence permit or residence permit", which on the context should be "residence permit or permanent residence certificate".

The point of raising this is not to score a point. It is that someone working out their eligibility from the English version may reach a different conclusion from the Chinese one. The direction matters too: the English sentence is the stricter of the two. If your cumulative total is past 180 days but short of six calendar months, on the Chinese text you may already qualify — do not disqualify yourself by reading the English. In practice the Chinese text is the operative one; where the two versions leave you unsure, ask the exit-entry office rather than deciding between them yourself. Which is also the most practical single piece of advice in this article: where a clause turns on a threshold, a day count or a deadline, read the Chinese.

The sentence that matters: this in-China certificate is issued by the public security organs and has uses beyond the work permit — home-country business, another country's visa, an employer's own request — with the body asking for it setting what it needs. Whether it can stand in for that box on the work-permit checklist takes you back to the table in section 2, and depends on how your city reads "habitual residence". In a city whose text says the exclusion, it cannot.

4. Legalisation: four routes, and the apostille sentence differs by city

The first sentence gives two routes. Appendix 7 of the 2020 Guangzhou Application Guidelines, "Authentication routes for academic qualifications and criminal records", lists three for this item (the extra one being "a non-sworn criminal record issued by a diplomatic authority, including a foreign embassy or consulate in China, requires no legalisation", which is the national text's seventh sentence in other words); adding the apostille, which appears in municipal texts only after November 2023, brings the total to four:

1. Double consular legalisation: authentication by the foreign ministry of the issuing country, then legalisation by the Chinese embassy or consulate in that country. (Note the chain follows the issuing country, not your country of nationality. If the certificate was issued by a third country as your habitual residence, the legalisation happens in that country.)
2. Legalisation by that country's embassy or consulate in China.
3. Apostille: the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents has applied to China since 7 November 2023. A document issued in a contracting state and bearing an apostille no longer needs consular legalisation by the Chinese embassy or consulate in that country.
4. The one that needs no legalisation at all: the seventh sentence — a non-sworn criminal record issued by a diplomatic authority, including a foreign embassy or consulate in China, may be accepted directly.

Route 4 is the least work of the four and the least often mentioned. It means that if your own country's embassy or consulate in China can issue you a non-sworn criminal record, then on this sentence it can be accepted directly, with no legalisation step at all. Whether they can issue one, and in what form, depends on that mission's services and is not something we can answer for you — but it is worth one question before you start on double consular legalisation.

Route 3 is written differently in different places, and the differences are in the conditions:

The silence of the two Guangzhou texts on apostilles is a text that has not been updated, not an exclusion of the route — the Convention applies to China nationally. But since the Guangzhou published texts do not carry the sentence, ask the receiving authority before relying on it.

The Shenzhen version adds a date condition: the apostille itself must have been affixed on or after 7 November 2023. If you are holding an apostille from an earlier year, do not assume it travels on this route. The list of contracting states also changes, so the governing version is whatever the "Apostille — list of contracting states" page of the China Consular Service website shows at the time.

Certificates issued in Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan follow the second sentence instead: notarisation by a notarial body of that region. Guangzhou states the conditions more fully — see section 6.

5. The word "sworn" is what most often writes off an entire document

The sixth sentence is an exclusion: a sworn criminal record statement consisting only of the applicant's own declaration will not be accepted.

It is aimed at a very common class of document: an affidavit, statutory declaration or sworn statement signed before a notary or other legal professional in which you state that you have no criminal record. These are easy to obtain in a number of countries — in some, faster than applying to the police. But the content originates in your own statement; what the notary attests is the authenticity of the signature, not the truth of the contents.

The line the clause draws is not "notarised or not" but who issued it and what it certifies:

• Not accepted: a document whose substance is only your own declaration that you have no criminal record — even if notarised, even if consularly legalised, even with an apostille attached. Legalisation resolves the authenticity of signatures and seals; it does not turn a self-declaration into a police record.
• Accepted: a certificate issued by the police, security, court or other such department, based on a search of official records.
• Accepted with no legalisation: the seventh-sentence case — a non-sworn record issued by a diplomatic authority, including a foreign embassy or consulate in China.

