Can a Foreign Child Get a Place at a Guangzhou Public School? The City's 19-Line Policy-Care List, the Documents and Notarised Translations Districts Ask For, and Children Not on the List

Checked on 10 November 2026. We are an interpreting and translation company in Guangzhou (Guangzhou GuanRi Translation Service Co., Ltd.). We are not a school, not an education bureau, not a school-placement agency and not a law firm. The service this article ends up recommending, translating documents and arranging notarised translations, is one we sell ourselves. This is not legal advice. Whether a child gets a public-school place is decided by the district education bureau. This article uses none of our company's data.

This article is for parents in Guangzhou whose child holds a foreign passport and who want to know whether the child can get a place in a public primary school or a public junior secondary school. It covers Guangzhou's list of nineteen kinds of "policy-care students" (政策性照顾学生) in the city's 2026 admission guidance, which of its lines can describe a foreign family, the documents several districts print against each line, the note in several district versions of the list about notarised translations, how the 2026 dates ran, what the texts offer a child who is not on the list, and the national rule behind all of it. It does not cover how international or other private schools admit pupils, beyond pointing to them as routes in section 6; it does not cover kindergartens or senior high school; and for children who hold Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan documents it only points to their separate routes. Translations of the Chinese texts quoted below are ours.

1. Which line describes you

2. The list, and what being on it gets you

The city's guidance is the "Guangzhou Guidance on Admissions to Compulsory Education Schools" (广州市义务教育学校招生工作指导意见), dated 31 March 2026 and published by the Guangzhou Education Bureau on 22 April 2026 as Sui Jiao Gui Zi [2026] No. 2. The notice describes it as a revision of the 2021 guidance (Sui Jiao Gui Zi [2021] No. 3) that does not change its substance; it runs for five years from issue (the page gives 22 April 2031 as the expiry date), and its item (30) repeals a 2018 guidance and a 2020 notice. Attachment 2 is the list of policy-care students: nineteen lines in four groups (families of martyrs, servicemen and similar; special trades; talent; and groups from outside the mainland). Note 1 under the list, one sentence (translation ours):

Policy-care students are school-age children and adolescents without a Guangzhou household registration who meet the conditions above; policy-care students who have been checked and publicly posted by the education administration of the district where they live are placed by that district's education administration in a public school (including places the government buys in private schools), under the principle of exam-free admission to a nearby school.

Item (19) of the guidance, second of its four sentences (translation ours):

The education administrations of the districts must not arbitrarily widen the scope and conditions of policy-care students.

So a district may not arbitrarily add a line for, say, children of foreign employees of large companies. The list has two more notes: note 2 says other special cases are decided by education administrations at district level or above according to the relevant policies, without saying what those cases are, and note 3 says the city will issue a supplementary notice if the categories change. Panyu's 2026 rules also speak of students who meet "the policy-care conditions of Guangzhou and of Panyu district". Liwan's 2026 plan says nearby admission "means relatively nearby", and Liwan, Haizhu and Tianhe say the district allocates the place. What a line means in practice is a different question, and the list leaves several of the foreign lines undefined (section 3).

The list covers compulsory education only, that is primary school and junior secondary school.

3. The lines that can describe a foreign family, and the documents

The city's list has no documents column. The versions that Liwan, Baiyun and Haizhu attach to their 2026 rules add one, and in all three one cell of that column runs down all nineteen lines: the child's own household register, the guardian's household register (a guardian who is not a direct relative also needs proof of the entrustment; Liwan and Baiyun give a notarial certificate as an example, Haizhu asks for a notarial certificate) and proof of the actual residence. Tianhe's list has the column too, but puts the same requirement in its note 1 and gives a property certificate or a registered lease that is still valid as examples. The documents line by line below come on top of that. None of these lists says what a family without a Chinese household register shows instead; ask the district.

