永久居留
China Permanent Residence in Guangzhou: the Four Application Lists, the Six-Month Limit on Foreign Documents, and Who Translates Them
The Guangzhou Public Security Bureau publishes four lists for permanent residence applications, employment, investment, family, and renewal or replacement (zip folder dated 27 January 2026), and a separate page for the Greater Bay Area 70-point route. Health and foreign criminal record certificates must be issued, and authenticated, within six months before the application is accepted; for countries where the Apostille Convention is in force with China, the lists accept an apostille instead of legalisation. All four lists say every foreign-language document, including the passport, is to be translated at a notary office or a translation company, and that the Chinese name you want on the card is the one used in the passport translation; the points page wants the translation company's seal on the translation and on a copy of its business licence. Spouses applying on the family list also need a notarised, frozen time deposit of RMB 200,000 for 12 months or more. Fees are RMB 1,500 per person plus RMB 300 per person for the card; the national guide says the decision is made within six months of acceptance and is final.
Contents
Checked on 29 October 2026. We are an interpreting and translation company in Guangzhou (Guangzhou GuanRi Translation Service Co., Ltd.). We are not the police, not the immigration administration, not a law firm and not an agency that handles applications. The service this article ends up recommending, translating your foreign documents into Chinese, is one we sell ourselves. This is not legal advice. Every rule below comes from an official text, all linked in the sources; whether you qualify, and whether a document is accepted, is decided by the public security exit-entry office and the National Immigration Administration, not by us. Where a sentence is our own reading rather than the wording of a text, we say so. This article does not use any company data of ours.
This article is for a foreign national living in Guangzhou who is thinking of applying for permanent residence in China (the card is the Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card), and for the family members who would apply with them. It covers the four application lists the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau publishes, the foreign documents those lists ask for, the six-month limit on the key certificates, and what the lists say about translation. It does not cover residents of Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan, who are not foreign nationals, or naturalisation, which is a different procedure.
1. Which line is yours
| Your situation | What applies | What to do | Who decides |
|---|---|---|---|
| You live in Guangzhou and work as a deputy general manager, deputy factory director or above, or hold an associate professor or associate researcher title or above | The "other employees" route on the employment list: four consecutive years in that post, three years or more in total in China within those four, a good tax record, and an employer of one of four kinds (bodies under State Council departments or provincial governments, key universities, units running national key projects or major research projects, including seven kinds of research institutions, or high-tech enterprises and three kinds of foreign-invested enterprises) (section 2) | Ask your employer whether it is one of the four kinds and can produce the four years of work permits, annual reports and tax certificates the list asks for | The Guangzhou exit-entry office accepts; the provincial public security department reviews; the National Immigration Administration approves |
| You have worked in China for four consecutive years, living here at least six months each year, with pre-tax salary of RMB 660,000 or more and tax of 20% or more of it in each of the four years | The "foreign employee" route on the same list, with your employer's recommendation. The list also opens this route to doctorate holders with "a certain number of years" of work in China, and says the exit-entry office interprets how many (section 2) | Check the four years of salary and tax certificates before anything else; they are the condition, not a supporting document | The same |
| You are a foreign national of Chinese descent (外籍华人) | A separate route on the employment list: a doctorate and a work-type residence permit for work in Guangzhou, or four consecutive years of work in China living here at least six months each year (section 2). The list does not define the term; ask the office whether it covers you | If you ever held Chinese nationality, collect the nationality documents in section 2 first; this section of the list asks for them without that qualifier, so ask the office whether they apply to you. If you used a Chinese ID card, passport or household registration after acquiring foreign nationality, ask a practising lawyer before you apply | The same |
| You are a foreign member of an innovation team, or a foreign technical employee, with 70 points or more under the Greater Bay Area points standard | A Guangzhou police page of July 2025 sets out this route, with a points certificate from the Guangzhou foreign experts bureau. It lists two places to apply: the city exit-entry office, and the Nansha sub-bureau only for those employed by enterprises in the Nansha area of the free trade zone (section 2) | Get the points certificate first. That page also has the most specific translation rule (section 4) | The same |
