Three routes to “degree authentication” for a China work permit — and Guangzhou and Shenzhen do not ask for the same one

When an employer calls to ask how long "degree authentication" takes, the question cannot be answered until one other thing is settled: which of the three do you mean?

On the China work permit track, "degree authentication" refers to at least three different procedures. Different authorities, different documents, very different cost and waiting time — and the same person is asked for different things in Guangzhou and in Shenzhen. Choosing the wrong one rarely gets you refused on the spot. It surfaces when the online pre-check bounces the file, or on the day the receiving authority checks the originals — and then the whole schedule slides.

This article sorts the three routes by where the degree was awarded, with a source and a date for each. (Useful background when you go looking for the responsible office: after the 2023 institutional reform the national function sits with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, which has carried the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs nameplate since 31 August 2023 — but the 2017 service guide quoted below is itself still in force and has not been replaced.)

Two Chinese institutions are used throughout, and they are not interchangeable:

• CSCSE (Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange, 留服中心) authenticates foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan credentials. This is what the national guide means by "China's credential authentication institution".
• CHSI (China Higher Education Student Information Network, 学信网) is the Ministry of Education's platform for mainland Chinese academic records.

Taking a foreign degree to CHSI, or a mainland degree to CSCSE, is a wasted trip.

(Translations of Chinese source text in this article are ours and unofficial; the Chinese original governs.)

1. Start with where the degree was awarded

The State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs' Service Guide for the Foreigner's Work Permit in China (Provisional) (Wai Zhuan Fa [2017] No. 36, issued 29 March 2017, document code D50001) says, under "highest degree (education) certificate":

A highest degree (education) certificate obtained abroad shall be authenticated by a Chinese embassy or consulate abroad, or by the embassy or consulate in China of the country where the applicant obtained the degree, or by China's credential authentication institution. A highest degree (education) certificate obtained in the Hong Kong or Macao Special Administrative Region or in Taiwan shall be authenticated by China's credential authentication institution or notarised by a notarial institution in that region. A highest degree (education) certificate obtained within China requires only the original degree (education) certificate.

Three sentences, three situations — that is the national rule. Note the third one in particular: a degree awarded inside mainland China needs no authentication at all under the national guide.

What the Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau (Guangzhou Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs) currently posts is the Guangzhou Guidelines for Applying for a Foreigner's Work Permit (2020 revision), published on its site on 16 August 2023, together with the separate volume (II) Guidelines for Applying for a Foreigner's Work Permit (over 90 days) and nine appendices. Item 3 of Table 1 restates the same block — Guangzhou writes "our country's embassies and consulates abroad" and shortens the Hong Kong/Macao/Taiwan phrase — third sentence included. In other words: Guangzhou invented nothing here; it is following the national rule.

More useful still is Appendix 7 to the same guidelines, Authentication Routes for Educational Credentials and Criminal Record Certificates, which sets the routes out as a list and says up front that any one of them will do:

1. Authentication routes for degree and education certificates (any one of the following routes is valid) (1) Authentication of foreign degree and education certificates
2. Dual Chinese-foreign consular authentication. Authentication by the foreign affairs authority of the applicant's country of nationality → authentication by the Chinese embassy/consulate in that country. …
3. Authentication by the embassy/consulate in China of the country where the applicant obtained the degree (education).
4. Authentication by China's credential authentication institution. The Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange, Ministry of Education (http://zwfw.cscse.edu.cn/) (2) Authentication of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan degree (education) certificates
5. Authentication by China's credential authentication institution. CSCSE …
6. Notarisation by a notarial institution in that region. (3) Authentication of Chinese degree and education certificates No authentication required; submit a scan of the original degree and education certificate.

That appendix settles three things: the three routes are alternatives — take any one, you are not meant to run them in series; the national guide's abstract "China's credential authentication institution" is named outright by Guangzhou as CSCSE; and route ① is actually two steps — first the foreign affairs authority of your country of nationality, then the Chinese embassy or consulate there. That pair is what people mean by "dual consular authentication".