So when the document arrives, look at who signed it. Is the issuer a police force, a court or a security department — or you? If the core of the text is "I hereby declare/swear that I have no criminal record", it most likely falls under the sixth sentence.

6. Six months, levels, and Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan: three answers from Guangzhou

Question 16 of Part Three, "Operations", of the Guangzhou S&T Bureau's FAQ on Foreigners' Work Permits in Guangzhou (revised August 2020; there is a second question numbered 16 in the policy part, about student internships) answers the three most frequently asked questions at once. The question and answer as published:

Q: 1. Some countries may have criminal record certificates at several different levels (local, state, federal) — is a particular level required? 2. For how long after issue is it valid? 3. What does habitual residence mean?

A: 1. Any level is acceptable. 2. Where the issuing department has expressly provided a period of validity, that provision governs; but the date of issue shall at most be within 6 months, and beyond that it will not be recognised. 3. "Habitual residence" means the country or region in which the applicant last resided continuously for one year or more after leaving the country of nationality, and does not include within the territory of China.

What each of the three means:

Level: any level is acceptable. For applicants from federal countries this is useful — on this Guangzhou answer, local, state and federal certificates are all acceptable, and the clause does not require the federal one. But read it together with the legalisation requirement: for documents at different levels, the authority that issues an apostille or handles legalisation in your own country is often a different body (in some countries a state office, in others the national foreign ministry). "Any level" describes what China will accept, not that your own country's authentication route is the same for all of them. Where to go for that, ask the competent authority in your own country.

Validity: "6 months" is a ceiling, not a grant. This answer is considerably more precise than the usual formulation. The usual formulation is "valid for 6 months". What Guangzhou actually says is that where the issuing department has set its own period of validity, that governs, and 6 months is only the outer limit. So if your national police force prints "this certificate is valid for 3 months from the date of issue" on the document, it is 3 months — you do not get to treat it as 6 because the Chinese side says 6.

"Within 6 months" attaches to the date of issue. The clause says the date of issue shall be within 6 months. The anchor is the issue date. But the text does not say which day closes the interval — online submission? acceptance? decision? — and localities may count differently, so ask the receiving authority. Whichever day it is, legalisation and shipping come out of that window rather than being added to it, so work backwards on the most conservative assumption.

Certificates from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan get their own question. Question 17 of the same FAQ states that a certificate issued in the Hong Kong or Macao SAR or the Taiwan region must satisfy three conditions together:

First, the criminal record certificate issued must be notarised by a notarial body of that region;

Second, the applicant must submit documentation proving that, before applying to work in China, they had already resided continuously in the Hong Kong or Macao SAR or the Taiwan region for one year or more (that is, proving that the certificate was issued by the region in which the applicant last resided continuously for one year or more after leaving the country of nationality);

Third, the date of issue of the criminal record certificate must be within 6 months.

The second condition is the one people miss: holding a Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan certificate is not enough on its own — you also have to prove you lived there continuously for a year or more. That condition is the habitual-residence definition in the third sentence being applied directly.

7. The undertaking system is Category A only, and most teachers are not Category A

The fifth sentence: "For foreign high-end talent (Category A), the undertaking system applies to this item." The Shenzhen FAQ puts it more bluntly: the personnel type for which the criminal record certificate may use the undertaking system: foreign high-end talent (Category A).

The national guide also lists "the undertaking system applies to the criminal record certificate" as a separate item in its section of facilitation measures, and that section opens by stating who it is for: foreign high-end talent (Category A) applying for a work permit, and applying for extension or cancellation.

There is a contrast worth noticing inside that section. For the work experience certificate and the highest degree certificate, the undertaking system is further restricted to particular sub-limbs of Category A (experience to two of them — selected for a national talent programme, and meeting internationally recognised professional achievement standards; the degree to four). For the criminal record certificate there is no such further restriction. Read literally, it applies to Category A as a whole.

For the great majority of language teaching posts this is academic: foreign language teaching personnel are normally filed under Category B, foreign professional talent. The Category A threshold is "high-calibre, urgently needed" status or 85 points or more on the points scale. If you want to know roughly where you land on that scale, the table is in yesterday's article.

