How long can foreigners stay in China when they apply for a residence permit in China?

General work residence permit can stay 1 year, the longest time for visiting relatives 1 year, general work visa 1 year, and French visa for 2 years. You can apply for an extension of your residence permit when it expires soon.

The decision made by the exit-entry administration of the public security organ to extend the visa stay period is only valid for this entry, and does not affect the entry times and validity period of the visa. The cumulative extended stay period shall not exceed the stay period indicated in the original visa.

After the extension of the visa stay period, foreigners shall stay in accordance with the reasons stipulated in the original visa and the extension period.

Foreigners with visas can change their reasons for staying in order to facilitate entry in accordance with state regulations, or if they need to stay in groups for objective reasons after entering the country with new passports or group visas, they can apply to the exit-entry administration of the public security organs of local people's governments at or above the county level for visa renewal.

According to the reasons why foreigners apply for entry, the general visas are divided into eight categories: D, Z, X, F, L, G, C and J, which correspond to the reasons of settlement, work, study, visit, tourism, transit, crew, journalist and so on.

Among them, F visa and L visa cover a variety of entry reasons. In order to accurately reflect the reasons for foreigners' entry and realize the meticulous management of foreigners after entry, it is stipulated that the existing F-shaped visas and L-shaped visas should be split, R-shaped visas should be added, and the category of ordinary visas should be adjusted from the existing 8 categories to 12.

Reference link: Regulations on the Entry and Exit of People and Foreigners in China-Central Government Portal