Applying for a work visa for China - can we do it from Korea?

Our family is moving to China in July, but our Korean alien cards expire at the end of June. Since we are applying for a work visa instead of a travel visa, do we need to have 6 months remaining on our alien cards? We are trying to finalize in the next couple of days if we should apply from Korea or the US. We will be in the US for about 4 weeks before going to China. This is obviously a time sensitive issue - any help would be much appreciated!