China is one of the most-searched destinations for work and study, and it is also one of the most misreported. The Z work visa and the X1 student visa are routinely shown online with a 90-day maximum stay — a machine default carried over from short-stay visas. In reality both are two-step routes: a short entry visa that converts, after you arrive, into a residence permit valid for years. We re-verified China’s full inbound program set on 2026-06-22 against the National Immigration Administration and the official China visa-application service, and corrected the stay, entry and extension data on every affected page.
The Z work visa: a residence permit of up to five years
The Z visa itself is short — you enter China within 90 days of issue and then have about 30 days to register. After that it converts to a Temporary Residence Permit whose validity tracks your worker class, not a fixed 90 days.
- Up to 5 years for high-level talent, urgently-needed professionals and investors.
- Up to 2 years for workers at registered entities with a good track record — the common case.
- Up to 1 year for other personnel.
The verified two-year representative stay, entry type and refusal reasons are on the China Work (Z) visa page.
The X1 student visa: it lasts as long as your course
China splits student visas in two. The X1 is for long-term study (over 180 days) and converts to a Temporary Residence Permit of up to five years matching your programme; the X2 is for short-term study of 180 days or less, with no residence permit. A four-year degree means a four-year stay, not a single term.
- X1 holders must convert to a residence permit within 30 days of arrival; it is then renewed to cover the degree.
- X2 holders stay only for the period printed on the visa (up to 180 days).
- The China Student visa (X1/X2) page now shows the verified multi-year stay and the genuine-student refusal grounds.
The L tourist visa: 30 days is the standard
The regular duration of each stay on an L tourist visa is 30 days, with 60 or 90 days granted by some consulates on request, and a one-time extension of up to about 30 days available at the local Public Security Bureau. We set the base stay to the standard 30 days and kept the genuine per-nationality differences — longer grants for some passports, and the regional visa-free schemes — intact. See the China Tourist (L) visa page.
Business, exchange and transit
We also re-verified the shorter Chinese visa types and added refusal reasons where they were missing:
- The China Business (M) visa allows up to 90 days per entry, on a visa valid up to 10 years multiple-entry.
- The China Exchange (F) visa covers non-commercial exchange, visit and study-tour stays of up to 180 days.
- The China Transit (G) visa is for genuine onward travel through China, with a confirmed onward ticket and any required third-country visa.
How we keep this honest
This post accompanies a data correction. The China Work (Z), Student (X1/X2) and Tourist (L) pages had been showing a 90-day maximum — a machine default — when the real stays are a multi-year residence permit (work and study) and a standard 30-day tourist stay. We corrected each to its verified value, set the entry and extension flags, recorded the source and date, and added refusal reasons across the Chinese and Taiwanese visa types we reviewed, on 2026-06-22. Our full method is in the Editorial & Data Standards.