Entry, Stay, Residence, Permanent Residence: The Four Legal Statuses a Foreign National Holds Under the Exit and Entry Administration Law

Delta Law Expat Services Desk　｜　Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China（《中华人民共和国出境入境管理法》）, Presidential Order No. 57（主席令第五十七号）, current version in force from 2013-07-01

1. The document at a glance

2. Four statuses, one law

The Law governs Chinese citizens’ exit and entry, foreign nationals’ entry and exit, and their stay and residence in China (Art. 2); a “foreign national” is simply a person without Chinese nationality (Art. 89). A foreign national moves through four distinct statuses: entry (crossing the border on a visa or exemption), stay（停留, presence on a visa without a residence permit, capped at 180 days), residence（居留, presence under a residence permit for a defined purpose and period), and permanent residence（永久居留, an indefinite status obtained by approval, not by time alone). Treating stay as though it were residence, or residence as though it were permanent, is where most exposure below originates.

This is stay at its purest: no residence permit, a hard 180-day ceiling, an extension window open only from seven days before expiry. 停留期上限一百八十日，逾期未离境即构成非法居留（见第六节）。 It is a different status from residence, not a lesser form of it.

3. Obligations provision by provision: residence and work

Once a visa is endorsed for post-entry residence, the clock on residence status starts on the day of entry, not the day the person applies.

Two deadlines run in opposite directions: 30 days for the applicant to apply, 15 for the authority to decide. Article 31 lists five refusal grounds (false material among them); Article 32 requires an extension application 30 days before expiry; Article 33 requires reporting any change to registered particulars within 10 days. Filing formats are subject to the current published requirements of the accepting authority; the deadlines are fixed by the Law regardless.

Work is a further authorisation layered on top of residence, not included in it.

Two obligations, not one: the individual must hold both documents, and the employer independently commits an offence by employing someone lacking either. 工作许可与工作类居留证件缺一不可。 A non-work-type residence permit — family reunion, study, retirement — does not become a right to work merely because the holder is lawfully resident. Article 42’s periodically-updated work guidance catalogue frames what work is generally open but does not replace the Article 41 permit requirement.

Item (2) is the one people miss: illegal employment also covers work outside the permit’s defined scope — a different employer, role or location — not only work with no permit at all. Article 45 requires an employing or enrolling entity to report the relevant information to the local public security organ, and requires anyone who discovers illegal entry, residence or employment to report it. Where a third-party institution assists with exit-entry matters connected to a work permit, its conduct is separately regulated by State Council Order No. 841（《国务院关于出境入境管理的规定》, effective 2026-09-15）, Article 10, not detailed here (forthcoming in this batch).

4. Permanent residence: grant and revocation

Permanent residence is categorically different from the first three statuses: obtained by application and approval, not by staying long enough.

Approval authority sits with the Ministry of Public Security alone; the substantive conditions sit in a separate joint approval measure, not in this Law. Article 48 defines the status in practice: a permanent resident lives and works in China on the strength of the permanent residence document alone — the only status of the four carrying an independent right to work — and exits and enters on that document with a passport.

“Permanent” describes the absence of an expiry date, not immunity from revocation. Item (4) most often surprises a holder who assumes nothing further is required once granted — a prescribed minimum residence time continues to apply, and falling short is on its own a statutory ground for revocation.

5. Sequence and timing

The Law fixes a set of deadlines attached to each status, not a single procedure; filing formats and office hours are subject to the current published requirements of the accepting authority.

6. Penalties and consequences

Illegal residence, illegal employment and unsuitability to remain carry separate, cumulative penalties, falling on the individual, an introducing party and an employer at once.

Article 80’s three paragraphs apply to three different people in the same scenario — the worker, the introducer, the employer — none superseding the others; all three are quoted in full below.

Read with Article 43, the employer’s exposure under §3 does not depend on bad faith — employing someone whose permit does not cover that role is enough. Article 81’s limited-departure order and deportation sit above these fines as a separate track: they end the person’s presence in China rather than penalise a single act, and an MPS deportation decision is final under the Law.

7. Who runs into this, and how it is used

The framework matters most at the seams: the visa holder past 180 days who applied for nothing further, the residence-permit holder whose employer changed without a matching update, the family member whose non-work permit does not cover paid work already begun, and the permanent resident who has not tracked the Article 49(4) residence-time requirement. The question is always which status currently applies, and which deadline sits closest to being breached.