China Work Visa for Vietnamese Citizens: Z Visa Guide

Have a job offer in China and wondering where to start? For Vietnamese citizens moving into ordinary, long-term employment, the usual route is: the Chinese employer obtains work approval, you apply for a Z visa in Vietnam, and you complete the work-related residence formalities after arriving in China.

The first useful step is to ask HR for two checklists: the documents it needs for your work permit application, and the documents you need for the visa centre. Your degree and criminal record certificate usually belong to the employer’s work permit file; they are not automatically separate requirements at the visa counter.

This guide covers applications made in Vietnam before taking up a long-term job in mainland China. Short assignments, commercial performances and applicants already holding Chinese residence documents can follow different procedures.

Start with the employer, job and work permit notification

Before paying for translations or medical tests, send HR a scan of your passport and tell them where you plan to apply. Confirm the employing company’s legal name, your job title, the city where you will work and who is handling the work permit submission.

Ask HR to check your eligibility for the actual position. A job offer needs to be supported by the appropriate Chinese work approval. Our guide to hiring employees in China explains the employer’s broader responsibilities.

For the usual overseas employment route, the key visa supporting document is the Notification Letter of Foreigner’s Work Permit in the People’s Republic of China, often called the work permit notification. It is listed in the Hanoi centre’s Z visa checklist.

When HR sends it, check your name, passport number, employer and intended application location against the application record. Use the name and order shown in your passport when completing forms. If your Vietnamese certificates show a different spelling, name order or an earlier name, flag that before the file is submitted.

Prepare your Vietnamese documents for the work permit

Have HR adapt the checklist to your role and the authority handling the application. The following summarises the material requirements in Hainan’s official work permit guide; an employer elsewhere should obtain its local checklist.

For your Vietnamese criminal record certificate—Phiếu lý lịch tư pháp—have HR confirm the certificate type and content it needs before you order it. If you have lived abroad, give HR your residence history so the work permit office can determine which country’s evidence is appropriate.

Plan the timing together. Ordering a background certificate months before the employer is ready can leave you with a document that needs replacing. Equally, a quick general health check at a convenient hospital may not produce the medical record the Chinese authority accepts.

Does everyone need a bachelor’s degree and two years of experience?

Have the employer assess your category rather than treating that phrase as a universal rule. Hainan has specific routes for foreign professionals, graduates and other eligible talent under its provincial work permit measures. Conditions vary with the category and role. A Hainan provision should not be assumed to apply to a job in another province.

Do Vietnamese documents need an Apostille for China?

There was an important change on 11 September 2026, when the Apostille Convention entered into force for Vietnam. The Chinese Embassy in Vietnam’s notice confirms that Vietnamese public documents within the Convention’s scope can be used in mainland China with a Vietnamese Apostille, without the former Vietnamese and Chinese consular legalisation procedure.

The notice identifies Vietnam’s Consular Department and the Ho Chi Minh City Department of External Relations as receiving offices. It also makes clear that an Apostille does not guarantee acceptance of the underlying document: check its format, content, age and translation requirements with the receiving Chinese authority first.

For a degree or criminal record certificate, ask HR which original, certified copy or verification route the work permit office accepts before arranging the Apostille. The correct process depends on the document. A degree issued by a university outside Vietnam needs to be assessed under the issuing country’s rules.

If you have also read our company registration guide for Vietnamese investors, keep those shareholder document rules separate. A company registration document exemption does not establish an exemption for your personal work permit evidence.

Prepare your Z visa application in Vietnam

For a standard adult employment application, the Hanoi checklist calls for:

• An original passport with at least six months’ remaining validity and at least two blank visa pages.
• The completed online visa application, printed and signed as instructed.
• A white-background, front-facing, bareheaded colour photograph taken within the previous six months, 48 mm × 33 mm.
• The relevant work approval document, normally the work permit notification for this route.
• Previous Chinese visa copies and other identity-history evidence where applicable.

Upload the notification and keep a clear printed copy ready. Hanoi allows copies or scans where an original is not specifically required, while reserving the right to ask for originals. Follow any additional request from your selected centre.

Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang: check the local documents

Use the centre responsible for your application and confirm its current service area before travelling. Local residence documents deserve particular attention:

If you no longer have a paper household registration book, check which current residence confirmation your centre accepts. A photograph of an old document on your phone should not be assumed sufficient.

