Leaving Your Job in Guangzhou: Who Cancels the Work Permit, What Happens to Your Residence Permit, and the Condition on a Stay Permit of Up to 30 Days

Checked on 26 October 2026. We are an interpreting and translation company in Guangzhou (Guangzhou GuanRi Translation Service Co., Ltd.). We are not the police, not a law firm, not an immigration agency and not an employer's HR department. The services this article ends up recommending, translation of foreign-language papers into Chinese and an interpreter to go with you to the exit-entry office, are ones we sell ourselves. This is not legal advice. Every rule below comes from an official text linked in the sources; whether you get a stay permit, and for how long, is decided by the public security exit-entry office, not by us. Where a sentence is our own reading rather than the wording of an official text, we say so.

This article is for a foreign national whose job in Guangzhou has ended, or is about to end, and who does not have a new employer lined up in the city. Changing employers is a different procedure, covered in our article on changing employers. Three things move when the job ends: your employer cancels the work permit, your employer reports your departure to the police, and the reason printed on your residence permit no longer holds. In our reading, the third matters most for how long you can stay.

1. Which line is yours

Your situation	What applies	What to do	Who decides
You plan to leave China soon after your last working day, and your residence permit is still valid	The law says a foreigner shall leave China before the prescribed period of stay or residence ends (Article 37). The Guangzhou texts we read do not say whether you must come in to cancel or change the residence permit before you leave. Shanghai's exit-entry police tell people in Shanghai to come in within 10 days of resigning, with the resignation certificate, to cancel the work and residence permits (section 4). Do not assume the permit stays valid to its printed date once the job ends (Article 34 of the regulations, section 4)	Before you book the flight, call +86 12367 (24 hours) and ask whether Guangzhou wants you at the office before you leave. Ask your employer for the date it filed the work permit cancellation and for a copy of the cancellation certificate	The exit-entry office
You need to stay a few more weeks after the job ends, with no new job	The national guide lets the office issue a stay permit of up to 30 days when the reason for residence has ended and you need to stay "for humanitarian reasons" (our translation; section 3). The guide does not define that phrase	Ask +86 12367 whether your reason is one the office accepts; an answer on the phone is not the decision. Then apply with the papers in section 3 before the residence permit's date; the Guangzhou list gives 7 working days for the decision. The office may say no	The exit-entry office; a refusal is final (Article 36 of the law)
The date on your residence permit is today or in the next few days	You leave before that date (Article 37), or apply for a stay permit before it; the stay permit is only for a humanitarian need (second row). While the office keeps your passport for the application, the receipt lets you stay legally (Article 13 of the regulations)	Go in person to the reception hall at 155 Jiefang South Road, Yuexiu District (Monday to Friday 9:00–12:00 and 13:00–17:00; Saturday the same hours for urgent cases; holidays arranged separately; no Sunday hours are listed). Take your passport, residence permit, resignation certificate and Guangzhou accommodation registration. If a paper is missing, go anyway: the office tells you in one go what to add (Article 13). An incomplete application gets no receipt, and the date on your permit still applies. A phone call is not an application. If you have no humanitarian reason, leave before the date	The exit-entry office
You have a new job in Guangzhou	A different procedure: the old work permit is cancelled first, and a valid residence permit is one of the conditions for applying inside China	Read our article on changing employers before your last day	The science and technology bureau for the work permit; the exit-entry office for residence
Your employer has closed down or ceased to exist	The work permit guide says that where the employer is terminated, you may apply for the cancellation of the work permit yourself (section 2). The texts we read do not say what replaces a resignation certificate from an employer that no longer exists	Apply for the cancellation, and ask +86 12367 what the exit-entry office accepts as proof that your job ended	The science and technology bureau for the work permit; the exit-entry office for the stay permit
You came on a short-term work permit (90 days or less)	The Guangzhou guide says a Z visa holder whose stay is not more than 30 days is not issued a work-type residence permit, and that work under a short-term permit may not be extended. The stay permit line in section 3 starts from a residence permit, so it may not fit you	Read the stay printed on your visa, and ask +86 12367 what applies if the job ends early	The exit-entry office
You are staying because of family (for example, your spouse is Chinese or holds a residence permit)	A family-based residence permit is a different category with its own papers	Read our article on family residence permits and ask the office before the work reason runs out, not after	The exit-entry office
Your spouse or children hold residence permits as members of your family	For family members visiting a foreigner in China, the national residence guide says a permit may be issued with the same period as the person visited. The texts we read do not say what happens to theirs when your reason ends. If a child under 16 overstays because a guardian did not fulfil the duty of guardianship, the guardian is given a warning and may be fined up to RMB 1,000 (Article 78 of the law)	Take their passports and permits to the same call and the same visit, and ask about each person by name	The exit-entry office
Your employer will not give you a resignation certificate, or cannot be reached	The Guangzhou stay-permit list asks for proof that the reason ended, such as a resignation certificate from the former employer (section 3). The work permit guide says that if you left on your own and the employer cannot contact you, the employer adds a written explanation to the cancellation	Ask +86 12367 what else the office accepts as proof. If you are in dispute with the employer, a practising lawyer can advise; do not let it hold up your visit to the office	The exit-entry office decides what proof it accepts
Your studies in Guangzhou have ended	The same stay-permit line; the Guangzhou list gives a graduation certificate, or a school letter saying your studies ended, as the proof. Your school reports your departure (Article 26 of the regulations)	Same as the second row	The exit-entry office
The office has already declared your residence permit void, or cancelled it	The regulations allow a permit to be declared void on the spot or by public notice (Article 34) and then cancelled (Article 35). The texts we read do not say what you may apply for next, or by when	Call +86 12367 that day and go to the office with your passport	The exit-entry office
The date on your residence permit has already passed	Staying beyond the period on your permit is illegal residence (Article 25 of the regulations). The penalty is a warning or, in serious cases, a fine of RMB 500 a day up to RMB 10,000, or 5 to 15 days' detention (Article 78 of the law). Illegal residence can also lead to repatriation, with no entry to China for one to five years (Article 62)	Go to the exit-entry office as soon as possible. If you want legal advice, contact a practising lawyer at the same time; do not let finding one delay you	The public security organs (Article 70 of the law); a warning or a fine of up to RMB 5,000 may be decided by the exit-entry office
You keep working after the job ends (another employer, freelance work), before a new work permit and residence permit are issued	Working without a work permit and a work-type residence permit is illegal employment (Article 43 of the law); the fine is RMB 5,000 to 20,000, and in serious cases 5 to 15 days' detention as well (Article 80). It can also lead to repatriation, with no entry for one to five years (Article 62). A stay permit does not let you work: a foreigner may not engage in activities that do not correspond to the purpose of stay (Article 37)	Stop. A practising lawyer can advise on the contract	The public security organs (Article 70 of the law)
You are a Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan resident	This article is about foreign nationals; the rules for you are different and we do not cover them here	Call +86 12367	The exit-entry office