| You invested in China directly | The investment list: three consecutive years of stable investment and a good tax record, with paid-in registered capital of USD 500,000 to 2,000,000 depending on industry and region; a Greater Bay Area variant asks for USD 1,000,000 or more in total (USD 500,000 or more in encouraged industries) invested in the nine Greater Bay Area cities (section 2) | Ask the office which of the capital thresholds your company falls under before you collect anything | The same |
| You are married to a Chinese citizen with permanent household registration in Guangzhou, or to a foreign national with permanent residence in China | The family list, spouse section: married five years or more, living in China five consecutive years or more and at least nine months in each, with stable means of living and a home. You and your spouse both attend. Guangzhou specifies a notarised, frozen RMB 200,000 time deposit, housing papers and a notarised lease if you rent (section 5) | If your Chinese spouse's household is registered outside Guangzhou, ask the office where your case goes before you prepare anything: a national administration answer (2015) points to the public security organ where the Chinese spouse's household is registered, and the Measures to the place where you reside long-term. Before you freeze the deposit, ask how the office reads the 12 months. If your marriage has ended, ask whether this route still applies | The same |
| You are applying for your child, under 18 and unmarried | The family list, child section (one parent a Chinese citizen with Guangzhou household registration, or a foreign permanent resident, and the child confirmed as a foreign national under China's Nationality Law), or the child section of the list your own application is on. On the family list both parents sign the form | If a parent was a Chinese citizen when the child was born, ask the office first whether the child can apply at all. For the nationality check the lists ask: for a child born abroad while a parent was Chinese, proof that this parent had obtained permanent residence abroad, with its translation; for a child born abroad to a parent who had given up Chinese nationality, the foreign passports the parents held at the birth and the nationality documents in section 2; for a child born in China, the foreign passports both parents held at the birth. Divorced parents: proof of guardianship, such as a court ruling. Adopted children: an adoption certificate. A foreign birth certificate needs an apostille or legalisation (section 3) | The same |
| You are 60 or older, have no direct relatives abroad and join a direct relative in China | The family list, relatives section: five consecutive years in China, at least nine months in each, stable means of living and a home | The proof that you have no direct relatives abroad comes either from an authority of your country, with an apostille or legalisation, or from your country's embassy in China (section 2) | The same |
| You already hold the card and it is expiring, has changed, or is damaged or lost | The renewal and replacement list. Guangzhou's list says apply within three months before expiry; the national measures say within one month (section 7) | Do not leave it to the last weeks: Guangzhou's list opens the window three months before expiry, and the Measures give the office up to a month after review to issue the new card (section 7). Bring the passport copy and its translation (section 4) | The same |
| The Apostille Convention is not, or not yet, in force between the country that issued a document and China | That document needs consular legalisation by a Chinese embassy or consulate (section 3) | Check the issuing country in our article on apostille and legalisation before you order any certificate | Whether the Convention is in force between the two countries is recorded on its status table; whether a document is accepted: the Guangzhou exit-entry office |
| Your health or foreign criminal record certificate is older than six months, or your criminal record certificate was issued by a local authority or by your embassy in China | For these two certificates the lists count six months back from the date the application is accepted, and the employment list and the family list's spouse section accept a foreign criminal record certificate only from a central government authority (section 2) | Get a new certificate from the right authority. The lists do not say what happens to a document that turns six months old after acceptance; ask at the counter | The Guangzhou exit-entry office |
| You applied and were refused | The national guide says the public security organ decides within six months of accepting the application and that its decision is final (section 6) | Ask the office what the refusal was based on. Whether to apply again, and on which route, is a question for a practising lawyer, not for us | The National Immigration Administration |
| Anything not above: you live outside Guangzhou, you are abroad, or your permanent residence was cancelled | Not covered here | Ask the exit-entry office where you live long-term (Guangzhou: +86 12367) before you prepare documents | That exit-entry office |
All the Guangzhou lists say you apply in person. The office's telephone number on the Guangzhou police list of exit-entry offices is +86 12367; the addresses are in section 6.
