Reviewing a China job offer

A China offer can be perfectly genuine and still leave you exposed, because two separate systems are running at once. One is the employment relationship: your contract, probation, pay, and social insurance. The other is immigration: your right to work in China at all. They overlap, but they are not the same, and clearing one tells you nothing certain about the other. A third thread runs alongside them — the labour administration that supervises the contract and the social insurance agency that registers you — and it is worth keeping in view, because it is where a defect in the first track gets corrected.

So the useful move is to review the offer on each track before you sign, and to be clear about which track each question belongs to.

The tradeoff you have to accept

You cannot fully verify a China offer from outside China. Some of the most important facts — whether a work permit will actually be issued, whether a specific employer is eligible to hire foreign professional talent, what your local embassy or consulate will require — are settled by official channels, not by the employer's assurances and not by any guide. That means accepting a period of genuine uncertainty between signing and arriving. You can reduce it, but you cannot delete it. Treat anything the employer says about immigration outcomes as a claim to be checked, not a guarantee.

Track one: the employment contract

The Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China is published in English by Supreme People's Court. As translated there, Article 81 states that where "the requisite terms provided for by this Law are not clearly stated in the text of a labor contract provided by an employing unit or an employing unit fails to deliver a copy of the labor contract to the worker, the administrative department of labor shall order it to rectify." Read that carefully: the remedy described is an order to fix the contract, enforced through the labor administration — not something you secure by negotiating alone from abroad.

What this source does not prove: it describes what the law says about missing or unclear required terms and about delivering a copy. It does not tell you what your particular employer will put in your particular contract, and it is not a substitute for advice on your own situation.

The Chinese text of the same law, published on China's official legislative database, sets out in Article 17 exactly which terms are required, and the list is more useful than the general principle. It includes the term of the contract, the content of work and the work location, working hours and rest and leave, labour remuneration, social insurance, and labour protection and working conditions. Among these, the work location belongs in the list — so if the place you will actually work matters to you (and it almost always does), confirm that the contract names the real place of work and not a registered office or "head office." If you read Chinese poorly, ask for a complete translation and compare it against the Chinese text clause by clause. A summary is not a contract; the required clauses are the thing itself.

Practical checks on the written contract:

1. Get the full contract text before you sign, in a language you can actually read.
2. Confirm the required terms are actually stated, not left blank or "to be discussed." Article 81 exists precisely because unclear or missing terms are a known failure mode.
3. Make sure you receive your own copy. The same article treats failure to deliver a copy as a defect.
4. Check that the work location is named, and that the employer named in the contract is the entity you believe you are joining.
5. Note what happens on termination, and what notice each side owes.

Track two: probation

Probation is a stage where an offer can go quietly wrong, because it is sometimes framed as a trial period in which the normal rules supposedly do not apply. Under China's rules they do apply, and probation is bounded by law in three ways that are worth checking separately.

First, the length. The Labor Contract Law scales the maximum probation to the contract term: one month for a contract of at least three months but under one year; two months for one to three years; six months for a fixed-term contract of three years or more or an open-ended one; and none at all for a contract under three months or defined by completing a task. Only one probation period may be agreed between the same employer and employee. So the right question is not "is there a probation" but "your contract term corresponds to which cap, and what length are we agreeing."

Second, the money. Article 20 provides that probation pay may not be below 80% of the lowest wage for the same post or 80% of the contract wage, and not below the local minimum wage. Get the probation salary as a number in the contract, not a percentage you have to compute.

Third, social insurance during probation. This is where a specific and common misunderstanding sits. Shanghai's official international services portal is direct: "Employers must apply for social insurance registration for employees within 30 days of employment," and "even during probation, social insurance contributions cannot be waived, even by mutual agreement between employer and employee." That 30-day rule is not only a Shanghai practice — it is the national rule in Article 58 of the Social Insurance Law. The Shanghai portal adds that "Social insurance is a mandatory policy implemented by the state to provide life and medical security for employees," and that "Failure to pay social insurance during the probationary period infringes on the employee's rights and may result in legal consequences for the employer."

