VisaMacao employers must apply three months before non-specialist worker permits expire
Employment approval and the worker’s permission to stay are separate renewals. This current guide explains the different filing periods, documents and confirmation steps.
Official source date: 2026-11-02
Edited and checked by the VisaWand editorial team
Start the employer’s renewal before the worker’s card application
Macao’s Labour Affairs Bureau says employers renewing permission to employ non-specialised non-resident workers must apply three months before the employment permit expires. Its service instructions, updated on 30 September 2026, distinguish this employment approval from the worker’s subsequent stay formalities. This guide explains the current process rather than announcing a new November deadline.
The employer’s file includes the prescribed renewal and employment-terms forms, current job and salary list, twelve-month workforce figures, representative identification and relevant business-licence or association records. The bureau can seek further evidence and says a request will not be handled if documents remain incomplete fifteen days after submission. Use its employment-renewal page and linked entity-account service to prepare the employer application first.
Renew the stay permission during its own filing period
The Public Security Police’s worker-card renewal resource says that, after employment authorisation is renewed, the card procedure is undertaken within the sixty days before the existing card expires. It asks for the written instruction and notification of renewed employment approval. Depending on the worker category, the procedure also includes the application, valid travel-document evidence and existing worker card. Follow the appropriate non-skilled, skilled or domestic-helper instructions rather than combining all categories into one file.
The page lists MOP100 for the worker card. It distinguishes examination of the application from physical card issue, which it generally estimates at forty-five to sixty days. Some digital and domestic-helper procedures have their own follow-up arrangements. Use the particular channel’s instructions and collection notification instead of assuming that a printed-card estimate describes the time when every person’s stay permission becomes effective. The application receipt and approved permission have different purposes.
The worker may need to confirm the employer’s approved request
The police’s worker-card questions-and-answers page explains the Macao One Account confirmation route for eligible workers from outside Mainland China. After the employer’s renewal request is approved, a worker who already has an account selects Non-resident Worker Services and the renewal option, then follows the phone instructions. Successful confirmation updates the stay validity and produces a notification in the account.
Check the displayed completion statement and new expiry rather than assuming an employer’s earlier submission completed the worker’s part. The FAQ provides separate information about account eligibility, replacement travel documents and workers from the Mainland. Those distinctions matter where a person cannot use the same mobile sequence. Use the police FAQ to establish the appropriate alternative, not a colleague’s instructions from a different document category. A new card or account also should not be taken as independent authority to change employer or occupation.
Keep the employment charge separate from the card fee
The Commerce and Investment Promotion Institute’s operating guidance says non-resident workers cannot begin work until the stay permit is granted and must serve the position stated on their worker identification card. An employer’s employment quota or offer does not alone complete the worker’s immigration requirements.
The same guidance identifies a separate monthly employment fee, normally MOP200 per worker, paid quarterly and borne fully by the employer. It notes a fifty-percent reduction for the specified processing-manufacturing category. That recurring employment charge is distinct from the MOP100 card charge. The institute also says pay cannot fall below the amount in the employment permit and must be paid in patacas into the employee’s own Macao bank account. Use this resource to check the ongoing employment obligations alongside the two renewals.
Update the address and distinguish worker status from residence
The police’s residence-authorisation FAQ expressly includes non-resident workers in the requirement to report changes of contact and habitual residence address within forty-five days. Keep those details current so that a successful renewal does not leave the authority with an outdated address. Use the residence FAQ for the reporting obligation and the worker service for the renewal transaction.
The same FAQ distinguishes the non-resident worker card from permission to reside as a Macao resident: working for seven years does not automatically create that residence entitlement. A person planning long-term relocation should therefore identify a separate lawful residence basis where applicable. For the immediate renewal, keep the employer approval, stay expiry, confirmation outcome and any collection notice together. An application in one category should not be assumed to extend a different permission or establish resident status.
