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Overseas remote work

A China employee asks to work from overseas: approval and return arrangements

Treat the request as a proposed change to where work is performed. Identify the destination and dates, resolve the employment and local-compliance questions, and document a workable return before approval.

Published: 2026-10-30 · Jianxing Pan · Legal sources checked: 2026-10-30

1. Establish what the employee is asking to change

Obtain the proposed country or region, actual work address, start and end dates, reason for the request, duties, time-zone overlap and any work for a local affiliate. Check the existing workplace clause and prior approvals. Working from a home in China, taking leave abroad and performing regular duties from abroad are different arrangements. A request to accompany family overseas should not automatically be labelled a business trip or secondment.

Where the PRC Labor Contract Law applies, Article 17 treats workplace, duties, hours, remuneration and social insurance as required contract terms; Article 35 requires mutual agreement and a written amendment for changes to agreed terms, with a copy for each party. Compare the request with the contract and established arrangements. The employee’s request alone does not amend the contract, while a manager’s casual approval can create evidence of consent that HR must address.

2. Resolve governing law and destination requirements first

A China payroll account or a clause choosing Chinese law does not settle every issue. For a foreign-related labor contract, Article 43 of the PRC Law on the Application of Laws to Foreign-Related Civil Relations points to the law of the employee’s place of work; if that place is difficult to determine, it points to the employer’s principal place of business. Its separate labor-dispatch sentence allows the law of the place from which labor is dispatched. Do not apply that sentence merely because an employee works remotely abroad.

Assess the actual work pattern, duration and any mandatory rules with counsel. Article 4 preserves directly applicable PRC mandatory provisions; Article 8 of the SPC’s Interpretation (I) on that law includes qualifying worker-protection provisions. Neither the overseas address nor a chosen-law clause alone resolves their application. Obtain destination-specific checks on permission to work, employment obligations, payroll and tax, social insurance and the company’s local presence. This guide does not clear any destination, visa category or tax threshold.

3. Approve the location and the system access separately

Identify which customer, employee and business records the person can view, download or send while abroad. The CAC’s October 2025 data-export Q&A, question 5, explains that overseas access refers to where the access or retrieval occurs. Keeping the server in China does not by itself remove the export question. Restrict access to the functions and information justified for the approved work, and review the applicable export route before access begins.

The HR exemption in Article 5 of the Provisions on Promoting and Regulating Cross-Border Data Flows has specific conditions and excludes important data. A customer database does not become employee HR data because an employee accesses it. Record the data categories, purpose, recipients and safeguards; a company laptop or remote connection is a security measure, not a substitute for that legal assessment. Consult the linked HR-data guide for the separate employee-information workflow.

4. Put a time-limited arrangement in writing

If approval is feasible, record the authorized location and period, employing entity, duties, reporting line, hours and time zone, attendance and overtime process, pay, benefits, expenses, equipment and emergency contacts. State who can approve extensions or another location and which checks must be repeated. Where Chinese rules apply, Article 31 of the Labor Contract Law still requires payment for employer-arranged overtime under the applicable rules; overseas meetings should not silently extend the working day.

Specify the return date and workplace, review points, lawful reasons and procedure for ending the remote arrangement early, notice arrangements and responsibility for travel costs. Address inability to return through a prompt explanation and evidence process, followed by a lawful interim decision. Ending remote-work permission and ending employment are separate decisions. Avoid an automatic-resignation clause or a blanket transfer of all employer liabilities to the employee.

5. Deal with existing approvals and keep a decision file

If the employee has already left with management’s approval, preserve the messages and actual performance record before issuing a return demand. Article 43 of SPC Interpretation (I) on labor disputes recognizes an agreed oral amendment performed for more than one month if the changed terms violate neither laws and administrative regulations nor public order and good morals: lack of writing alone does not invalidate it. This does not mean silence creates consent or that every overseas arrangement is lawful.

Prepare the contract and policies, employee request and approvals, proposed location and dates, destination advice, data-access map, cost allocation and draft return terms. Record approval, refusal or a narrower alternative with concrete reasons and the work arrangement while the request is considered. For an initial consultation, provide a non-confidential outline of the China employer, destination, dates and approval status; arrange secure document review separately. Consultations are in Chinese and English.

Legal sources

Official sources · Checked 2026-10-30. Translations are for reference and are not official legal texts.

General information about mainland China. The facts, applicable dates and local rules require individual review.

Jianxing Pan
Jianxing Pan

Partner, Beijing ChangAn Law Firm
China-qualified since 2019 · Beijing & Shenzhen

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