Lines that name foreign nationals or foreign documents outright:

• Line 9, "school-age children of PhDs, postdoctoral researchers and foreign experts introduced according to regulations". Neither the list nor the guidance says what "introduced according to regulations" means or which document proves it. The 2026 lists of Liwan and Baiyun districts print, against this line, "the guardian's work ID, the relevant introduction documents you have and other supporting materials, a foreign expert certificate, the relevant diplomas or a valid labour contract, etc.". Whether a Foreigner's Work Permit is read as a "foreign expert certificate" is not written in any of the texts quoted here.
• Line 16, "accompanying children of foreign nationals holding a Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card (including a minor who holds the card)". Liwan, Baiyun, Haizhu and Tianhe print "the Foreign Permanent Resident ID Card, the child's birth certificate, etc.". By our reading this is the clearest foreign line on the list. If you are still applying for permanent residence, our article on Guangzhou's permanent residence checklists covers what goes in.
• Line 19, "school-age children of diplomatic staff such as those of consulates in Guangzhou". Liwan and Baiyun print "the guardian's work ID, diplomatic passport, other relevant certificates you have, or a letter from the city government's foreign affairs office, etc.".

Lines whose card or certificate is issued under other rules, which the list does not explain:

• Line 11, "children of high-level talent (including overseas)". Liwan and Baiyun ask for the Guangzhou High-level Talent Certificate (广州市高层次人才证书) and letters already issued by the provincial or city human resources departments or the city Party committee's organisation department, or documents from the competent department, etc.
• Line 12, "minor children of holders of the Yue Talent Card (优粤卡)". The card.
• Line 13, "accompanying children of holders of the Guangzhou Talent Green Card". The card.

And one line whose key term the list does not define:

• Line 15, "children of overseas Chinese" (海外华侨华人子女). Liwan and Baiyun print "the guardian's passport, identity documents, permanent residence card of the country concerned, and other materials you have showing overseas Chinese status (such as a Chinese household register or the guardian's birth certificate), etc."; Haizhu's version makes the permanent residence card and the other materials alternatives and adds the child's birth certificate. The list does not say whether 华人 here includes a parent who holds a foreign nationality, and the documents do not settle it: a permanent residence card of the country concerned and a Chinese household register fit a Chinese citizen living abroad, while a passport and the guardian's birth certificate do not presuppose Chinese citizenship. The district decides.

Liwan's and Baiyun's columns end most entries with "etc." (等). The district can ask for more, and so can the school checking papers: Baiyun's 2026 guide, on the document check for Guangzhou-registered children at public primary schools, says that "if other supporting materials need to be provided during the check, parents are asked to support and cooperate". Liwan's, Haizhu's and Tianhe's lists add a note that if an applicant falsifies anything, the application is cancelled once it is discovered and responsibility is pursued according to law, and the city's registration guide says parents are responsible for the truth of what they submit. If you are not sure a line covers you, ask the district before you apply under it.

4. "All supporting documents in a foreign language must be accompanied by a notarised Chinese translation"

Liwan district's 2026 plan for public primary first grade (published 28 April 2026) attaches the list with a documents column and four notes. Note 1, one sentence (translation ours):

All supporting documents in a foreign language must be accompanied by a notarised Chinese translation.

The same requirement is note 3 of the list that Haizhu's 2026 rules reproduce as images at the end of the page, note 2 of the list attached to Tianhe's 2026 rules, and note 4 of an annotated version of the list that Yuexiu district put online in 2025 (the PDF was created on 27 April 2025). Baiyun's 2026 list prints a near-identical documents column, but its three notes do not mention translation; Yuexiu's 2026 rules print the list without a documents column, with three notes, none about translation. None of this means that Baiyun or Yuexiu accept untranslated foreign papers; their texts are silent on it. Ask your district in what form it wants a foreign birth certificate.

A "notarised Chinese translation" (中文翻译公证) is a translation that a notary office has notarised; a translation stamped only by a translation company is not the same thing. For line 16, the documents column names the child's birth certificate, the paper that ties the child to the parent holding the permanent residence card; if it was issued abroad in a foreign language, these notes cover it. For line 9, it can be diplomas, a labour contract or introduction documents in a foreign language. Ask the notary office what it needs to see besides the original before you start.

What the texts quoted here do not mention: an apostille or consular legalisation of the foreign birth certificate. If a notary office or a district asks for one, our article on apostilles and consular legalisation explains which route a document from your country takes.

The vaccination check at school entry is a separate step with its own paperwork; see our article on foreign vaccination records for school enrolment.

