Hiring a Japanese Chef in Macau: Non-Resident Worker Rules

Macau runs its own system for foreign workers, separate from both mainland China and Hong Kong. A restaurant that wants a chef from Japan needs prior authorisation from the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) to employ a non-resident worker, then a stay permit for the worker from the Public Security Police. The worker's identity card is widely known as the "blue card". This guide explains how the system works for a Japanese kitchen, based on Macau legislation and DSAL guidance checked in September 2026.

1. Macau in numbers

• Japan's agriculture ministry (MAFF) counted about 340 Japanese restaurants in Macau in 2025, up 30 on 2023. MAFF counts Macau and Hong Kong separately from mainland China, where the number fell by 15,260.
• Macau does not appear in MOFA's list of the 50 cities with the most Japanese residents, and we did not find a separate official figure for Japanese nationals in Macau.

In practice this means a small resident Japanese pool and a restaurant scene that has kept growing. Most Japanese chefs working in Macau will have been hired from outside.

2. The non-resident worker law in brief

Law 21/2009 (the Law on Employment of Non-resident Workers) sets out principles that DSAL applies to every application. The ones that matter most to a restaurant:

• Supplementary. Non-resident workers are hired only where suitable local workers are unavailable or insufficient, at equal cost and efficiency.
• Temporary. Employment is time limited.
• Equal pay and treatment. Non-resident workers must get conditions no less favourable than local staff, and equal pay for the same work or work of equal value.
• Local priority. Local workers have priority both in hiring and in keeping their jobs. You cannot hire a non-resident worker where it would significantly reduce local workers' rights or lead to local staff being dismissed without good reason.
• Prior authorisation. You may only employ a non-resident worker after the authorisation is granted.

When deciding, DSAL considers the availability of local workers for the same work and the steps you have taken to hire them, the needs of the labour market and the sector, the worker's fitness, training and experience for the job, the working conditions offered, and your financial capacity to meet your obligations.

3. Professional or non-professional?

The law has three categories: professional workers, domestic workers and non-professional workers. A professional worker has a higher education degree, or high skills or professional experience, and is hired for work with high professional requirements. Anyone else, other than domestic workers, is non-professional.

DSAL's own example is that a restaurant server's job does not normally require higher education or high professional skills, so it should be applied for as non-professional. In its list of consolidated posts, DSAL describes the cook post as organising, coordinating and carrying out food preparation in hotels and restaurants, and gives examples including Chinese and Western cooks, dim sum and noodle cooks, and sashimi and sushi masters (刺身壽司師傅). A kitchen assistant post covers helping cooks without cooking independently.

Whether a particular head chef is assessed as professional will depend on the skills and experience you can document and the level of the role. Build the application around that evidence.

4. How an application works

1. Register the vacancy with DSAL. Under Administrative Regulation 8/2010, the application for authorisation must include proof that you have registered the recruitment with DSAL. DSAL uses the registered details when assessing the application; conditions out of line with the market will count against you.
2. Apply for authorisation to DSAL. Applications for professional and non-professional workers go to DSAL's Non-resident Workers Employment Department. There is no fee for the authorisation application.
3. Apply for the worker's stay permit at the Public Security Police once authorisation is granted. A non-professional worker must have an entry document for work purposes and enter Macau from outside to be granted the first stay permit.
4. Worker receives the non-resident worker identity card (the "blue card"), which shows the category, job title and employer.

5. What the employer must provide

• Monthly levy. The employer pays a hiring fee for each non-resident worker, calculated monthly from the date the worker is permitted to stay. Chief Executive Dispatch 89/2010 set it at MOP 200 per worker per month, subject to exemptions under Administrative Regulation 8/2010. It is paid to the Social Security Fund, you must register there, and you may not pass the cost to the worker in any way. Late payment is grounds for revoking the authorisation.
• Accommodation. Either provide housing that meets the official standards, or pay an accommodation allowance of at least MOP 500 a month.
• Return travel. When the employment ends, the worker is entitled to the cost of travel back to their usual place of residence.
• A written, fixed-term contract stating job title, pay, workplace, hours and start date. It cannot run longer than the authorisation, ends at the end of its term unless both sides agree otherwise in writing, and can be renewed while authorisation lasts. DSAL's guidance says fixed-term contracts may not exceed two years under the Labour Relations Law, and that employers can apply for renewal three months before the term ends.
• Pay into a Macau bank account in the worker's name; no other payment method is allowed.

6. Local staff numbers

Employers often hear that DSAL approves one non-resident worker for every three local staff. DSAL's guidance does not state a fixed ratio. It says each application is assessed on its facts, with local workers' priority as the overriding principle.

What is fixed is the consequence of the approval: under Administrative Regulation 13/2010, DSAL can set a minimum number of local employees you must keep as a condition of the authorisation, based on the market, the sector and the local staff you already employ or commit to employ. If you fall below it, you have 15 days to restore the number, or to apply to DSAL for more time with reasons within 5 days after that. Failing to comply can lead to the authorisation being revoked in whole or in part.

7. Step by step

1. Register the vacancy with DSAL and recruit locally first, keeping records.
2. Decide whether the chef is a professional or non-professional hire, and document skills and experience accordingly.
3. Apply to DSAL, with pay and conditions at or above market for the post.
4. Once authorised, register with the Social Security Fund and set up the MOP 200 monthly levy.
5. Arrange the work entry document and the stay permit with the Public Security Police.
6. Sign the written contract, arrange housing or the allowance, and open a Macau bank account for pay.
7. Track the authorisation's end date and any minimum local headcount.

For the neighbouring system, see hiring a Japanese chef in Hong Kong. For mainland China, see China. For contract terms, see the chef employment contract checklist.

General information checked against Macau legislation and Labour Affairs Bureau guidance in September 2026, not legal or immigration advice. Some guidance pages are only in Chinese and Portuguese, and levy exemptions and conditions are set case by case. Confirm current requirements with DSAL and the Public Security Police Force before applying.