By place of award, the routes are — the last two rows are the ones to watch:

The Shenzhen Municipal Science, Technology and Innovation Bureau's FAQ on the Document Checklist (23 November 2023) takes the same three routes for foreign degrees and the same two for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan — but "3. Where the highest degree (education) certificate was obtained within China, it shall be authenticated through CHSI."

So the difference in that cell is not "Guangzhou and Shenzhen each doing their own thing". It is Shenzhen adding a step on top of the national rule: the national guide and Guangzhou both say "original only", Shenzhen wants a CHSI authentication. For a foreign student graduating from a Chinese university and staying on to work, that step costs real time. Which specific CHSI report is wanted, and how completely international students' records sit in that database, is something for which we found no single published statement — the employer should ask Shenzhen's receiving counter directly.

2. What the Apostille Convention actually replaced

The Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents entered into force for China on 7 November 2023 (Ministry of Foreign Affairs announcement, 23 October 2023). A public document issued in a contracting state and carrying that state's apostille can be used in mainland China without consular legalisation by that country and by the Chinese embassy or consulate there.

First, when this section does not apply to you, so you can skip it: if the issuing country is not a contracting state, nothing here changes anything — take the three routes in section 1 exactly as written. Whether your country is on the list is settled by the HCCH status table for the Convention and by the China Consular Service Network, not by forum impressions. Degrees from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are also outside this route — those move between the mainland and those regions, and are not "foreign public documents".

What does the Convention look like on a work permit checklist? The Service Guide for the Foreigner's Work Permit page published by the Jinan Municipal Science and Technology Bureau on 25 May 2026 adds the point in brackets, inside the requirement itself:

A highest degree (education) certificate obtained abroad shall be authenticated by a Chinese embassy or consulate abroad, or by the embassy or consulate in China of the country where the applicant obtained the degree, or by China's credential authentication institution. (A document bearing an apostille of a contracting state to the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents no longer needs consular legalisation by the Chinese embassy or consulate in that country.)

Shenzhen's 23 November 2023 FAQ is more concrete, adds a date threshold, and spells out both sides:

Where the country of the degree (education) is on the list of contracting states to the Convention, a Hague apostille dated on or after 7 November 2023 (inclusive) is sufficient, and no further consular authentication is needed. Between China and non-contracting states, the traditional consular legalisation procedure continues to apply.

A sheet issued before that date does not come under this wording just because it is also called an apostille.

Three things agency advertising tends to blur, kept apart here:

First, the apostille replaces route ① only. What it removes is consular legalisation by the Chinese embassy or consulate in that country. Route ② (that country's embassy or consulate in China) and route ③ (CSCSE) are separate mechanisms. The Convention neither changes nor cancels them — you can still choose them. For some countries they are now the only options left: by notice of the Chinese Embassy in the United States dated 24 October 2023, Chinese embassies and consulates in the US stopped providing consular legalisation from 7 November 2023, and US-issued public documents within the scope of the Convention need only a US apostille to be used in mainland China. Whether the same applies elsewhere depends on the announcements of the Chinese mission in that country.

Second, an apostille is not an exemption from notarisation. The Convention covers public documents, and whether a given document counts as one is determined by the law of the State of origin. The HCCH Practical Handbook on the Operation of the Apostille Convention (2nd ed.) is explicit on educational documents: in some Contracting Parties a diploma is a public document by virtue of the status of the issuing institution, while "in other Contracting Parties, the educational document may be considered a private document, in which case it will need to be certified before an Apostille is issued", and "educational documents are commonly subject to additional certification". In practice that usually means notarisation by a local notary first, then the apostille from the designated authority. How it is done is decided by the issuing country's authorities, not by China. The office to ask before you start is the Competent Authority in the country that awarded your degree, not a counter in China.

Third, an apostille certifies neither content nor translation. It certifies that the seal and signature on the document are genuine. The Chinese translation is a separate requirement imposed by the Chinese receiving authority — see section 5.