5. How the 2026 dates ran, and what is known about 2027

Attachment 4 of the city guidance is a schedule with no year printed on it; its note says changes will be announced separately. For 2026 the Guangzhou Education Bureau published a separate schedule on 10 April 2026, as one image. The primary-school rows:

The guidance's own undated schedule had the district deadline on 30 April, the document check on 22-24 May and registration on 26 June, so it is a baseline, not the year's dates.

The city's online registration guide for 2026 says that children with a Guangzhou household registration who turned six by 31 August 2026 could register through the "public primary registration" entry of the city's platform, and that "children without a household registration in this city register according to the admission policies published by the education administration of each district". Liwan's 2026 plan, item (9), shows what that meant for a policy-care child there: the parents had to show proof of where they actually live in Liwan (a property certificate or full purchase invoice and purchase agreement, or, if they own no home in Guangzhou, a lease recognised by the housing department for a lawful residential property in Liwan that is their only home, with its registration), and "on 18 May submit materials and register at the service-area school for the actual place of residence"; those found eligible on review were allocated a place by the district education bureau. Haizhu's 2026 rules send policy-care children "directly to the matching primary school for the actual place of residence" with their materials, following the schedule. Baiyun's guide says the education guidance centre for the place of residence arranges a public school. Yuexiu's say policy-care children are handled by reference to Yuexiu's rules on allocating places to children with a Yuexiu household registration. Panyu's say the education guidance centre takes the application materials and the district education administration reviews them. Tianhe's rules were published as a scanned document, so what follows is our transcription: Tianhe defines a policy-care student as a child without a Guangzhou household registration who meets the list, "can provide valid supporting materials" and actually lives in Tianhe; such children "do not need to register online"; in 2026 they handed in supporting documents at the catchment primary school for their actual place of residence on 16-18 May, and those approved and publicly posted without objection received admission notices from the school on 17 June.

For September 2027 none of this has been published yet. What can be done in November is the paperwork that takes time: a foreign birth certificate and any other document that has to come from abroad, and, if you rent, the registration of your lease. A notarised translation can follow once your district says it wants one: in 2026 Liwan published its plan on 28 April and took papers on 18 May.

6. If your child is not on the list

The guidance's item (27), first of its three sentences, sets the city's route for children of people who came to Guangzhou to live and work (translation ours):

Each district shall, taking the residence certificate as the main basis and the points system as the main method, actively and steadily do the work of providing compulsory education to the accompanying children of people who came to Guangzhou, ensuring that the goal of "management mainly by the government of the place of arrival, and mainly in full-time public primary and secondary schools" is met in arranging schooling for accompanying children.

The residence certificate (居住证; in Guangdong, the Guangdong Residence Certificate) is a different document from the residence permit (居留证件) that foreign nationals hold. None of the texts quoted here says whether a foreign child can take part in points-based admission, and Liwan's plan sends that route to its own points rules, which this article does not cover. Ask your district.

Two districts name one more route. Baiyun's 2026 guide, after policy care, Hong Kong and Macao children and points admission, lists "other children without a Guangzhou household registration who meet the district's conditions for guaranteed admission", to be handled under the relevant guaranteed-admission documents; Yuexiu's let children of people who came to Guangzhou apply for a public first-grade place if they meet the conditions for guaranteed admission or for points admission. Neither text spells out those conditions, and this article has not read the documents behind them. Ask your district whether its guaranteed-admission conditions can cover your child.

Private schools are another route. In Haizhu's 2026 plan for private schools, a child without a Guangzhou household registration belongs to Haizhu if the Guangdong Residence Certificate of the child or of a parent (or other legal guardian) shows a Haizhu address, "or other valid documents with the same function and effect" do. Whether a foreign residence permit is accepted as such a document is for the district and the school.

Tianhe's 2026 rules are more direct (our transcription of the scanned document). For a child without a Guangzhou household registration who meets neither the policy-care conditions nor Tianhe's own points-admission conditions, they say that, "because public school places are tight", the parents are advised to enter the child's details in the private primary module of the city's registration system on 11-15 May 2026 and to choose one or two parallel preferences on 30 May-4 June; the part on allocating places says such children "apply for private school places".

