Procedures for establishing a Representative Office of a Foreign-invested company

What are the documents required to establish a foreign-invested enterprise? What conditions must foreign traders ensure to open a representative office in Vietnam? Let’s find out in this article.

CONDITIONS FOR ESTABLISHING A REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE OF A FOREIGN INVESTED COMPANY

Foreign invested enterprises are allowed to establish representative offices when meeting the following conditions:

1. Foreign enterprises must operate continuously for at least 1 year from the date of issuance of the business license;
2. The validity period of the business license or equivalent documents must be at least 1 year from the date of submission of the application for establishment of a representative office;
3. Foreign traders must belong to countries or territories that are members of international treaties of which Vietnam is a member or be legally recognized in those countries or territories;
4. Business activities of representative offices of foreign-invested companies must comply with Vietnam’s commitments in international treaties to which Vietnam is a member;
5. In case the representative office does not satisfy conditions 3 and 4 above, the dossier for establishing a foreign representative office must be accepted and approved by the Minister of the specialized management ministry;
6. Not in the case of having the representative office license revoked within 2 years from the date of submission of application for a license to establish a representative office;
7. The establishment of representative offices of foreign traders must comply with issues of security, national defense, safety, social ethics and public health. 

DOCUMENTS FOR ESTABLISHING A REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE OF A FOREIGN-OWNED ENTERPRISE

To open a representative office of a foreign invested enterprise (FDI company), you prepare the following documents:

Note: 

The dossier for establishing a representative office must be signed and stamped by the parent company or must be consularized, translated into Vietnamese and notarized. 

To optimize costs and time, you can refer to the service of establishing a representative office of a foreign-invested company at fdiinvietnam.com, the service fee is only 23,000,000 VND . 

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PROCEDURE FOR ESTABLISHING A REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE OF A FOREIGN TRADER

After completing the documents to establish a foreign representative office, you proceed with the following steps:

Step 1: Submit application to the licensing authority where the representative office is located.

Step 2: Wait for results from the licensing authority.

For normal cases:

• Within 3 days, if the application is invalid, you will receive a notice requesting additional information (maximum 1 time);
• Within 7 days, if the application is valid, the licensing authority will issue a license to establish a representative office for a foreign-invested company. 

In case the dossier must be sent to the Minister of the specialized management ministry:

• Within 3 days, if the application is valid, the licensing authority will send a written request for comments from the specialized management ministry;
• Within 5 days, the specialized management department will respond to the information in writing;
• Within 5 days from the date of receiving the opinion of the specialized management ministry, the licensing authority shall issue a license to establish a representative office to a foreign trader; otherwise, a written notice must be sent.

Step 3: Apply for a seal for the representative office at the police station.

NOTES WHEN OPENING A FOREIGN REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE

If before applying for a license to establish a foreign representative office you must ensure the conditions, then after being granted the license, you must also pay attention to many regulations to avoid being administratively sanctioned or having your representative office license revoked:

1. Carry out procedures to adjust the license of a foreign enterprise representative office if there is any change in information on the license during operation;
2. Carry out procedures to re-issue a license to establish a foreign representative office in case of moving the representative office to another province or city or to an area under the management of another Management Board;
3. Carry out procedures to re-issue a license to establish a foreign representative office if it is lost, damaged, etc.;
4. Foreign representative offices must submit activity reports. The licensing authority will revoke the license if it fails to receive activity reports from the representative office for 2 consecutive years or within 6 months upon written request. 

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