As for Guangzhou: we went through the work-permit materials published on the Guangzhou Science and Technology Bureau's site (kjj.gz.gov.cn) — the full Guangzhou Guidelines for Applying for a Foreigner's Work Permit (2020 revision), its separate volumes, its nine appendices (including Appendix 7, which is about exactly this), the Guangzhou FAQ on Foreigner's Work Permit Matters dated 18 August 2020, and the section's notice list going back to 2022 — and found no occurrence of "apostille" (附加证明书) or "Hague" (海牙). Guangzhou's text still says consular legalisation / dual consular authentication.

The reason is probably not mysterious: that guidelines page was published on 16 August 2023, before the Convention entered into force for China on 7 November 2023, and the wording has not been revisited since; Jinan's version picked the point up when it was republished in 2026. The Convention's entry into force is a national matter and does not depend on a city updating its wording. But who reviews your file and how they read it is a counter-level matter. One limit on our checking, stated plainly: the guide actually served to applicants also sits on the Guangdong government service portal, which is a front-end-rendered page we could not verify word by word — so "no occurrence" above covers only the documents on the Guangzhou bureau's own site. The filing party for a work permit is the employer, so this is a question for the employer to put to the receiving authority before documents are handed in, ideally getting the answer in writing or through the government service platform. A verbal answer binds no one, so keep routes ② and ③ as fallbacks either way.

3. Is route ③ (CSCSE) open to foreign nationals? Yes

A common assumption is that CSCSE authentication is only for people returning from study abroad, and that foreigners cannot use it. That is not the case.

This one does not need second-hand sourcing — look at CSCSE's own online service hall (zwfw.cscse.edu.cn). Its front page splits users into three entrances: mainland Chinese residents / Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents / 外籍人士 (Foreign Nationals). What the foreign-nationals entrance handles is precisely overseas credential authentication, with materials including the diploma, passport, residence card or visa, entry-exit records, a photo and an authorisation statement.

Nor does the governing instrument exclude foreigners. The Measures for the Authentication of Overseas Degrees and Academic Qualifications (in force 28 January 2023) define an applicant as "a natural person holding an overseas degree or academic qualification certificate who applies to CSCSE for authentication in their own name" — no nationality condition, and no requirement to have studied abroad. Its list of situations that will not be accepted (secondary-school diplomas, language and non-degree courses, visiting-scholar and postdoctoral certificates, honorary degrees, and so on) contains nothing aimed at foreign applicants or at home-country degrees. CSCSE's own FAQ answers the question head-on: yes, the procedure is the same as for Chinese applicants, submitting the foreign passport currently held.

Three figures worth remembering:

• The authentication fee is RMB 360 per credential (postage separate);
• the service hall publishes an assessment and review time of 10 to 20 working days;
• "For applications submitted on or after 1 January 2018, a Chinese translation issued by a translation company is no longer required."

One obstacle to know about in advance: the process includes a step where you use the National Immigration Administration's "12367" mobile app for identity verification and obtain an authorisation code, letting CSCSE retrieve your China entry-exit records to verify the period of study. For a foreign applicant who has never been to China and whose degree is from their own country, the published material does not say how that step is handled — which is a reason to ask before you start.

The second one is bad news for our own line of work, but it is the official wording — and its scope stops at the CSCSE step. It says you need not attach a translation company's translation when applying to CSCSE; it says nothing about the translation requirement at the work permit step (section 5). Reading it as "no translation is needed anywhere on this track" is a common misreading, and we wrote about it separately in do you still need your degree translated after CSCSE authentication.

When is route ③ worth choosing first? What follows is our own judgement rather than an official position, so weigh it against your situation: the Chinese mission in your country has stopped providing consular legalisation (see section 2); you are already in China and a trip home to authenticate is not realistic; or what you actually need is a Chinese official written finding on what your degree corresponds to in the Chinese system — item 1 in the next section shows when that becomes unavoidable. There is also one group of people who must take this route: see item 8 in the next section.

4. Ten details that actually stop people at the counter

Every item below comes from an official guideline, an official FAQ or the national classification standard, not from anecdote.

1. An associate degree is not a bachelor's degree. Guangzhou's FAQ, question (15): "Can an 'associate' degree be treated as equivalent to a bachelor's degree?" Answer: "No. It is treated as a junior college (大专) qualification, which is below a bachelor's degree." (That FAQ page was published on 18 August 2020.) An applicant holding an associate degree who plans around the classification standard and the job requirements as if it were a bachelor's will be sent back to the start — and the first threshold for Category B in the classification standard is a bachelor's degree or above (see item 9).

