Since December 2024 there is no plastic work permit card in China: your permit now lives on an electronic social security card, and here is the full Shanghai process around it.
Working legally in Shanghai takes two permissions, not one, and since 1 December 2024 the first one is no longer a plastic card. Your employer applies for your Expat's Work Permit through the human resources bureau, and the approval now lands as an electronic social security card on your phone rather than a physical card in your hand. You then convert your Z visa into a work-type Residence Permit at the Public Security Bureau's Exit-Entry Administration within 30 days of arriving. The residence permit costs 400 RMB for up to one year, 800 RMB for one to three years, and 1,000 RMB for three to five years. Anyone employed here longer than three months needs both.
I have watched a lot of friends land in Shanghai clutching a Z visa and assume the hard part was over. It is not over. The Z visa is a single-entry ticket with a short fuse on it, and the clock starts the moment you clear immigration. What follows is the sequence as it actually runs, in the order you will live it.
What is the difference between a work permit and a residence permit?
The work permit is permission for a specific company to employ you. The residence permit is permission for you to live here. They are issued by two different authorities, they are applied for in that order, and having one without the other does not make you legal.
Your employer drives the work permit application. You drive the residence permit application, though a decent HR department will walk you through the door and hand over the company paperwork. If your employer tells you a Z visa alone is enough, that is a warning sign about the employer, not about the rules.
Where is my physical work permit card?
There is not one. Since 1 December 2024, China stopped issuing the plastic Expat's Work Permit card to new applicants and folded the permit information into the social security card instead, both the physical card and the electronic version you carry in an app. Applications, extensions, changes and cancellations are all handled online now.
This catches people out at the counter, so it is worth being precise about which document you are actually holding at each stage:
- Notification Letter of Expat's Work Permit (工作许可通知): issued before you travel, and what you take to the embassy to get the Z visa. You download it rather than collect it.
- Electronic social security card with work permit information: what replaces the old plastic permit card once you are in China. You register for it yourself after you arrive.
- Physical social security card: issued by the social security authority once your number is assigned. Useful at hospitals and pharmacies, and it carries the same permit information.
How do I register for the electronic social security card?
Download the electronic social security card app (电子社保卡), choose the login portal for expats holding a work permit, and register with your full name exactly as it appears in your passport plus your work permit number, which is printed on the Notification Letter. You set a password of 8 to 16 characters using at least two of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers or symbols, then complete facial recognition. Once you are through, the card gives you permit information lookups and downloads and a QR code that officials can scan.
The one that trips people is the name field. It has to match the passport, including middle names and the order they are printed in, or the match against your permit record fails and you are left staring at an error with no explanation.
What if I already have the old plastic card?
It stays valid. The rule is no change, no replacement: your existing card runs until you renew or amend the permit, and at that point you move onto the integrated system. If you would rather not wait, you can apply for the electronic card voluntarily through the application portal before your renewal comes round. Either way, do not throw the plastic card away while it is still current.
Because the permit now lives on the social security card, the social insurance side of your file and your right to work are tied together more tightly than they used to be. What actually comes out of your salary, and what you can claim back when you leave, is covered in our guide to social insurance for expats in Shanghai.
Which work permit category will I get: A, B or C?
China sorts foreign workers into three tiers under a points system that weighs salary, education, work experience, age, Chinese language ability and where you will be based.
- Category A covers high-level talent: senior specialists, people meeting salary and qualification thresholds well above the local average, and those on national talent programmes. This tier gets the loosest treatment and the longest permits.
- Category B covers professional workers, which is where most people reading this will land. Think a degree plus two years of relevant experience, in a role a company can justify hiring an expat for.
- Category C covers roles filled against quota, including seasonal and non-technical work. Shanghai also runs a specific route here for foreign graduates of Chinese universities.
You do not pick your category. The system scores your file and assigns it. What you can influence is how clean your evidence is: notarised and authenticated degree certificates, dated reference letters on letterhead with contactable signatories, and a criminal record check that has been through the full legalisation chain in your home country. Ninety percent of the delays I have seen came from one weak document in that stack, not from the application itself.
How long does the work permit take in 2026?
The published maximum for work permit review is 15 working days, with social security registration allowed up to 10 working days. In practice Shanghai runs faster than the ceiling, and straightforward Category B files are often decided in under a week.
The reason is the same integration that killed the plastic card: the work permit, residence registration and social security enrolment have been pulled into a single online submission with parallel review, rather than three agencies queued one behind the other. If your HR team last did this in 2023, tell them the process has changed, and tell them there is no card to collect at the end of it. They will otherwise budget three weeks and a courier trip for something that no longer needs either.
How do I convert my Z visa into a residence permit?
You have 30 days from your date of entry. Miss it and you are into overstay territory, which is an expensive and genuinely unpleasant conversation.
Before you can file, two things must already be done. Your temporary residence registration has to be lodged with your local police station, which is a separate obligation with its own 24-hour deadline and its own way of going wrong. We wrote that one up in full in our guide to temporary residence registration in Shanghai. You also need a health certificate issued by a domestic entry-exit inspection and quarantine department within the past six months, which means the work permit health check, blood draw, chest X-ray, ECG and all.