Three situations the texts we read do not address at all: your passport is held by your employer, you have already left China and want to come back, or you hold another kind of residence permit. For each, call +86 12367.

2. What your employer files, and when

Your employer files the work permit cancellation, not you. The Guangzhou work permit guide (2020 revision), in the part on the materials for cancellation, opens with four sentences; the third is the one that applies when a job ends:

申请人死亡或者丧失行为能力或者提前终止合同、解除聘用关系的，用人单位应当于事项发生之日起10个工作日内向决定机构申请注销。

In our translation (we have not found an official English text of this guide): where the applicant dies or loses capacity, or the contract is ended early or the employment relationship is terminated, the employer shall apply to the deciding authority for cancellation within 10 working days of the event. The other three sentences say a permit that is not renewed is cancelled automatically when it expires, that a permit revoked or recalled under the law (撤销 or 撤回), or whose certificate has been taken away under the law, is cancelled by the deciding authority, and that if the employer itself ceases to exist, you may apply for cancellation yourself.

The materials table that follows asks for a cancellation form signed by you and stamped by the employer, and proof that the employment ended; that proof needs both parties' signatures. If you left on your own and the employer cannot reach you, the employer adds a written explanation stating that it bears the responsibility for ending the contract unilaterally (our translation of 注明承担单方面解除合同的责任). The same guide says a cancellation is completed within 1 working day, counted from the day after the office accepts the materials, and that you or the person handling the application can collect the cancellation certificate at the counter. Ask for a copy; the stay permit list in section 3 asks for proof that your job ended, and the guide does not say whether the certificate counts as that proof.

Separately, the employer reports your departure to the police. Article 26 of the Regulations on the Administration of the Entry and Exit of Foreigners has an opening sentence and four items; this is the opening and item (1), in the official English:

Upon discovery of one of the following circumstances, the entity that employs a foreigner or admits a foreign student shall, in a timely manner, report to the exit and entry administration authority of the public security organ of the local people’s government at or above the county level:

(1) A foreigner employed resigns or changes employment location;

Item (2) is the same duty for a school whose foreign student graduates or leaves. The regulations give no number of days for "in a timely manner".

3. The stay permit: up to 30 days, and the condition attached to it

The national Service Guide for the Issuance, Renewal and Reissuance of Foreigners' Stay Permits (National Immigration Administration, 4 March 2019) lists seven kinds of supporting papers; the fourth is about you, and it is one sentence:

外国人居留事由终止，因人道原因需要继续停留的，应当提交居留证件和相关的证明材料，可以签发停留期不超过30日的停留证件；

In our translation (we have not found an official English text of this guide): where a foreigner's reason for residence has ended and the foreigner needs to continue staying for humanitarian reasons, the foreigner shall submit the residence permit and the relevant supporting papers, and a stay permit with a period of stay of not more than 30 days may be issued.