The fourth route is a school for foreign nationals' children. The Guangzhou Education Bureau's list of such schools, published on 17 March 2025, names seventeen schools for foreign nationals' children and three schools for Hong Kong and Macao children, twenty in all, with their English names (for example the American International School of Guangzhou, the British School of Guangzhou, Utahloy International School Guangzhou and the Japanese School of Guangzhou). Their admissions are their own, and outside this article.

One more city text touches foreign pupils. Guangzhou's plan for "education internationalisation window schools" (Sui Jiao Fa [2021] No. 28, dated 31 May 2021, posted in the bureau's catalogue on 7 January 2025) scores schools that apply for the title, and item C19 gives 3 points for "the capacity to take in students from overseas, with relevant rules and working arrangements for admitting the children of people from overseas, and distinctive school-based courses for foreign students". It is a scoring item for a title, not an admission rule: a child's place at any public school, including a public school that holds the window-school title, still comes through the district.

7. A child who arrives in the middle of the year, or joins a higher grade

Haizhu's 2026 rules have a transfer clause for pupils with a Haizhu household registration "(including students who meet Guangzhou's conditions for policy-care admission)" who need to transfer back to a public primary school in Haizhu because the family moved its household registration, newly registered a household, came back from abroad to study, or similar: the legal guardian "may, in the week before the semester ends or within 10 working days after the new semester starts, submit the transfer application materials to the matching primary school for the place of household registration". It does not say which school a policy-care child without a household registration goes to; ask Haizhu's education bureau.

Panyu's implementing opinions on admissions (Fan Jiao Gui Zi [2026] No. 1, issued 28 April 2026, in force for five years), item (11), say: "Apart from policy-care students, public compulsory education schools in principle do not accept students without a Panyu household registration who transfer in mid-course to join a class." Panyu's transfer rules, attachment 3 of the same document, let pupils "with a Panyu household registration (including Guangzhou policy-care students)" who have valid proof of living in Panyu, a normal student registration and a school outside the school district of their household registration apply to transfer into a public school in that district, and they list among the papers a national student registration form issued by the pupil's current school. Applications are generally made in the week before a semester ends; in principle there are no transfers into the first semester of the first grade of primary or junior secondary, into the second semester of the final grade, or in the middle of a semester. For pupils with a Panyu household registration who have been at a school for foreign nationals' children, a Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan school or a school abroad, the rules ask for proof of that schooling and have the receiving school, once it has agreed to take the pupil, test the pupil and settle the grade with the parents; the same paragraph says schools in principle may not privately admit a pupil without a national student registration. The rules do not say whether that paragraph covers policy-care pupils. So, by our reading, in Panyu a foreign child who is not on the list and would join an existing class is in principle not taken by a public school, and a child on the list who has never been at a school in China should ask the district, before arriving, whether the route for pupils from schools abroad applies and what it accepts instead of a registration form. We read the transfer rules of Haizhu and Panyu only. If your child is arriving for the spring semester, the week before the winter break is Panyu's application week and the earlier of Haizhu's two windows for primary pupils, so ask now.

8. The national rule behind this, and an old text that is still online

The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security issued the Measures for the Admission and Training of International Students by Schools (学校招收和培养国际学生管理办法, Ministry of Education Order No. 42) on 20 March 2017, in force on 1 July 2017. An "international student" in it is a student without Chinese nationality at a school in China, from preschool to university. Article 2, paragraph 3, two sentences (translation ours):

Chapters 2 to 5 of these Measures apply to higher education institutions. Schools providing preschool, primary and secondary education handle the admission, teaching and on-campus management of international students according to the rules of the province, autonomous region or municipality directly under the central government.

Article 47 tells the provinces to make those rules. We searched the titles in the Guangdong Department of Education's government information catalogue (5,905 entries from June 2014 to November 2026) and did not find a provincial rule on primary and secondary schools admitting international students; the same search finds the department's approvals of schools for foreign nationals' children, so it does catch this subject. In the Guangzhou Education Bureau's catalogue (the most recent 2,500 entries, back to October 2023), the titles about foreign nationals' children are lists of schools for them and a news item about a new one, and the 2021 window-schools plan (section 6) touches foreign pupils in one scoring item; none of them is an admission rule for foreign pupils in public schools.