What to bring to the Exit-Entry Administration
- Your passport, original.
- A copy of your temporary residence registration slip.
- Proof of your work permit. If you were issued the old plastic Expat's Work Permit, bring the original. If you came in under the integrated system, bring the Notification Letter of Expat's Work Permit or your electronic social security card with the permit information on it, which the officer can scan.
- Three passport-style photos, 3.3cm by 4.5cm, white background, taken within the past six months.
- A copy of your employer's business licence.
- A copy of the organisation code certificate.
- An application letter from your employer, stamped with the company seal.
- A power of attorney from your employer, stamped with the company seal.
- The completed Visa and Residence Permit Application Form for Expats.
Two seals, three photos, and one document that may or may not exist in plastic depending on when you applied. The photo size trips people up more than anything else on this list, because a standard passport photo from a machine at home is often the wrong dimensions. Get them taken here. Charge your phone before you go too, because if your permit lives in the app, a dead battery is a wasted morning.
How much does the residence permit cost and how long is it valid?
The government fee is set by validity, not by nationality or category:
- Up to one year: 400 RMB
- One to three years: 800 RMB
- Three to five years: 1,000 RMB
Processing commonly runs about seven working days in Shanghai. Your passport stays with the bureau while they work, so do not book travel across that window, and do not plan on opening a bank account or signing a lease in those days either, because both want the physical passport in front of them. If you are still setting up, our guide to opening a Chinese bank account explains what the counter will ask for.
Which validity should you push for?
If you are on a first contract with a company you have not worked for before, take the one-year permit and do not fight it; the renewal is easier than the first application. If you are Category A or renewing with a stable employer, ask HR to apply for the longer term. The 800 RMB two-year permit works out cheaper than two 400 RMB annual ones once you count the health check and the photos again. If your employer is paying either way, take the longest term you qualify for, because the real cost is the days you spend without your passport.
Which route applies to you
If you are arriving in Shanghai for the first time now, you will never hold a plastic work permit card; register for the electronic social security card as soon as you land and treat the Notification Letter as your proof until you do. If you already hold a plastic card that has not expired, carry on using it and switch at your next renewal. If you are renewing or changing employer this year, expect the integrated process and tell HR not to budget for a card collection. If your card is still current but you want everything in one place before a hospital visit or a bank appointment, apply for the electronic card voluntarily rather than waiting.
Renewals: start 30 days early
Extensions are generally handled 30 to 90 days before expiry, and the work permit renewal has to clear before the residence permit renewal can start. Stacked end to end, that is why HR departments that begin a month out end up scrambling. Set a calendar reminder for 90 days before your expiry date on the day you collect the permit. It is the single most useful thing in this article.
One detail people miss: if you change employers, your residence permit does not travel with you. The old one is cancelled and a new work permit and residence permit are applied for from the beginning. Do not resign until the new employer has confirmed in writing that they can sponsor you.
Where to ask when something goes wrong
The Exit-Entry Administration of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau runs a service line on 021-12367, and it is worth calling before you queue rather than after. Much of the routine status checking and appointment booking now sits inside Shanghai's government super app, which we covered in our Suishenban guide. Having it set up before your appointment saves a trip.
Sun Tzu wrote 知己知彼，百战不殆, know yourself and know the other, and you are never in danger. Paperwork rewards the same calm: learn how the system thinks, and its changes stop feeling like ambushes.
Common questions
Can I start working while my work permit is still processing?
No. Employment before the permit is issued is unauthorised work, and the penalty falls on both you and the company. If an employer asks you to start early and sort the paperwork later, treat that as information about how they will handle everything else.
Do I need a work permit if I am here for less than three months?
Expats employed in Shanghai for more than three months must hold a work permit and residence permit. Shorter assignments run on different visa categories with their own rules, so confirm the specific route with your employer rather than assuming a business visa covers it.
Does my spouse get a residence permit too?
Accompanying family members apply for their own residence permits on the basis of your status, using your permit and proof of relationship such as a marriage or birth certificate, both usually needing notarisation and legalisation. Their permit is tied to yours and expires with it.
What happens if my passport expires before my residence permit?
You renew the passport first at your consulate, then take both the old and new passports to the Exit-Entry Administration to have the permit transferred. The permit does not automatically carry over, and travelling without doing this causes problems at the border.
Do I still get a plastic work permit card in 2026?
No, not if you are applying now. Since 1 December 2024 the permit information is embedded in your social security card instead, and there is no separate plastic permit card to collect. Cards issued before that change stay valid until you renew or amend the permit.
What do I show if someone asks to see my work permit?
Open the electronic social security card app and show the permit information or the QR code, which officials can scan to verify your details against the central system. Before you have registered the card, the Notification Letter of Expat's Work Permit does the same job.
Can I hold a work permit and do freelance work on the side?
Your work permit authorises you to work for the sponsoring employer named on it. Paid work outside that arrangement is not covered by it. If you want to work across more than one entity, that needs to be structured properly rather than assumed.
