Insurance & costs
How to submit a medical certificate for employer sick leave in China
Check the actual visit, issuing authority, truthful clinical basis, seal, recipient and privacy boundary before submitting medical evidence to an employer.
A China medical certificate is evidence from a provider, not a complete sick-leave decision. A physician must act within the registered scope, personally examine or investigate the patient and avoid false or out-of-scope proof. The medical institution must control forms, authorised issuers, seals, copies and audits, and the document should be truthful, specific and supported by diagnosis or treatment. The employee still needs to use the employer's communicated sick-leave request route, and the employer must record whether it received and accepted the document for the stated dates. Payroll, the statutory medical period, job fitness and any employment decision remain separate. This guide explains a minimum-necessary national workflow; a city, employer or collective agreement may impose additional lawful requirements. It does not authenticate a document remotely, approve leave, diagnose illness or provide legal advice.
Use this as a practical starting point
Provider procedures can change, so confirm time-sensitive details with the hospital, insurer or service. A licensed professional must make clinical decisions for an individual patient.
At a glance
Key points
- A valid certificate should trace to an actual visit and a physician who personally examined or investigated the patient.
- Truthful clinical basis, authorised signature and the institution's seal or stamp matter, but their presence does not automatically compel employer approval.
- The employer should verify only what is needed for the leave purpose and should not treat the submission as consent to obtain the whole chart.
- There is no single national private-sector sick-note design; an institution may use a controlled local form where no standard form applies.
- A correction belongs to the issuing institution, while a translation must remain visibly connected to the unchanged source document.
- The employee should submit through a communicated employer channel and obtain both a receipt and a separately recorded leave decision.
- A certificate supports dates and clinical evidence; payroll and the statutory medical period still require their own calculations.
- An ordinary diagnosis certificate does not establish work-injury recognition, occupational disease or suspension-of-work-with-pay.
- Return-to-work fitness requires job-specific functional review, not automatic reliance on a rest certificate or discharge paper.
- For a foreign employee, passport identity, work permit and residence permit should be reconciled, but illness evidence does not automatically renew either permit.
Ask the treating institution for the right medical document
Tell the provider the administrative purpose without asking the clinician to decide a labor-law question. The document may be described as a diagnosis certificate, medical certificate, rest recommendation or another institution-controlled form. Ask whether the institution issues a separate leave certificate or includes a rest period in the diagnosis proof. The 2024 national notice recognises that where no national or local standardised form exists, the institution establishes its own form and content controls. That means visual differences between hospitals are not by themselves proof of invalidity.
The physician must have personally examined or investigated the patient. Avoid online sellers, retrospective “backdating” and a note issued for someone who did not attend the institution. If the patient received emergency or inpatient care, ask the institution which discharge record or certificate is intended for employer submission. A clinical document should state only what the authorised clinician and institution can support. The employer, not the clinician, determines how the evidence fits the communicated leave policy.
Check identity, dates, clinical basis, signature and seal
Before submission, compare the employee's name and identity document with the employer record, especially where a foreign passport was renewed or names appear in different orders. Check the institution name, department, actual visit or admission date, issue date, diagnosis or clinical statement, recommended rest or review period, physician signature and official seal, stamp or other authorised institution validation. Preserve any document number and verification instructions. Do not add a missing field yourself, crop out the seal or combine pages in a way that changes meaning.
If a correction is needed, return to the issuing institution and use its formal correction or reissue process. Keep the original, the corrected version and the explanation. A translation should identify the source and translator and preserve uncertainty rather than improve the wording. For a foreign employee, ask the employer whether a translation is required and whether the Chinese original must accompany it. A translated phrase such as “unfit for work” should not be invented if the source only recommends rest.
Submit through the authorised employer channel
Use the employer's stated recipient and channel: HR system, official email, manager plus HR, counter or another communicated route. Include the sick-leave request dates, current contact method, whether the employee can respond, and whether an extension or review may follow. Ask for a receipt showing the document and date received. A messaging-app screenshot without the attachment, a verbal conversation or delivery to an unauthorised colleague may not update the attendance record. If the employee is incapacitated, document the authorised representative and the reason.
Ask HR to state the decision separately: received pending verification, accepted, partially accepted, further document requested or rejected with reason. A recipient requirement should be proportionate and grounded in the contract, collective agreement or lawfully adopted employer policy. If HR contacts the provider, it should limit the inquiry to authenticity and the lawful purpose. The employee should not be required to surrender the only original unless the employer has a documented custody and return process.
Handle disputes about authenticity without collapsing the records
If the employer has a concrete reason to question authenticity, identify the exact inconsistency: identity, visit date, issuing physician, form, seal, rest period or alteration. Give the employee a reasonable opportunity to clarify through the issuing institution. Do not write “false certificate” merely because the employer disagrees with the recommended duration, and do not ask a provider to disclose unrelated treatment. Preserve the submitted copy, verification request, institution response and employer decision.