Article 48 repealed two earlier texts, one of them the Ministry of Education's 1999 Interim Measures on Primary and Secondary Schools Accepting Foreign Students, which had required a school to obtain a qualification before accepting foreign pupils. The Ministry's website still serves the 1999 text, with no note on the page that it was repealed. A guide that cites the 1999 qualification requirement is citing a text that Order No. 42 repealed; whether a district or a school applies any requirement of its own is for them to say.

Chapter 6 of Order No. 42 is not limited to universities. Articles 37 and 38 are in the table in section 1. Article 35 says a foreign national applying to study at any school covered by the Measures shall apply before entry for an X1 or X2 visa; Article 36 says an international student whose study visa requires a residence permit shall apply for a study residence permit within 30 days of entry; Article 39 says international students shall, on admission, have their foreigner's physical examination record confirmed, or have a medical check, at a health quarantine department; Article 40 says schools run a system under which every international student is insured: an international student must take out insurance as national rules and the school require, and the school does not admit one who has not done so by the deadline given. The Measures do not say how these apply to a young child who lives in Guangzhou with a parent on a work or family residence permit, or who will come to join one (see our article on family residence permits in Guangzhou). If the child is not yet in China, ask the National Immigration Administration's 12367 service hotline which visa the child should enter on before you apply for it (the administration says calls to 12367 from abroad are put through to its immigration service centre, with Mandarin, Cantonese and English as language options); for the school's own requirements, ask the school.

9. What we do, and what we do not do

We translate documents into Chinese, and our FAQ page says we coordinate with Chinese notary offices to notarise translations of birth certificates, marriage certificates, diplomas and similar documents, which typically adds 3-7 business days and RMB 150-400 per document. Certificates are charged per document, typically RMB 50-120, quotes are free, and an invoice adds 6% for a VAT special invoice or 3% for a general invoice. For a foreign birth certificate, our certificate page sells the stamped translation, priced by the language of the original. If your district asks for a notarised translation, as the 2026 lists of Liwan, Haizhu and Tianhe do, send us the certificate and your district's requirement instead and ask for a quote for the notarised translation. Before you order anything, ask your district which form it wants and ask the notary office what it needs to see, so that you pay once. Whether the district accepts a document, and whether your child is placed, is the district's decision.

We do not place children in schools, apply on your behalf, or advise on residence or nationality law.

Send us the documents and the date you need them by: WhatsApp / 微信 +86 139 2416 6640 (WeChat ID: Saralee93), or our contact page. Prices are on our FAQ page.

Sources

• Guangzhou Education Bureau, notice issuing the revised Guangzhou Guidance on Admissions to Compulsory Education Schools (Sui Jiao Gui Zi [2026] No. 2), dated 31 March 2026, published 22 April 2026, with attachment 2, the list of policy-care students and attachment 4, the schedule.
• Guangzhou Education Bureau, 2026 admission schedule for compulsory education schools, 10 April 2026 (one image), and 2026 online registration guide for public primary schools, 28 April 2026.
• Liwan District Education Bureau, 2026 plan for public primary first-grade admissions, 28 April 2026, with attachment 3, the list with its documents column.
• Baiyun District Education Bureau, 2026 admission guide, with attachment 3, the list with its documents column.
• Haizhu District Education Bureau, 2026 admission rules, with the list, its documents column and its notes as images at the end of the page.
• Panyu District Education Bureau, 2026 implementing opinions on admissions (Fan Jiao Gui Zi [2026] No. 1), issued 28 April 2026, PDF, as posted on the city's admission platform.
• Tianhe District Education Bureau, notice issuing the 2026 admission rules (Sui Tian Jiao [2026] No. 2), with the rules as a scanned PDF; we read the rules' printed pages 1 and 3-8 and the attached list on pages 23-24 of the PDF.
• Yuexiu District Education Bureau, 2026 admission rules, and the 2025 annotated list.
• Guangzhou Education Bureau, list of schools for foreign nationals' children and for Hong Kong and Macao children, 17 March 2025, and plan for education internationalisation window schools (Sui Jiao Fa [2021] No. 28), dated 31 May 2021, posted 7 January 2025.
• Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Public Security, Measures for the Admission and Training of International Students by Schools (Order No. 42), 20 March 2017, in force 1 July 2017; and the 1999 Interim Measures it repealed, as still served on the Ministry's website.
• National Immigration Administration, questions and answers on the 12367 service platform, 8 April 2021.