working & doing business in china

Yes. Registering a company in China doesn’t require any specific visa. Literally anyone with clean background and of legal age can register a company in China. However, working for the same company and receiving a salary requires a work visa in China, i.e. before you get paid from your own company, you must change your student visa to work visa in China.

Yes. Registering a company in China while working for another company is permitted. However, foreigners are not allowed to work part time in China, therefore, receiving a salary from two sepearate companies is not permissible, i.e. company which sponsors your work visa is considered your employer and your job in that company is your full-time position, and you’re only allowed to work for that company. If you want to get paid from your own company, you’ll have to switch to your own company’s work visa.

If a newly formed company China has enough financial resources – there’s no limit in the number of work visas it can sponsor. By “financial resources” we mean the company must have enough money to pay for the salaries of the foreign employees it sponsors work visas for. Therefore, from a practical point of view, when our clients form a company with 0 capital injections in China, their company can only sponsor 2 work visas at most, and those visas are for the company director and supervisor. NOTE: other employees cannot get a work visa if the company director hasn’t got have one.

No. Company shareholder(s) cannot apply for a work visa in China, unless they have a position in the company, for e.g. a person can be shareholder of the company and at the time the director of this company, and in this case he/she can apply for a work visa.

It really depends on the situation. But generally speaking, if you want to change your current work visa to a new work visa, then your current employer will have to cancel your work permit first. Once your work permit card is cancelled, your new employer (or the company you registered) will apply for a new work permit. 

Yes, work visa in China (Z visa) is a residence permit and it doesn’t have any restrictions for traveling. You can travel in and out of the country as many times as you want.

Yes, work visa holders in China are allowed to invite their family members to join them.

It depends. Like any other country, when you apply for a work visa in China, the immigration office will review your application and if necessary they call you for an interview. If the visa officer is satisfied with your application, then the average validity for the 1st work visa is 1 year (of course there are always exceptions – we’ve seen clients getting 2 or 3 year work visas in their first application). However, if the visa office is not satisfied, you might be given a shorter visa, it can be anywhere between 1 month and 6 months. If that’s the case, the immigration officers normally tell you what’s wrong with the application and they ask you to fix the issue and get back after the given timeframe (1-6 months)

If your company is new and doesn’t have any branches in Guangzhou, then the answer is no. In order to sponsor you a work visa in another city or region than the place of registration, your company must have a registered office in that city or region in China. 

Generally speaking no, student visa holders cannot work in China. However, in Tier 1 cities of China, if you study at one of the top universities, you might be able to get permission from your university and the immigration office (visa office) if you find. apart time job on campus. We highly recommend speaking to the local immigration office before you take up any employment.