A false document can have serious employment consequences, but the decision still requires reliable facts and lawful procedure. Conversely, a genuine certificate does not automatically settle leave approval, pay, medical-period counting or job fitness. Where the disagreement affects wages, attendance discipline, privacy or termination, use the employer correction route and responsible labor-dispute process. A clinical institution can confirm its document; it should not be asked to decide whether an employer breached the Labor Contract Law.
Use emergency care first and obtain proof from the real encounter
A person with severe or rapidly worsening symptoms should call 120 or seek emergency treatment before trying to obtain the employer's preferred paperwork. The immediate records may be registration, triage, emergency notes, test reports, admission material or a discharge record rather than a dedicated sick-leave certificate. Ask the institution, once the patient is stable, which controlled document it can issue for the relevant treatment and rest period. Do not ask staff to create an encounter that did not happen or to change dates so they match a payroll deadline.
Send the employer a concise notice as soon as reasonably possible, even if the final medical document is not yet available. State that urgent care occurred, identify the expected delay and retain delivery proof. The employer can mark the sick-leave request as evidence pending instead of forcing an unsupported approval or rejection. Emergency treatment is a clinical response and does not automatically establish employer leave, sick-leave pay, the statutory medical period or a work injury. This workflow is administrative information, not clinical or legal advice.
Understand how the institution controls forms, issuers and copies
The 2024 National Health Commission notice requires a medical institution to maintain a list of medical-proof documents, define the departments and personnel authorised to issue them, control forms and seals, retain copies or records, audit issuance and investigate misuse. Ask the medical-record or medical-administration office where uncertainty exists. A certificate's appearance can differ between institutions; the relevant question is whether it is an authorised document supported by the recorded diagnosis and treatment, not whether it resembles an internet template.
Check whether several pages belong together, whether an electronic document has an official verification path and whether a paper certificate needs an institution seal in addition to the physician's signature. Preserve envelopes, verification numbers and download receipts where useful. Do not crop a QR code, paste a seal onto a translated page or combine unrelated pages into a new document. If the institution confirms that a field is not used on its form, record that answer instead of adding an unofficial substitute.
Distinguish receipt, authenticity, acceptance and attendance coding
An employer workflow should use separate statuses. Receipt means the document reached an authorised recipient. Authenticity review concerns the issuer and alteration. Acceptance decides whether the evidence satisfies the employer's communicated sick-leave policy for particular dates. Attendance coding enters the result into the time system. Payroll then uses the approved category. One green checkmark should not silently stand for all five actions, because each has a different decision-maker and correction route.
Ask for written reasons when dates are only partly accepted or when additional proof is requested. The employer should identify the relevant contract, collective agreement or lawfully adopted policy and show how it was communicated. The employee should explain genuine delay, emergency care or inability to act rather than altering the certificate. A manager's verbal “fine” may not update HR records, while an HR receipt may not mean the manager has arranged coverage. Confirm the final absence record before the payroll cut-off.
Limit verification to a defined and necessary question
Medical and health information is sensitive personal information. Before contacting a hospital or requesting more material, write the purpose: confirm the issuing institution, verify that the named clinician was authorised, confirm a stated visit date or clarify whether a rest recommendation covers a date range. Use the least intrusive method that answers that question. The employer should not request psychotherapy notes, imaging, medication history, genetic information or unrelated diagnoses merely because a sick-leave certificate was submitted.
Separate access by role. An HR custodian may need the certificate and verification outcome; payroll may need only accepted dates and the wage category; a line manager may need the expected absence and operational restriction; an occupational-safety specialist may need a specific functional issue. Set a retention review, protect exports and record corrections. If the employee challenges excessive collection, pause unnecessary circulation and use the responsible privacy, labor or legal route. Consent is not a blank permission for unlimited use.
Translate a Chinese certificate without changing its evidential meaning
For a foreign employee or overseas team, retain the Chinese original and create a separately labelled translation. The translation should reproduce names, dates, institution, department, diagnosis wording, rest recommendation, signature and seal descriptions without turning ambiguous language into a stronger conclusion. Identify the translator, date and whether the translation is informal, employer-prepared or certified. If a name appears differently across a passport, work permit and hospital system, attach a factual identity note rather than editing the clinical source.
A translation should not replace formal correction. If the original has a wrong passport number or rest date, return to the institution. Where the employer needs a certified translation, ask for that requirement and its source before paying for a service. If a regional HR team is outside China, disclose only the portion needed for its defined role and verify the cross-border handling route. Illness does not automatically extend a work permit or residence permit, so immigration filings remain a separate process.
Link accepted dates to pay and the medical-period ledger carefully
Once the employer accepts the certificate for defined dates, provide the attendance result to payroll and to the person maintaining the statutory medical-period ledger. Payroll should apply the controlling municipal or provincial formula and compare the result with the national floor of eighty percent of the local minimum wage during the medical period. The calculation base, service band and more favourable contract terms remain local or instrument-specific. The certificate itself does not say what percentage to pay.