2. The lists, and what each one asks for from abroad
The Guangzhou Public Security Bureau's page of exit-entry guides (dated 6 September 2026) links a zip file named "外国人永久居留申请" whose folder is dated 27 January 2026. It holds four lists, all in Chinese: employment, investment, family, and renewal or replacement. Their conditions match the national Measures for the Administration of Examination and Approval of Foreigners' Permanent Residence in China (2004), whose Article 6 sets the general conditions. In the official English text:
Aliens applying for permanent residence in China shall abide by Chinese laws, be healthy, have no criminal record and conform to any of the following terms and conditions:
That is the opening sentence of the article; seven conditions follow it. The Guangzhou lists add detail the Measures do not have, and that detail is where most of the foreign documents come from. The table lists each foreign document, which lists ask for it, and the conditions the lists put on it. The first column is our grouping, not an official one.
| Document from abroad | Which lists ask for it | Conditions the lists set |
|---|---|---|
| Your passport and visa | All of them (the renewal list asks for the passport copy and its translation) | A translation into Chinese, including the passport (section 4) |
| Health certificate | Employment, investment, Greater Bay Area points, and family (spouse and relatives sections); not for unmarried children under 18 (the employment and investment lists exempt them, and the child section of the family list does not list one) | Either issued by a health and quarantine department designated by the Chinese government, which is a Chinese document, or issued by a foreign medical institution and authenticated by a Chinese embassy or consulate (or apostilled); issued, and authenticated, within six months before the application is accepted |
| Criminal record certificate from abroad | The same lists | Issued by your country of nationality; issued, and authenticated or apostilled, within six months before acceptance. The employment list and the spouse section of the family list add that it must come from a central government authority, not from a local government or from your embassy in China. The Greater Bay Area points page asks for one from every country or region where you lived two consecutive years or more |
| Marriage certificate issued abroad | Spouses on the employment, investment and family lists; parents of a child applicant | Authenticated or apostilled. The family list (spouse and child sections) and the spouse sections of the employment and investment lists add a six-month limit before acceptance; the employment and investment lists apply it to the authentication too |
| Birth certificate issued abroad | Children on the employment, investment and family lists | Authenticated or apostilled. The child sections of the employment and investment lists add the six-month limit; the child section of the family list does not |
| Proof of no direct relatives abroad | Relatives section of the family list | From an authority of your country with Chinese authentication, or from your country's embassy in China, together with your own declaration |
| Foreign degree | Doctorate holders on the employment list | Verified by the Chinese Service Center for Scholarly Exchange (CSCSE) if the degree is from a university outside China |
| Foreign settlement proof, naturalisation certificate, Chinese passport used before, cancellation of household registration | Anyone who once held Chinese nationality, on the employment, investment and family lists | Your CV must also explain how you acquired permanent residence abroad and foreign nationality, and state that you have not used Chinese identity documents since your household registration was cancelled |
The employee or investor and their spouse on the employment and investment lists, and the spouse and relatives sections of the family list, are also asked for a criminal record certificate for time in China, issued by the Guangzhou exit-entry office. That is a separate certificate; our article on criminal record certificates covers it.
The six-month limit needs planning. On the health and criminal record certificates, the certificate's issue date and the date of its authentication or apostille must both fall within the six months before the day the office accepts your application. If the office returns the file for a missing item, nothing has been accepted yet and the clock keeps running (our reading), so have everything else ready before you order these two certificates, and leave a margin.
3. Apostille or legalisation
Since China joined the Apostille Convention, the Guangzhou lists accept an apostille in place of consular legalisation for documents from countries where the Convention is in force with China. The note on the family, employment, investment and renewal lists reads (our translation):
Under the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, from 7 November 2023, supporting documents issued by contracting states for which the Convention is in force no longer need consular legalisation; only the apostille issued by that country's competent authority is required (the form of the apostille is in the annex to the Convention).
The national guide has not caught up. Its Chinese text (11 September 2019) and its English text (27 March 2023) both say the criminal record, marriage, birth, kinship and name-change documents issued abroad are to be certified by the Chinese embassy or consulate. Both predate the Convention's entry into force for China. The Greater Bay Area points page of July 2025 also says only that foreign certificates are to be authenticated by the Chinese embassy or consulate. The four Guangzhou lists, in a folder dated January 2026, name the apostille; if you apply on the points route, ask the office whether it accepts an apostille.