Three things in that sentence matter. "May be issued" is not a right. "Not more than 30 days" is a ceiling. And the stay is for people who need to stay "for humanitarian reasons" (our translation); the guide does not say what counts, and the office decides. Ask before you plan around 30 days. If, once you hold a stay permit, you cannot leave before it expires for objective reasons, both the national guide and the Guangzhou list let you apply to renew it (换发) on the same papers; the guide does not define "objective reasons" either. The law caps a stay permit at 180 days (Article 34).

The Guangzhou Public Security Bureau's own list for a stay permit (a Word file on its page of exit-entry guides, fetched on 26 October 2026) puts the same case in its own words, in our translation: a foreigner whose reason for residence has ended and who needs to stay on for humanitarian reasons. Its materials list has six items (our translation):

your valid passport or other international travel document and visa, originals and copies;
the Foreigner's Visa and Permit Application Form;
one Guangdong visa photo for foreigners, with its photo test receipt;
your valid accommodation registration form in Guangzhou;
other papers related to the reason for your application (quoted below);
other papers the police consider necessary.

The fifth item has five sub-items, one per case; the fourth is yours:

（4）居留事由终止的提供居留证件及居留事由终止的证明（如工作结束的提供原单位的离职证明，学习结束的提供毕业证或学校出具的学习结束的证明等）;

In our translation: where the reason for residence has ended, provide the residence permit and proof that the reason has ended (for example, for work that has ended, a resignation certificate from the former employer; for studies that have ended, a graduation certificate or a certificate from the school that the studies have ended, etc.).

The list does not name a paper that proves the humanitarian reason itself; ask what to bring when you call. The list gives 7 working days for the decision. The regulations add, in Article 13, that the receipt for a stay permit application is valid for up to 7 days (working days, by Article 36), and that "during the period of time when the applicant’s passport or other international travel documents are retained for processing his or her application for a visa or permit, the applicant may stay in China legally on the strength of the receipt of acceptance."

Four practical points from these texts and the law:

The accommodation registration is easy to miss. If you move out of company housing into a friend's flat or a short-let, the law requires registration with the local police within 24 hours, by you or by the person who houses you (Article 39; the official English says 24 hours "after the foreigners’ arrival", the Chinese text says after moving in, so count from the day you move in). Failing to register carries a warning, and a fine of up to RMB 2,000 may also be imposed (Article 76). A hotel registers you itself.
In person, as a rule. The national guide lists three cases in which, in our translation, an inviting unit or person, a relative or a professional service agency may apply for you: you are under 16, 60 or over, or have difficulty moving because of illness or other reasons; this is not your first entry and your record of stay or residence in China is good; or the inviting party guarantees your costs in China. In our reading, the second case may fit someone who has lived and worked here; ask +86 12367 whether the office will take an application from someone acting for you. Either way, the guide says you collect the permit yourself, with the receipt, and that the office may call you to an interview and may refuse if you miss it without good reason.
Foreign-language papers need a Chinese translation. The national guide ends with one sentence that says so, "有关外文证明材料应当翻译成中文", in our translation: relevant foreign-language supporting papers shall be translated into Chinese. A resignation certificate from a Guangzhou employer is already in Chinese; a doctor's letter or a family document from abroad, offered as the humanitarian reason, is not.
Where to go. The bureau's reception hall for foreigners is at 155 Jiefang South Road, Yuexiu District, Monday to Friday 9:00–12:00 and 13:00–17:00, and Saturday at the same hours for urgent cases, with holidays arranged separately; the bureau's list has eleven more offices in the districts, open Monday to Friday. Ask +86 12367 which one takes your case.

4. What Shanghai's exit-entry police say, and why it is not Guangzhou's rule

On 23 January 2026, the Shanghai government's English website published an answer from the Exit-Entry Administration Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau to a resident whose spouse was about to resign. The answer has two sentences:

After your resignation, you should visit the exit-entry authority within 10 days with your resignation certificate to cancel your work and residence permits.

A one-month stay permit will then be issued as a transitional document and will serve as your lawful stay period during this time.

That is a city police force describing its own practice, and it reads as routine: come in within 10 days, receive a one-month stay permit. The Guangzhou list uses the national wording, with the humanitarian condition, and none of the Guangzhou texts we read describes the practice the way Shanghai does. We do not know whether the Guangzhou office applies the condition the same way, and we are not going to guess. Two things are worth carrying over as questions for +86 12367: whether Guangzhou expects you at the office within a set number of days of resigning, and whether it cancels the residence permit when it issues the stay permit.

