CL, little knowledge, in fact, may be dangerous. I assume you've been around for a while, and so you know the country in case better than that. You've brought up the link first and i've followed for its language. If you think it's clear then that's fine with me. If you think a foreign language can stand in a local court of law, when a foreigner wants to win over a local then that's also fine with me. However, do you really think it should be fine with the rest of readers? Agreeably, there may be only few that've had their work permit applications turned down due to their, either 5 or more years of holding the FEC status or aged over 60, but the attitudes, trend and poor transparency on mainland are alarming, aren't they?

By the way, with a local lawyer, I've checked out whether English language would stand in the Chongqing's court of law, and his answer was NO. I inquired because my previous contractual agreement's language was "slightly" different in the Chinese version and it had happened to me a few times on mainland before. Forgive me if I am wrong and I did not follow all the way to the unfortunate court where I most likely would be stepped on, but I made a few steps...lawyer, Foreign Affairs Office, my employer, manager, the parent company's headquarters etc..not in that order though.

To all, I am sorry to have taken this topic off here as it is about the 5 year work permit, Foreign Expert Status to be precise, restriction!

Cheers and beers