The separate requirement to prove lawful stay in a foreign country concerns applicants applying outside their country of citizenship. It should not be read as a requirement for Vietnamese citizens to hold a Vietnamese residence visa.

Complete online review before submitting your passport

China’s online visa application system in Vietnam was introduced on 30 June 2025. Select the correct centre, create an account, complete the form and upload the supporting documents before attending.

The practical sequence is:

1. Submit the online application. Check that you have finished submission, rather than simply saved a draft.
2. Watch for correction requests. Read both the account messages and email. In Ho Chi Minh City, a “Rejected” status can accompany a request to amend or add documents; follow the message and resubmit.
3. Wait for online review to be completed. Print the confirmation or Visa Application Certificate attached to the email.
4. Prepare the physical submission. Bring your passport, photograph, the signed first and last application pages, local residence evidence and the supporting documents requested by the centre.
5. Follow the attendance, payment and collection instructions. Preliminary online review is a step in the application, not the final visa decision.

Hanoi’s Vietnamese application procedure says to attend within 30 days after online review is completed and the confirmation email is received. It also says uploaded documents containing barcodes should be printed and brought with you. Keep the notification’s barcode readable when printing.

Will you need to give fingerprints?

For an ordinary long-term employment Z visa, plan to attend in person unless the visa authority confirms that a specific exemption applies to you.

The Chinese Embassy’s current fingerprint notice extends the short-term visa exemption through 31 December 2026, but specifically retains fingerprint requirements, under the applicable rules, for Z applicants who must obtain residence permits after entry.

Check Vietnam’s employment contract registration before departure

If you have signed an employment contract directly with an overseas employer, check the Vietnamese procedure called Đăng ký hợp đồng lao động trực tiếp giao kết. The Chinese visa process does not complete this registration.

Vietnam’s current official procedure attachment, pages 67–70, provides for submission to the commune-level People’s Committee where the worker permanently resides. It lists Form 05 under Circular 09/2026/TT-BNV and a copy of the employment contract with a certified Vietnamese translation. An August 2026 implementation notice from Tứ Kỳ, Hai Phong also describes this local registration procedure.

Check the form’s attachment section too: it mentions an identity-document copy and a personal résumé confirmed by the relevant local authority or managing organisation. Confirm the supporting file with the receiving office when obtaining the current form.

Contact your local public administrative service centre early with the contract and explain how you were recruited. Direct employment, recruitment through a service company and an employer assignment can involve different obligations. Get the current form and receiving-office instructions for your route, then complete the applicable Vietnamese procedures before departure.

What to do after arriving in China

Arrange the first month with HR before you travel. Under China’s Exit and Entry Administration Law, Articles 30, 39 and 41:

• A hotel handles its guests’ accommodation registration. If you stay in an apartment or another non-hotel address, you or your host must register with the local police within 24 hours of moving in.
• For the long-term Z route requiring residence formalities, apply for the appropriate residence permit within 30 days of entry.
• Employment requires the applicable work permit and work-related residence document. Agree your lawful start date with HR after the required approvals are in place.

Work permit administration has also changed. Under the national work permit and social security card integration notice, effective from 1 December 2024, work permit information is integrated into the social security card system. The overseas route uses the work permit notification for the Z visa; after entry, the notification or electronic social security card carrying work permit information supports the residence application. Newly issued standalone physical work permit cards are no longer part of that process.

Have HR help you access the electronic record and arrange any local document or medical checks needed for the residence application. Keep your passport, entry record, accommodation registration and original supporting documents available.

Timing, travel and starting work

How long should you allow? Plan for document preparation, the employer’s work permit review, online visa review, passport processing and the arrival formalities separately. A visa centre’s collection estimate does not cover the entire employment application. Agree a provisional start date and update it as each stage is completed.

Can you enter Hainan visa-free and start the job? Hainan’s current visa-free policy includes Vietnamese ordinary passport holders, but requires the appropriate visa in advance for work. Arrange the employment route before travelling to take up the job.

What if you will work through your own Chinese company? Use our work permit guide for foreign founders to assess that route. Incorporating the company is separate from obtaining permission to work in it.

If your employer is based in Hainan, Zhongzhi Hainan can help review the China-side employer setup and application document preparation. Contact our team with the proposed job, work city, intended application centre and the countries that issued your qualifications. Those details make it possible to identify the relevant checklist before you spend money preparing the wrong documents.

Official sources checked on 17 October 2026.

Read our editorial standards and corrections policy