Two things also need keeping apart, because they get run together constantly:

• The undertaking system (承诺制): the declaration printed on the application form reads, in the guide's own English, "I SOLEMNLY PROMISE THAT I HAVE NO CRIMINAL RECORD BOTH AT MY HOME COUNTRY AND ABROAD." It is signed by the applicant and stamped with the employer's seal.
• Does it remove the paper document? The remarks to the Work Permit application list in the national guide say: "Where original documents have not been submitted for verification, they shall be submitted for verification when applying for the Foreigner's Work Permit. For supporting documents under the undertaking system, paper materials need no longer be provided." On that sentence it is more than a deferral. But what you undertake remains a substantive condition — having no criminal record is one of the basic conditions for a work permit — and an untrue undertaking carries responsibility. When and whether anything must still be produced is set by the authority handling your file.

Under the national guide's procedure, when applying for the Foreigner's Work Permit itself the originals "including … the criminal record certificate …" must all be verified; the Category A facilitation measure says the applicant "does not need to provide paper materials for verification before entry", and it is Category A selected for a national talent programme who get "the entire process online, with no paper verification required"; and on top of those, the remarks sentence above says paper materials need no longer be provided for documents under the undertaking system. The three have to be read together, and which one governs your particular file is a question for the receiving authority.

8. Guangzhou Order No. 223: not a change of receiving authority, but a delegation re-published

This is recent, and it needs stating accurately, because it is easily written up as "Guangzhou changed who receives these applications" — it did not. Huangpu and Nansha taking these files is not new: the 2020 Guangzhou application guidelines already give the receiving bodies for both the Work Permit Notification (before entry) and the Work Permit (after entry) as "the Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, and the Huangpu District and Nansha District Science and Technology Bureaus". What Order No. 223 does is different: it repeals the earlier delegation instruments (穗府〔2019〕8号, Guangzhou Municipal People's Government Order No. 157 and others), re-publishes the delegation, and states its scope.

The Decision of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government on Adjusting Certain Municipal Administrative Powers (Guangzhou Municipal People's Government Order No. 223) was passed at the 121st executive meeting of the 16th Municipal Government on 13 April 2026, signed on 24 June 2026, published on 1 July 2026, and takes effect on 1 August 2026. It moves 104 municipal administrative powers to district-level implementation. Appendix 2 is the "Catalogue of municipal administrative powers adjusted for district implementation (delegation type)". Item 10 of that catalogue:

Several points to read accurately, without over-extending them:

• It is delegation (委托), not devolution. The appendix title says delegation type. Delegation means the municipal S&T Bureau remains the statutory holder of the power and the districts exercise it under a delegation agreement. The body of the decision requires a delegation agreement specifying the delegate, the content, the division of powers and responsibilities, supervision measures and the term, and requires it to be "published to the public in good time" — the operational detail lives in that agreement.
• Only Huangpu and Nansha are named, not every district. The catalogue does not state the basis on which cases are allocated (the employer's registered address? the place of work?). The document does not say, and we are not going to say it for it.
• The remarks column lists three things: processing, change, cancellation. Extension does not appear separately among them. That sentence copies the catalogue as published; whether "processing" covers extension is for the receiving authority to say.
• The decision leaves one door open: "where a delegated matter is particularly major or complex, the delegating body may implement it directly, subject to the delegation agreement." Some files may therefore still sit with the municipal bureau.
• The dividing line is the handover date, not the effective date. The decision requires the handover of powers to be completed "within 10 days of the date this decision takes effect", and provides that "from the date of handover, the receiving body handles the matters within its remit, and cases already accepted by the original body continue to be completed there". So the handover may fall on any day between 1 and 11 August 2026, and files accepted before it are finished by the original body.

For this item, the significance is this: Guangzhou's receiving structure was already "municipal S&T bureau plus the Huangpu and Nansha district bureaus", and Order No. 223 re-confirms the delegated part of it and draws its boundaries. So the "ask the authority handling your application" that runs through section 2 still means working out, in Guangzhou, which level and which district your particular file belongs to. Check who to call today before you call.