Whether your country can use an apostille for China, and from what date, is in our article on apostille and legalisation. India still needs legalisation, Viet Nam changed on 11 September 2026, and Thailand's date on the convention's status table is 28 February 2027.
4. Translation: what the lists say
Every one of the four Guangzhou lists carries the same note (our translation):
All foreign-language materials must be translated at a notary office or a translation company, including the passport (if you need a Chinese name printed on the permanent residence card, translate the English name in your passport into that Chinese name).
The Greater Bay Area points page, which has an official English version on the same page, puts it more specifically:
Documents in a language other than Chinese shall be translated into Chinese, and the seal of the translation company shall be affixed on both the translated documents and the photocopy of the translation company's business license.
So the four lists allow two routes, a notary office or a translation company, and the points page wants the translation company's official seal (公章) on the translation and on a copy of its business licence. What the texts do not say, and what to ask the counter before you order a translation:
- Whether the apostille or legalisation page itself is translated. It is in a foreign language, or two, and the lists say all foreign-language materials. They do not mention it separately.
- Whether a translation made abroad is accepted. Neither text says. The points page asks for a copy of the translation company's business licence.
- Whether the whole passport is translated or only the data page. The lists say the passport; they do not say which pages.
Decide your Chinese name before anything is translated. The note ties the name printed on the card to the name in the passport translation, and the form has a box for it: the lists say to write "制证时需要打印中文姓名:XXX" (print the Chinese name XXX on the card) under "other matters to be specified", or "无" (none). Using the same Chinese name in every translation you hand in avoids a mismatch between documents (our reading). If you had a Chinese name on Chinese records before you acquired foreign nationality, ask the office whether the name on the card must match it. Our article on Chinese names in translated documents explains how names get split into several Chinese versions. The national guide's appendix adds one case: a foreign national of Chinese descent who changed name after naturalising, where the foreign name is not a transliteration of the Chinese name, needs the name change notarised.
Two notes on the family list are not about translation but are easy to miss: if you married in China as a foreign national, the marriage certificate must carry your foreign passport number, and your Chinese spouse's household register page must show the marital status as married, not blank or unmarried.
5. Spouses: what Guangzhou adds
The national Measures ask a spouse for notarised proof of means of living and a notarised lease or property certificate. The Guangzhou family list makes that concrete:
- a bank certificate of a time deposit of RMB 200,000 for 12 months or more in your name, notarised by a notary office, marked as frozen ("冻结"); a deposit in someone else's name needs a notarised guarantee;
- proof of all property held by you and your spouse, or a lease of one year or more; the list attaches notarisation to the lease, and property in another relative's name needs notarisation too (the national Measures ask for the property or lease proof notarised);
- proof of income for you and your spouse, for example an income certificate or rental income;
- the birth certificates and identity documents of any children;
- CVs for you and your spouse from age 18, months continuous, signed by hand, listing children with names, dates of birth and identity or passport numbers.
The deposit certificate and the lease are notarised by a Chinese notary office; ask the office how it reads the 12 months before you freeze the money. Any of these documents that is in a foreign language, such as a child's foreign birth certificate or passport, or proof of property or income abroad, falls under the lists' rule that all foreign-language materials are translated, and a foreign marriage certificate also needs an apostille or legalisation (sections 3 and 4).
6. Fees, time, and where to go
- Fees, from the Guangzhou lists: application fee RMB 1,500 per person, card RMB 300 per person, replacement of a lost or damaged card RMB 600 per person. The national guide gives the same figures and RMB 300 for renewal on expiry.
- Time. The national guide says the public security organ decides within six months of accepting the application, and the Chinese and English versions both say the decision is final. The points page gives 180 days, and adds that time spent on investigation is not counted.
- In person. Every Guangzhou list says the applicant attends; for a child, the parents attend too (the investment and renewal lists say both parents). The national guide also allows an entrusted person with a notarised power of attorney, but the Guangzhou lists do not mention one; plan to go yourself.
