For a Chinese professional title, identify your occupational series and level, then find the appropriate application route

Nothing. Allow about half an hour to check your province's current application notice.

The 27 series include economics, engineering, health, and publishing, with junior, intermediate, and senior tiers. Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security Order No. 40 applies to enterprises, public institutions, social organizations, individual economic organizations, and freelancers. Applications generally proceed sequentially through the levels. Employers review materials and publish them internally for at least five working days. Personnel agencies and similar bodies may review, publish, and recommend applications for private-sector employees and freelancers. Localities should establish application service points in science parks and high-tech zones; personnel agencies, industry associations, chambers of commerce, and learned societies may also receive applications. Eligible freelancers participate in locally organized reviews according to territorial jurisdiction. Authorities may not demand separate certificates for information verifiable online and must tell applicants all missing materials at once. Private-sector employees generally apply where their employment relationship is based; those assigned elsewhere for at least one continuous year may apply at the assignment location. Retired people may not apply. Public-institution employees under a disciplinary sanction of a demerit or more severe penalty may not apply during the sanction period. These are Chinese national rules.

There is no single national document checklist. Each series and province issues annual notices specifying materials, dates, and performance requirements. Start with the current notice on your provincial human resources department's official website. Papers are no longer universally mandatory: the 2016 reforms prohibit making them a rigid threshold for applied professionals and remove uniform language and computer-test requirements. Eligible skilled tradespeople have a route into engineering-title review. Civil servants cannot participate in title review.

Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security Order No. 40 (2019). Interim Provisions on the Administration of Professional Title Review, Articles 2 and 13–18. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2019/content_5437137.htm; General Office of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (2020). Notice on further improving professional-title work for private enterprises. It provides for application service points in business incubators, high-tech development zones, and science parks, or applications through personnel service agencies, federations of industry and commerce, industry associations, chambers of commerce, and learned societies. Private-enterprise professionals assigned elsewhere for at least one continuous year may apply there under the relevant rules. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2020-03/03/content_5486340.htm; Xinhua (2024). Professional-title review season: where to find information and what has changed. It identifies 27 series and the local review route for eligible freelancers. https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/202410/content_6978917.htm; General Offices of the CPC Central Committee and State Council (2016). Opinions on deepening reform of the professional-title system. Papers must not be a restrictive prerequisite for applied professionals; there is no uniform foreign-language or computer-skills examination requirement; eligible highly skilled workers may enter engineering-title reviews; civil servants may not participate in professional-title reviews. https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2017/content_5163445.htm