2. The name on the certificate does not match the passport. Question (21) of the same FAQ: the employer shall submit a supporting document issued by the relevant authority of the applicant's country of nationality, authenticated by a Chinese embassy or consulate abroad or by that country's embassy or consulate in China. Note the chain reaction — to prove "same person" you go through an authentication cycle again, and that supporting document is itself normally in a foreign language, so it needs a Chinese translation on China's terms too. People who changed a surname on marriage, whose father's or mother's name forms part of the full name, or whose passport transliteration rules changed, run into this most often.

3. For Hong Kong and Macao, "notarisation by a notarial institution" is not the notarisation you are thinking of. Route ② for a Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan degree is "notarisation by a notarial institution in that region". In Hong Kong that does not mean any Notary Public doing an international notarisation: a document created in Hong Kong and used on the mainland goes through the China-Appointed Attesting Officer system — a China-Appointed Attesting Officer (Hong Kong) approved by the Ministry of Justice issues the notarial document, which then has to be examined and registered by China Legal Service (Hong Kong) Limited and stamped with its transmittal seal before it can be used on the mainland (Measures for the Administration of China-Appointed Attesting Officers (Hong Kong), Ministry of Justice Order No. 69). A document notarised the international way stands a good chance of not counting as a valid instrument at the receiving authority. If in doubt, take route ① (CSCSE) instead, or ask the receiving authority which form it wants.

4. The degree is awarded but the certificate has not been printed. The Guangzhou Guidelines (2020 revision), in the remarks to the degree certificate row (the same sentence appears in the separate volume for foreign university graduates and interns): where the applicant has obtained the degree but the certificate is still being processed, the school may issue a statement of the situation, which shall likewise be authenticated by a Chinese embassy or consulate abroad, or by that country's embassy or consulate in China, or by China's credential authentication institution. A school letter can stand in — but it walks exactly the same authentication chain. "The school wrote a letter" is not the end of it.

5. On a repeat application you may skip it — but an upgraded degree needs an authenticated copy. Remark 4 of the Guangzhou guideline: an applicant who has previously held a Foreigner's Work Permit and whose record can be found in the system need not submit the highest degree (education) certificate on a repeat application; where a repeat application, extension or change submits a degree (education) certificate higher than the original one, an authenticated copy issued through embassy/consulate authentication shall be provided. That half-sentence names only embassy/consulate authentication — it does not list "China's credential authentication institution" alongside, the way the first-time requirement does. If you finished a higher degree while employed and want to use it to move to a better classification, ask the receiving authority about this specific line.

6. Changing employer within the same city can waive a whole group of documents — and this is the Guangzhou guideline's rule. Guangzhou's guideline: where the conditions for changing employer within China are met and the record can be found in the system, the degree (education) certificate, work experience and criminal record certificate need not be submitted again — but a valid residence permit and the cancellation certificate for the previous work permit must be uploaded. A different city means a different receiving authority and a different checklist, so do not assume this travels with you. The next item makes the point: the Guangzhou–Foshan waiver for the degree certificate exists only because the two cities issued a document creating it. There is no such document between Guangzhou and Shenzhen — and those two cities already differ on the domestic-degree cell (section 1). If you are moving from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, budget your time on the assumption that the document has to be produced again on Shenzhen's terms; that is safer than assuming it will not.

7. Moving between Guangzhou and Foshan: the degree certificate need not be filed twice. Measures for Deepening Guangzhou–Foshan Integration to Facilitate Foreign Talent Working in China, issued by the Guangzhou and Foshan Municipal Science and Technology Bureaus (no document number; dated 3 February 2026, published on the Guangzhou bureau's website on 27 February 2026; the document states "these Measures are valid for two years, effective from the date of issue", so to about February 2028): a foreigner who already holds a Guangzhou (Foshan) work permit and applies again in Foshan (Guangzhou) need not submit the highest degree (education) certificate. The same document also provides that for internal transfers among multinational headquarters and enterprise groups in the Guangzhou–Foshan area, where the new work permit application is filed within 30 days of cancellation, the criminal record certificate and medical report need not be submitted; and this one, which has to be read with its condition attached:

Outstanding international students who obtained a master's degree or above at a university within China, as well as outstanding foreign graduates who obtained a master's degree or above at a well-known overseas university, who have a confirmed employer, may apply directly for a foreigner's work permit on graduation, exempt from the two-year work experience requirement.

