A China work-permit filing commonly requires a no-criminal-record certificate, and current official guidance calls for authentication by apostille when the issuing country is a Hague Apostille Convention member.
For a U.S. Q2 application, the published rule says the Chinese-citizen inviter must live in China; a relative abroad generally does not satisfy that inviter condition.
An unexpired M visa is issued for commercial and trade activity, while tourism is the L category; do not assume validity alone resolves a purpose mismatch.
Yes, another person may help complete COVA, but the filer must be identified and the applicant must review every answer before declaration and submission.
U.S. passport holders do not have a blanket visa exemption for mainland China, but specific transit, Hainan and organized-cruise policies may apply when every condition is met.
The Hainan policy includes U.S. ordinary-passport holders for stays of up to 30 days within Hainan for permitted short-term purposes, but not long-term work or study.
Qualifying foreign tourist groups of two or more may enter visa-free through designated cruise ports when organized and received by a Chinese travel agency and traveling as a group.