9. If you have already done it the wrong way, or you are out of time

• You reasoned "I have lived in China for years" and obtained an in-China criminal record certificate, and the authority will not take it. Check the table in section 2 for which wording your city publishes. If it is the "does not include within the territory of China" version, that in-China certificate will not fill this box and you need to apply to your country of nationality. Do not throw the in-China certificate away — your employer, the residence permit stage or other business may still use it, and an individual applicant must justify the purpose from the third application in a calendar year onwards, so re-applying has a cost.
• The certificate is approaching six months old and legalisation is not finished. Do not gamble. Per section 6 the anchor is the date of issue, and the time legalisation consumes comes out of those six months. If three or four months have already passed and legalisation has not started, applying for a fresh certificate is usually cheaper than one rejection — but ask the receiving authority which date they count from first.
• What you obtained is an affidavit or statutory declaration. Under the sixth sentence it is not accepted, and that does not change by adding notarisation or legalisation afterwards. Go back to the issuing channel and apply to the police, security or court authorities for a certificate based on official records; or first ask whether your country's embassy or consulate in China can issue a non-sworn record (route 4 in section 4).
• You are already in China and changing employer. The work permit is tied to the employer; a new employer means a new application, and this item usually has to be prepared again. Do not start teaching at the new employer on the old permit, and do not accept "start now, we'll do the paperwork later" — working outside the scope of a valid permit carries legal consequences, and what falls on the individual as against the employer is a matter for the exit-entry rules and the authority's determination. Do not assume the school absorbs it for you. The sequence and the timing are set by the receiving authority and the exit-entry authority, so ask before you resign.
• You have picked up teaching on the side. A work permit authorises work for the employer named on it. Weekend or part-time teaching for someone else is a separate question with its own answer — ask the receiving authority before you accept it, not after. If you are already doing it, stop and ask now rather than letting it surface at renewal or when you change employer; the legal consequences are the same as in the previous item.
• Your residence permit is running out and the certificate has not arrived. These two clocks run separately: an incomplete work-permit file does not extend your residence permit. Ask the exit-entry authority before the residence permit expires what your options are (can you file first, is a short extension possible, what do they need) — do not wait until the documents are complete. Overstaying is the individual's exposure and it affects later applications.
• You are in China on a student or dependant residence permit and converting to a work permit. This item still has to be dealt with on the national wording, and years spent studying or living in China do not create a habitual residence. Do not teach, and do not "start while it is being sorted", until the work permit and the new residence permit are issued — signed contract or not. Ask the receiving authority and the exit-entry authority about sequence and timing.
• You are worried that something on your record will get you refused. That is not something we can assess, and it is not a question to answer from a web search. One of the basic conditions for a work permit is having no criminal record; how any particular situation is characterised falls within the receiving authority's powers, and anything with legal consequences should go to a qualified lawyer. This article does not give legal advice.

10. One line to tell you which route is yours

Each carries its jurisdiction, because jurisdiction is exactly where this item diverges.