What these sources do not prove: the Shanghai guidance describes the rules as they apply there and illustrates how the national framework is applied, but it is not a prediction about your employer's behaviour or a statement about every city's enforcement. Whether the same practice applies where you will work is something to confirm with the local authority.

Checks on probation:

6. Confirm the probation length and the pay during probation are written into the contract, and that the length is within the cap for your contract term.
7. Ask directly whether social insurance contributions begin during probation. On the national rule and the Shanghai illustration the answer should be yes — but confirm what applies where you will work.
8. Ask when registration is filed. The national rule sets a 30-day window from employment; ask what the applicable window is for your work location.
9. Do not sign any side agreement waiving social insurance. Under the rules above such a waiver would not be valid, and any request to sign one is a red flag to be resolved, not accommodated.

Track three: the right to work

This is the immigration track, and it is where employer promises are least reliable as evidence.

The national framework classifies foreign workers and, for "foreign professional talents" (Category B), describes them as "those who meet the requirements in the Catalogue of Guidance for Foreigners Working in China for certain jobs, and who are needed for China's economic and social development." That is a category description, and it does not by itself tell you whether you qualify. Whether you fall into a qualifying category is a determination made through the official process, not something your employer can simply assert.

That same source describes one common transition: "(2) Change of employer: foreigners working in China, holding a valid residence permit for work and intending to change an employer without changing the profession." Note the conditions attached — a valid work residence permit, and no change of profession. This is not a general permission to switch jobs freely.

On timing, the same source describes the review stages: after an online preliminary review of "5 working days," the "Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality shall further review the application materials within 7 working days after accepting the application (the date of acceptance is not counted)." That is one review stage in one jurisdiction, not a total processing time and not a promise about your case.

Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, publishes instructions for work and residence permit applications. Two lines matter for planning. First: "Application documents for WORK VISA (Z visa) varies among different countries, you need to check with local Embassy or Consulate for detailed requirements." Second, on the back end: "Return WORK PERMIT to International Office and Provide RESIDENCE PERMIT copies."

What these sources do not prove: none of them tells you that your permit will be approved, how long your whole process will take, or what your specific consulate will ask for. They describe categories, stages, and one institution's internal instructions. Confirm every requirement with the relevant official channel.

Checks on the right to work:

10. Ask which entity files the work permit application, and get it in writing.
11. Ask your local embassy or consulate what documents the Z visa requires for your nationality. The HITSZ instruction is explicit that this varies by country — so the employer cannot answer it for you, and only the consulate can confirm it.
12. Do not book flights, give notice at your current job, or surrender your lease on the strength of a verbal assurance that the permit is "basically approved."
13. Keep copies of every permit and residence document. The HITSZ instruction requires returning the work permit and providing residence permit copies, which tells you these documents are tracked and must be accounted for.

What this method cannot settle

Everything above is a review method, not a verification. You cannot confirm from outside China that a permit will issue, that a contract clause will be honoured, or that social insurance will actually be filed. Those are settled by the labor administration, the science and technology commission handling the permit, and your own consulate. Where the stakes are high, get advice on your specific contract and your specific immigration position from someone qualified to give it, and verify the regulated details — required contract terms, social insurance registration, work-permit eligibility, and Z-visa documents — with the official channels that actually decide them. This article is educational and is not legal or immigration advice.

The takeaway

Run the tracks separately and in writing. Employment track: full contract text you can read, required terms stated including the work location, your own copy, probation terms explicit and within the legal cap, social insurance from the start with no waiver. Immigration track: named filing entity, consulate requirements confirmed by the consulate, and no irreversible life decisions until the permit is in hand. If an employer resists putting any of this in writing, that resistance is itself the most useful piece of information you will get.