"Who have a confirmed employer" is a hard condition. Without an employer lined up, this provision does not waive your two years.

8. One group of foreign language teachers can only take route ③. The Classification Standard for Foreigners Working in China (Trial), under foreign language teaching personnel: the nationality requirement is relaxed for some foreign language teaching personnel, and such personnel shall have obtained a doctoral degree, or a master's degree in education, languages or teacher training, in a country where the language they teach is the native language, or shall have obtained teacher qualification in such a country, and their degree shall be authenticated by China's credential authentication institution. For this group, embassy or consulate authentication does not substitute — CSCSE authentication is required. (The version of the classification standard cited here is the one hosted on the Shenzhen Science, Technology and Innovation Bureau's website; its "four times the local average wage" clause is applied against figures published by the Shenzhen Bureau of Statistics, which is a local element.) The same item carries a rule that matters to language teachers generally: in principle they should teach their own native language, hold a bachelor's degree or above and have two years or more of language teaching experience — but those holding a bachelor's degree or above in education, languages or teacher training, or a teacher qualification certificate from their own country, or a qualifying international language teaching certificate, may be exempted from the work experience requirement.

9. The new-graduate route has its own threshold and its own ceiling. Start with the baseline, because none of the exemptions parse without it: the Classification Standard for Foreigners Working in China (Trial) sets the first Category B threshold at "foreign professionals holding a bachelor's degree or above and two years or more of relevant work experience". A fresh graduate usually fails the second half, which is why there is a dedicated route: Guangzhou's (VI) Guidelines for Foreign University Graduates and Foreign Interns Applying for a Foreigner's Work Permit applies to foreign graduates who obtained a master's degree or above at a well-known overseas university within the past year, and to international students who obtained a master's degree or above at a university within China within the past year, subject to conditions including being at least 18 years old, no criminal record, an average grade of not less than 80 (percentage scale) or B+/B (letter scale), no record of misconduct while enrolled, and a post matching the field of study. Note two things: this route is master's and above — bachelor's graduates are not in it; and it runs on a quota. That volume's wording is: the State applies quota management to foreign university graduates working in China; our city's quota is allocated by Guangdong Province, and once the year's quota is full, applications stop being accepted. The quota traces back to the classification standard, where foreign university graduates fall under "personnel subject to quota management" in Category C.

10. And one group needs no authentication at all — but keep "waived" and "commitment system" apart. The two get used interchangeably and the consequences are completely different:

• Waived means the document is not needed. The Shanghai International Talent piece of 2 November 2023 lists three: Category A high-end talent is not restricted by age, education or work experience; where the Shanghai Catalogue of Urgently Needed Foreign Talent Posts (Trial) sets the education requirement as "none", degree authentication may be waived; and a Category B foreign professional qualifying via four times the local average wage may be exempt from degree authentication on a first application, though supporting evidence of the salary commitment is required at later extension or cancellation. Those three are Shanghai's practice — do not carry them to another city.
• The commitment system means you still need the document; you are merely allowed to file it later and carry the risk. Guangzhou's guideline provides that for foreign high-end talent (Category A) falling under (i) selection into a relevant domestic talent programme, (ii) meeting internationally recognised standards of professional achievement, (iii) meeting market-oriented encouraged-post demand, or (iv) innovation and entrepreneurship talent, the highest degree (education) certificate may be handled under the commitment system. If you are on the commitment system, start the authentication anyway, and work the schedule backwards from the date you will have to produce it — the same logic as the commitment system on the medical certificate track (see the medical certificate for a China work permit).