The law has its own 10 days. Article 33 says that where a registered item on a residence permit changes, the holder shall apply for the change within 10 days of the date of the change, and one of the registered items is the "reason for residence". Whether a job ending counts as a change of a registered item, the law does not say; the national residence guide lists papers on "the change of the reason for residence" (our translation) among those for a registered-item change. Failing to apply for a change of a registered item carries a warning, and a fine of up to RMB 2,000 may also be imposed (Article 76 of the law). What the regulations do say, in Article 34, item (3), is that a residence permit is declared void by the issuing authority where "the original purpose of residence has been changed, but he or she fails to report to the exit and entry administration authority of the public security organ within the prescribed time limit and fails to do so even after the said organ has given a public notice thereon". So do not assume your residence permit runs to its printed date once the job is over.

5. Where we come in

What we sell is translation and interpreting, not immigration services; the calls and the visit above are things you can do yourself.

If the office asks for any of your foreign-language papers in Chinese, we translate them. Our FAQ page lists certificates at typically RMB 50–120 per document, depending on language and complexity, plus RMB 30 per document for a certified translation with our company seal and translator credentials, and says documents bearing our seal can be used for immigration and similar purposes. Ask the office first what kind of translation it accepts; we do not decide that.

If you want an interpreter with you at the office, escort interpreting is one of our services; whether the interpreter may come up to the counter is decided by the office on the spot. Our FAQ page lists escort and consecutive interpreting from RMB 200 per hour or RMB 800 per full day, depending on language pair and subject; prices exclude tax, plus 6% for a VAT special invoice or 3% for a general invoice; it also says new clients typically pay a 30–50% deposit, and that common pairs (Chinese with English, Japanese or Korean) can usually be scheduled 1–2 weeks ahead and rare pairs should be booked 4–8 weeks ahead. Once you know the day, send it to us. Do not move your visit to fit an interpreter's schedule; the date on your residence permit comes first.

Interpreter profiles are in the interpreter directory. Write to us on WhatsApp / WeChat (WhatsApp +86 139 2416 6640, WeChat Saralee93) or through the contact page.

Everything above is limited to Guangzhou and to the texts we read. An employer or an office can ask for papers the texts do not mention; local rules differ, and the office's answer on the day is what counts.

Sources

National Immigration Administration, Service Guide for the Issuance, Renewal and Reissuance of Foreigners' Stay Permits, 4 March 2019 (in Chinese): https://www.nia.gov.cn/n741445/n741604/n1787224/n1795789/c1792656/content.html
Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, exit-entry service points and guides (the stay permit list is the Word file "外国人停留证件申请"; the list of service points for foreigners is on the same page; in Chinese): https://gaj.gz.gov.cn/zwfw/ywtd/crjimmigration/crjzx/content/post_9339149.html
Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, Guangzhou guide to applying for foreigners' work permits (2020 revision; part 7 (5), cancellation; in Chinese): https://kjj.gz.gov.cn/gkmlpt/content/7/7034/post_7034314.html
Regulations on the Administration of the Entry and Exit of Foreigners, official English, 2013 text (Articles 13, 25, 26, 34, 35 and 36): https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147418/n147458/c155970/content.html; the 2025 amendment, which leaves these articles unchanged, as carried by the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau (in Chinese): https://gaj.gz.gov.cn/zwfw/ywtd/crjimmigration/crjzx/content/post_10409663.html
Exit and Entry Administration Law, official English (Articles 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 43, 62, 70, 76, 78 and 80): https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147418/n147458/c155978/content.html; Chinese text: https://www.nia.gov.cn/n741440/n741547/c1013311/content.html
National Immigration Administration, residence permit service guide, 5 September 2019 (in Chinese): https://www.nia.gov.cn/n741440/n741587/n1316094/n1355872/c1356308/content.html
Shanghai government English website, "Will my residence permit be canceled after I change the job?", 23 January 2026, answer from the Exit-Entry Administration Corps of the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau: https://english.shanghai.gov.cn/en-ResidencePermit/20260123/3e3d9f59b1504f4689719b84a7df0f4d.html
Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, notice on passports for Chinese citizens, 14 August 2024, cited only for the line saying the 12367 hotline answers 24 hours: https://gaj.gz.gov.cn/zwfw/ywtd/crjimmigration/crjzx/content/post_9813298.html
Translation China, FAQ page (certificate translation and interpreting rates, booking lead times, read 25 October 2026): https://www.translationchina.com/m/en/faq/

1. Which line is yours

2. What your employer files, and when

3. The stay permit: up to 30 days, and the condition attached to it

4. What Shanghai's exit-entry police say, and why it is not Guangzhou's rule

5. Where we come in

Sources

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