- Where, from the Guangzhou lists: the Guangzhou Public Security Bureau exit-entry division, permanent residence hall, 4th floor, Exit-Entry Building, 155 Jiefang South Road, Yuexiu District; the Nansha exit-entry office, 2nd floor, Nansha International Talent Port, 167 Haibin Road, Nansha District; and Huangpu District exit-entry, Area A, 4th floor, 3 Xiangxue 3rd Road, which the lists mark as for enquiries only. The points page limits Nansha to people employed in the Nansha area of the free trade zone. The Guangzhou list of exit-entry offices gives +86 12367 for enquiries and, for the foreigners' exit-entry hall at 155 Jiefang South Road, weekdays 9:00–12:00 and 13:00–17:00, and Saturdays for urgent matters.
- Copies. Three sets: the form in original, other documents as A4 one-to-one copies, with the originals shown. Four photos in the permanent-residence format with the photo receipt.
7. After approval
The card is valid for ten years if you are 18 or older and five years if you are under 18. Keep the residence rule in mind: the lists say a permanent resident must spend at least three months in China in total each year. Someone who genuinely cannot needs approval from the public security department of the province where they live long-term, and must still spend at least one year in total in China in five years. Article 24 of the Measures lets the Ministry of Public Security cancel the status of someone who does not keep to this without approval, along with three other grounds.
On renewal, Guangzhou's renewal list says to apply within three months before the card expires, within one month after a change in its contents, and promptly if it is damaged or lost. Article 23 of the national Measures says within one month before expiry, and Article 22 gives the office up to a month after review to issue the new card. Do not leave renewal to the last weeks, especially if you will travel; ask the office when to apply.
8. What we do
We are a translation and interpreting company in Guangzhou. We do not apply for permanent residence and we do not judge whether you qualify; the exit-entry office and the National Immigration Administration decide that. What we can do is translate your foreign documents into Chinese: the passport, the marriage and birth certificates, the criminal record and health certificates, and the apostille or legalisation pages if the counter wants them.
Before you order, ask the counter which route it wants for your list, a notary office or a translation company, and tell us which list you are applying on and what the counter asked for. If the counter wants the notary-office route, ask it whether a translation notarised by a Chinese notary office, which we can arrange, meets it. Before we start, ask us what will be on the translation and check it against what the counter asked for. Our FAQ page prices certificates such as marriage and birth certificates per document, typically RMB 50–120 depending on language and complexity, plus RMB 30 per document for a certified translation with our company seal; notarised translation through a Chinese notary office typically adds 3–7 business days and RMB 150–400 per document. For other documents, and for apostille or legalisation pages, ask us for a quote. Prices exclude tax, plus 6% for a VAT special invoice or 3% for a general invoice. Give us the Chinese name you want on the card, and we use it in every translation.
Send the documents and tell us your appointment date: WhatsApp / 微信 +86 139 2416 6640 (WeChat ID: Saralee93), or our contact page.
Sources
- Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, exit-entry offices and guides (6 September 2026), with the permanent residence application lists (zip, folder dated 27 January 2026) and the list of exit-entry offices: page, Chinese
- Guangzhou Public Security Bureau, "Greater Bay Area six new policies, policy 2": permanent residence for foreign members of innovation teams and foreign technical personnel (11 July 2025): page, Chinese and official English
- Measures for the Administration of Examination and Approval of Foreigners' Permanent Residence in China (2004), Articles 5, 6, 14, 17, 22, 23 and 24: Chinese; official English, titled there "Regulations on Examination and Approval of Permanent Residence of Aliens in China"
- National Immigration Administration, service guide on approval of foreigners' permanent residence: Chinese, 11 September 2019; English, 27 March 2023
- National Immigration Administration, "How does the foreign spouse of a Chinese citizen apply for permanent residence?" (8 October 2015): page, Chinese
- HCCH, status table of the Apostille Convention, for India, Viet Nam and Thailand: hcch.net
- Our FAQ page, read on 29 October 2026: translationchina.com/m/en/faq/