5. Where translation enters this track

Three places, three different rules. This one has to be matched to the city:

• National guide (Wai Zhuan Fa [2017] No. 36): non-Chinese supporting documents all require a Chinese translation bearing the employer's official seal, except the passport or international travel document.
• Guangzhou: the body of the guideline says non-Chinese materials require a Chinese translation issued by a notarial institution within China; remark 5 gives two options — a Chinese translation issued by a Chinese notarial institution (except the passport or international travel document), or a Chinese translation authenticated by a Chinese embassy/consulate abroad or a foreign embassy/consulate in China.
• Shenzhen: all foreign-language materials require a matching translation; English may be translated by the employer itself under its own seal, other languages require translation by a professional institution under that institution's seal, the passport or international travel document excepted (23 November 2023 FAQ).

One thing the Guangzhou document does not settle with itself: the body allows only a notarial institution within China, while remark 5 also allows a translation authenticated by a Chinese embassy/consulate abroad or a foreign embassy/consulate in China. Which sentence governs is a question for the receiving authority — but on either reading, a translation company's own seal is not among the options.

For a translation company like ours, the Guangzhou cell has to be stated honestly: in Guangzhou, a translation carrying only a translation company's seal does not meet the literal requirement of the guideline. The national guide is far more relaxed by comparison, asking only for a Chinese translation under the employer's official seal. The guideline wants a translation issued by a notarial institution, or one authenticated or issued by an embassy or consulate. What a translation company can do on this route is the step before: getting the degree certificate, the transcript and any same-person supporting document translated accurately and laid out to match the original, and handing that to the notary office to process under its own procedure. That is one way of doing it — notary offices also take drafts prepared by the applicant, and whether to accept any of it is the notary office's decision. We laid out the full three-city comparison in whose seal belongs on a work permit translation and will not repeat it here.

One more line from the Guangzhou guideline is worth taping to the wall: "Where the meaning of the translation seriously fails to match the original, the employer shall provide it again." The obligation to resubmit sits with the filing party — the employer — so the translation should be checked on the employer's side before it goes in, rather than left for the counter to find.

6. If you already did the wrong one

• You already hold a consular legalisation. It does not lapse because the Convention took effect — the guideline asks for a document "authenticated by a Chinese embassy or consulate abroad", and that is what you have. The change runs the other way: if you want to obtain a consular legalisation now, you may no longer be able to (see section 2 — Chinese missions in the US stopped from 7 November 2023).
• Your apostille was issued before 7 November 2023. Shenzhen's wording only covers apostilles issued on or after that date. The realistic options are to obtain a fresh one, or to switch to route ② or ③. Whether it has to be redone is a question for the receiving authority — do not decide it by inference.
• The file has already been returned. Work out how much time your own status has left before you work out the documents. Article 30 of the Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People's Republic of China: where a visa indicates that a residence permit is to be obtained after entry, the foreigner shall apply to the exit-entry administration authority of the public security organ at or above county level in the place of intended residence within thirty days of the date of entry. That Guangzhou volume separately requires application for the Foreigner's Work Permit within 15 days of entry. Redoing documents has to be scheduled backwards from those two deadlines, not started once the paperwork happens to be ready.
• The graduate quota is full. In the classification standard this route sits under Category C quota management, and it stops when the quota is exhausted. Whether you can switch to a Category B application depends on whether you meet "a bachelor's degree or above and two years or more of relevant work experience" — someone who has just graduated usually does not. So this is not "a bit slower"; it can mean waiting for the next year's quota, or having the employer check the current-year quota position in another city.