The medical-period custodian must verify total actual working years, current-employer service and the accumulation window. Accepted sick-leave dates are important evidence, but the legal protection clock is not the same as a provider's recommended rest length or a payroll total. Keep rest days and statutory holidays inside supported sick rest visible where the national counting approach requires them. A corrected certificate may require amendments to both ledgers, but each amendment should cite its own reason.
Preserve the work-injury and occupational-disease boundary
If the document describes an accident at work, exposure or a suspected occupational condition, copy the relevant factual material into a separate causation file without changing the ordinary leave submission. A treating physician's diagnosis certificate can be evidence, but it is not a work-injury recognition decision and is not the statutory occupational-disease diagnosis produced through a qualified institution. Record incident dates, employer reporting and the recognition deadline rather than assuming the hospital seal resolves causation.
A recognised work injury may use suspension-of-work-with-pay and later labor-capacity assessment instead of the non-work medical-period route. Those records affect pay and return differently. Ask the responsible authority where classification is uncertain, and do not let a document-authenticity dispute cause the statutory application period to expire. Equally, do not label an ordinary illness as occupational disease merely to obtain a different benefit. Qualified clinical and legal review may be necessary.
Use new evidence for return to work and later employment decisions
A certificate recommending rest answers a different question from whether the employee can resume a specific job. At the end of absence, obtain current clinical recommendations where needed and describe the actual role, workplace risk and possible restrictions. A discharge record or an expired sick note does not automatically prove fitness for driving, machinery, night shifts, heavy lifting or exposure. Managers should receive functional limits and review dates rather than the complete diagnosis file.
If the statutory medical period ends and the employee cannot perform the original work, the employer must analyse other work arranged before relying on Article 40. During the period, Articles 42 and 45 may protect against specified termination routes and extend fixed-term expiry, but the protection is not absolute. Preserve the certificate history, employer decisions and delivery receipts for any labor dispute. The hospital should not be asked to write a termination conclusion, and this guide does not provide legal advice.
Avoidable problems
Common mistakes
- Buying a retrospective note or using proof issued for a person who did not attend the institution.
- Editing a date, diagnosis, rest period, signature, seal or page image instead of seeking formal correction.
- Assuming a hospital seal automatically binds the employer to approve every requested day.
- Giving the employer unrestricted access to the complete chart as a condition of receiving a certificate.
- Treating a messaging-app delivery as final approval without checking the authorised HR and attendance records.
- Rejecting a genuine institution form solely because it does not resemble another hospital's certificate.
- Allowing a translation to add an unfit-for-work conclusion not present in the Chinese source.
- Calling a provider authenticity check permission to ask for unrelated diagnoses and test results.
- Using the certificate's rest period as the full sick-pay formula or the final medical-period entitlement.
- Assuming an outpatient diagnosis document is a statutory occupational-disease certificate.
- Reusing a months-old leave certificate as conclusive evidence of current job fitness.
- Asking a clinician to state whether Article 40 termination is legally permitted.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Is there one national sick-note form for every hospital?
No general nationwide private-sector sick-note form was identified in the current national sources. The 2024 notice requires institution controls and permits institution-set forms where no national or local standard form exists.
Can an employer verify the seal with the hospital?
A proportionate authenticity check may be appropriate, but it should use a lawful purpose and minimum information. Verification does not authorise access to unrelated clinical records or make the provider the leave approver.
What should an employee do if emergency care produces no sick-note form immediately?
Notify the employer of the emergency, keep encounter and discharge evidence, then ask the treating institution which authorised medical-proof document it can issue after the patient is stable.
May an employee correct a passport number on the scan before submission?
No. Ask the issuing institution to correct or reissue its document, keep both versions and preserve the explanation. Editing the image can create an authenticity dispute.
Does an HR receipt mean the sick leave has been approved?
Not necessarily. Ask whether the evidence was received, verified and accepted for the stated dates, and confirm that attendance and payroll systems were updated separately.
Must the employee disclose every diagnosis and medicine?
No automatic blanket disclosure follows. The employer should identify a lawful specific purpose and request only the minimum necessary information, using functional restrictions where diagnosis detail is unnecessary.
Can a translated certificate be submitted without the Chinese original?
Follow the employer's lawful process, but preserve and normally provide the source alongside the translation so the issuer, seal, dates and exact wording remain verifiable.
Does an accepted certificate determine the sick-leave wage?
It supports the absence dates. Payroll must still apply the current local rule, the relevant calculation base, the national local-minimum-wage floor and any more favourable employment term.
Is a sealed certificate proof of occupational disease?
Not unless it is the document issued through the statutory occupational-disease diagnosis route by a qualified institution. An ordinary medical certificate has a different purpose.
Can the same certificate prove readiness to return to a safety-sensitive role?
A rest or diagnosis certificate does not automatically answer job fitness. Current functional information must be compared with the specific duties and workplace risks.
Evidence
Sources consulted for this guide
National rules are separated from city and provider examples. Access dates show when a source was collected; source pages and procedures can change afterward.