Part-time job off campus: the agreement, the school letter and the residence permit endorsement

Before you start an off-campus part-time job, your residence permit has to carry an endorsement naming the employer and the period of the work-study. Getting that endorsement takes three things in order: an agreement with the employer filed with your school together with a written undertaking from you, a letter from the school, and an application to the exit-entry administration where the school is, made within ten days. A study residence permit without that endorsement cannot be used for off-campus work-study (Regulations, Article 22, second paragraph; Measures for the Administration of Work-Study by International Students at Higher Education Institutions, Article 11).

The two Chinese official texts used here — the National Immigration Administration service guide and the work-study measures — are quoted in this site's own English translation.

The steps, in order

1. Sign the agreement with the employer. Give a copy of the signed agreement to your school for filing. Give the school a written undertaking signed by you alone, in which you commit on matters such as the bearing of risk (Measures, Article 10).

2. Obtain the school's letter. The measures call it the school's certifying letter; the National Immigration Administration service guide lists letters issued by the school and by the unit concerned. The measures leave the detail to the school: each institution is to make its own implementing rules (Measures, Article 4), so your school's rules decide the format and the internal steps.

3. Apply for the endorsement within ten days. Apply to the exit-entry administration of the public security organ in the place where the school is located. Ask for the work unit, the period and the related work-study information to be written into your residence permit. Take the agreement, the school's letter and the related material (Measures, Article 11; Regulations, Article 22; service guide, study-type residence permit).

The measures do not state what event starts the ten-day count. Follow the school's instruction on when to lodge the application.

What the endorsement covers, and where it applies

Rule	Text
What is written in	The location and duration of the work-study or internship (Regulations, Article 22; English service guide, student-type residence permit)
Area	Only within the prefecture-level city administrative region where the school is located (Measures, Article 12)
Length of one endorsement	No longer than the validity of the study-type residence permit, and at most one year (Measures, Article 12)

The permit can therefore run out before the job does, and the endorsement has to be renewed on a fresh application. The texts quoted here do not say how early an application should be made before an endorsement expires.

Working before the endorsement

Neither text leaves room for it. The Regulations state that a holder of a residence permit for study shall not engage in any off-campus work-study or internship unless the information is specified in the permit (Article 22, second paragraph), and the measures repeat the prohibition in the same terms (Article 11). The texts quoted here state the prohibition without describing a consequence for breaching it.

When the job changes or ends

• Change of employer or period: take the new agreement and the school's letter and apply, within ten days, to the exit-entry administration in your locality to have the endorsement changed (Measures, Article 11, second paragraph).
• The activity ends — for example because the employer terminates the agreement: submit a written report to the school within ten days, and process the change of the endorsement with the exit-entry administration in your locality (Measures, Article 11, third paragraph).

Note the wording: the first paragraph of Article 11 points to the office where the school is located, while the second and third paragraphs point to the office in your locality.

How long the office has

An application for change or reissuance of a residence permit is made on an application form, with the passport or other international travel document, qualified photos, and material relating to the purpose of the application (Regulations, Article 17).

Where the application meets the acceptance provisions, the exit-entry administration issues a receipt of acceptance valid for a period not exceeding 15 days and makes its decision within the validity period of that receipt (Regulations, Article 18). Two points about that sentence: the English text on the National Immigration Administration website says "15 days" and does not say "working days", and it words the decision as "whether to issue the visa" in the context of a residence permit application.

If the procedure or the material does not conform to the provisions, the administration notifies the applicant, in a one-off manner, of the procedure to follow and the material to supplement or correct. While the passport is retained for processing, the applicant may reside in China legally on the strength of the receipt (Regulations, Article 18).

What the official texts do not say

• Fees. None of the texts quoted on this page states a fee for the endorsement.
• The ten-day trigger. Article 11 says "within ten days" without saying what starts the period.
• The form of the school's letter. The measures give each institution the task of writing its own implementing rules (Article 4).
• Who may work-study and for how many hours. This page covers the procedure only. The measures set hour limits using "in principle" (原则上); they are not covered here. See work and changes for the surrounding steps, and after arrival for the residence permit itself.
• Fingerprints, photographs and any local document list. The texts quoted here do not mention them; the office handling the case states what it wants.

Questions people ask

Do I need my school's permission?

Yes. The Regulations require the approval of the school before the application is made (Article 22), and the measures make the school's certifying letter one of the documents you take to the exit-entry administration (Article 11).

Can I start working as soon as the agreement is signed?

No. Signing and filing the agreement is the first step, not the last. The permit has to carry the endorsement before any off-campus work-study begins (Regulations, Article 22; Measures, Article 11).

Can I take a job in another city?

No, on the text as written. The geographical scope of work-study is the prefecture-level city administrative region where the school is located (Measures, Article 12).

How long can one endorsement run?

No longer than the validity of the study-type residence permit, and at most one year per application (Measures, Article 12).

What if the employer ends the agreement?

Report it in writing to the school within ten days and process the change of the endorsement with the exit-entry administration (Measures, Article 11, third paragraph).

Sources

• Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Administration of the Entry and Exit of Foreigners (State Council Decree No. 637), English text — National Immigration Administration
• Service guide for issuing, extending, replacing and reissuing foreigners' residence permits (Chinese) — National Immigration Administration
• Service Guide on residence permits for foreigners, English page dated 2021-04-01 — National Immigration Administration
• Measures for the Administration of Work-Study by International Students at Higher Education Institutions (高等学校国际学生勤工助学管理办法), 教外厅〔2021〕2号 — Ministry of Education, with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the National Immigration Administration

Checked 11 October 2026

This page is an unofficial summary of the official texts named above: it is not legal or immigration advice, it is not published by the bodies named, and where the official text or the instructions of the exit-entry office handling your case differ from what is written here, the official text and those instructions prevail.