7. Two more accounts to settle: rejection and time

• The Guangzhou guideline states: where materials are found not to meet requirements during review and are returned, the employer shall complete them in one pass as prompted and resubmit as soon as possible, and the acceptance time restarts with each submission. One rejection and the five-working-day decision clock starts again.
• The general document requirements carry a hard one: all materials must satisfy authenticity, completeness, validity, consistency and continuity, and an applicant who provides false materials will be placed on the system's dishonesty list. The guideline does not state how long that listing runs, how far it reaches, or how to appeal or be removed from it.
• The time budget, as far as it can honestly be given. For the decision itself: the national guide says the deciding authority reviews an accepted application (work in China over 90 days) and decides "within 20 working days, extendable by 10 working days in special circumstances"; Guangzhou's (II) … (over 90 days) volume says "processing time limit: counted from the day after the materials are accepted, a decision is made within 5 working days". Guangzhou has compressed the national figure substantially — good news, but it also means your margin for error in Guangzhou is shorter. The authentication leg sits outside that clock and is the most variable stretch of the three routes: CSCSE's online service hall publishes an assessment and review time of 10 to 20 working days; consular authentication and foreign-embassy-in-China authentication have no single published national figure and vary by country and by season. So an honest planning estimate is: budget roughly a month for the CSCSE route, and for the two embassy routes copy the current published processing time from the mission you are actually using and add slack. The "done in a few days" figures circulating online are mostly stale.
• The counter moved in 2025: by notice of the Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Bureau (Guangzhou Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs) dated 19 September 2025, the Guangzhou foreigner work service window moved into the Guangzhou Immigration Affairs Service Center from 9 October 2025, at 4/F, Foreigners' Entry-Exit Reception Hall, Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, 155 Jiefang South Road, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou; after 30 September 2025 the former windows 516 and 517 at the Guangzhou Government Service Center stopped serving the public. Opening hours are 9:00–12:00 and 13:00–17:00 on working days, closed on public holidays; enquiries go through the Guangzhou government service hotline 020-12345. The Guangzhou guidelines cited in this article were published in August 2023, before that change — go by the latest notice for the address.
• And 2026 added another layer: the Decision of the Guangzhou Municipal People's Government on Adjusting Certain Municipal Administrative Powers (Guangzhou Municipal People's Government Order No. 223, issued 24 June 2026, effective 1 August 2026) delegates the handling, variation and cancellation of the foreigner's work permit to the Huangpu and Nansha district science and technology authorities. If the employer is registered in either district, check first whether you go to the district authority or to the Yuexiu counter.

8. One line to pick your route

• Degree awarded abroad → any of the three: Chinese embassy/consulate abroad, that country's embassy/consulate in China, or CSCSE. If the issuing country is a contracting state, an apostille can stand in for the first; Shenzhen expressly requires the apostille to have been issued on or after 7 November 2023, and that is Shenzhen's practice — Guangzhou's published text still says only "consular legalisation", so have the employer confirm it before filing in Guangzhou. If the issuing country is not a contracting state, the Convention is irrelevant to you and the three routes apply unchanged.
• Degree awarded in Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan → CSCSE, or notarisation by a notarial institution in that region; for Hong Kong that means a China-Appointed Attesting Officer plus transmittal by China Legal Service (Hong Kong) Limited, not an international notarisation (item 3 in section 4). The apostille route does not apply here.
• Degree awarded within mainland China → the national guide and Guangzhou both ask only for the original — no authentication; Shenzhen adds a CHSI authentication on top; other cities as locally required — ask.
• You fall into one of Shanghai's waiver situations (Category A; a catalogue post whose education requirement is "none"; a Category B four-times-average-wage first application) → the document is not needed, so do not pay for an authentication. But that is Shanghai's practice; confirm before relying on it elsewhere.
• You are on the commitment system (for example Guangzhou's four Category A situations) → do the authentication anyway; you are only allowed to file it late. Do not read the commitment system as an exemption.
• Changing employer within Guangzhou waives the degree certificate; applying across the Guangzhou–Foshan line waives it too; moving to a city with no such document in place (Guangzhou → Shenzhen, for instance) should be planned on the basis that it has to be produced again.
• New graduates → check first that it is a master's or above, within a year of graduation, and that you have a confirmed employer; then check whether the year's quota is still open. Bachelor's graduates cannot use this route and fall back on the general threshold of a bachelor's degree plus two years of work experience.

Every item above is sourced and dated, but requirements differ from place to place, and the receiving authority's requirements at the time are what govern. This article covers documents and procedure only. We do not act as an authentication agent, and we do not judge the equivalence of any degree — that is for the authentication institution and the receiving authority to decide.

Further reading: whose seal belongs on a work permit translation · the medical certificate for a China work permit · translating transcripts and diplomas.