1. Apart from your country of nationality, you have not lived a continuous year in any country or region (time in China does not count for this box — see items 3 and 4) → this item is issued by the competent authority of your country of nationality. But "issued by your country of nationality" does not mean going home: most countries accept applications from abroad, and your country's mission in China may be able to issue one (item 5). (National wording; for the Shenzhen wording see item 4.)
2. After leaving your country of nationality, you lived continuously for a year or more in some country or region → it is issued by the last such place (if more than one qualifies, only the most recent counts; the clause does not require the stay to precede China). Submit the visa or residence permit for that period as proof alongside. Note that the nationality route is not closed off — the clause says country of nationality or habitual residence, so if that third country cannot produce one, item 1 is still available. (Shenzhen expressly requires the residence proof; whether other cities do, ask.)
3. You have only ever lived in China, and your city follows the "does not include within the territory of China" wording → apply to the competent authority of your country of nationality (most countries accept postal or online applications from abroad, so you need not travel; and ask first whether your country's mission in China can issue one, item 5); the in-China certificate will not fill this box. (The Guangzhou and Jinan published texts are of this kind.)
4. You have only ever lived in China, and your city works to the Shenzhen wording → habitual residence may sit inside China, and in that case no legalisation is required. But two different numbers are in play: the in-China certificate is available at a cumulative 180 days or more (inclusive), while habitual residence requires one continuous year or more. Clearing 180 days does not make China your habitual residence, and the same Shenzhen sentence also requires the visa or residence permit for the period. (Only if your city genuinely applies this version — confirm with the receiving authority first, including how they count the residence period.)
5. Your country's embassy or consulate in China can issue a non-sworn criminal record → under the seventh sentence it may be accepted directly with no legalisation, usually the fastest route. (National wording; whether they will issue one is up to that mission.)
6. What you are holding is an affidavit or self-declaration → not accepted, and legalisation will not rescue it; go back through official channels. (National wording, carried by Guangzhou and Jinan; the Shenzhen text does not contain this sentence — though it does not say the opposite either.)
7. The certificate comes from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan → it must be notarised locally, and you must prove a year or more of continuous residence there, and it must be within 6 months of issue. All three at once. (Guangzhou wording.)
8. The issuing department printed a validity shorter than six months → that shorter period governs. (Guangzhou wording.)
9. You are Category B (most language teaching posts) → the undertaking system is not for you; the document has to be complete. (National wording; some cities operate their own facilitation measures, so it is worth one question — but do not assume.)
10. You are filing in Guangzhou → from 1 August 2026, the three matters "processing, change, cancellation" are delegated to the science and technology authorities of two districts, Huangpu and Nansha — not every district, and the document does not state how cases are allocated; extension is not among the three; files accepted before 1 August 2026 are completed by the original body. Check who your particular matter belongs to today before you call. (Guangzhou Municipal Government Order No. 223.)
11. You hold dual nationality, or are stateless, or your country of nationality does not issue this kind of certificate at all → the published texts do not address these situations. If you hold two nationalities, ask the receiving authority which passport's nationality it works from. If your country will not or cannot issue one, do not substitute a sworn declaration of your own (see item 6); ask the receiving authority in writing what alternative it accepts, and spend money only after that answer. (Not covered by the texts; only the receiving authority can say.)
12. Your country issues criminal record certificates at several levels — local, state, federal → the Guangzhou FAQ answers "any level is acceptable", but we did not find the same statement published by other cities; ask the receiving authority which level it wants before ordering anything. (Guangzhou wording; other cities unknown.)

Requirements differ from place to place — the authority handling your case at the time has the final word.

11. What we can do, and what we cannot

The cannot, first. We do not process work permits, we issue no criminal record certificate, we do not perform legalisation, we do not judge whether something on your record will affect the outcome, and we do not interpret "habitual residence" on the authority's behalf. Every "ask the receiving authority" above is meant literally.

What we do is the translation segment. And here is a point against our own interest:

The Shenzhen FAQ states that all foreign-language materials must be uploaded with a corresponding translation, and that "English may be translated by the employer itself and stamped with the employer's seal; other languages require translation by a professional body, stamped with the translation body's seal" (passports and international travel documents excepted). On that sentence, if your criminal record certificate is in English and your city works to the Shenzhen line, then your employer can translate and stamp it in-house, and you do not need a translation company. The overwhelming majority of foreign teachers' documents are in English. We reproduce this because it is what the source says.

Where we are genuinely useful is usually one of these:

• The document is not in English — Russian, Spanish, French, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Portuguese and so on. On the Shenzhen sentence, those require a professional body's translation with its seal. But what form of translation other cities want (a translation company's seal, a notary office's version, the employer's seal) is not the same everywhere — the Guangzhou application guidelines do not accept a translation bearing only a translation company's seal. Ask the receiving authority which one it wants before ordering.
• When someone else collects your in-China criminal record certificate for you, a letter of entrustment in a foreign language must be translated into Chinese — that is expressly stated in the Guangzhou guide.
• The document has to go through notarisation or legalisation and you need a version fit to send. Stated honestly here too: in Guangzhou, a translation bearing only a translation company's seal does not meet the literal wording of the application guidelines; in that situation what we hand over is the draft that goes to the notary office or the authenticating body, and whether to accept it is their decision. The boundaries are set out in certified versus notarised translation and apostilles and translation seals in a work permit file.

Routine certificate documents take 0.5–1 working day for the translation itself; the receiving authority, the notary office and the authenticating body each set their own timing. For an interpreter with you at the counter, escort interpreting starts at ¥200 per hour, ¥800 per day.

There is a more document-level treatment of this certificate in translating a police clearance certificate; this article is about how it behaves on the work-permit track.