Accreditation of branches and representative offices

Accreditation of branches and representative offices

We offer you MONITORING AND ASSISTANCE when accrediting (opening) branches and representative offices of foreign companies in the Russian Federation, including the following services:

• Development of all the required documents, including in foreign languages;

• Translation of foreign documents into Russian and notarial certification of documents for accreditation;

• Preliminary due diligence of documents required for accreditation;

• Representation of interests of a foreign company in the State Registration Chamber supervised by the RF Ministry of Justice or RF Chamber of Trade and Industry pertaining the accreditation and entry to state registers;

• Adoption of the sample stamp of the representative office or branch and manufacture of the stamp;

• Registration with a tax authority, non-budgetary funds;

• Registration with statistics authorities;
• Obtaining of personal accreditation for foreign employees of representative offices and branches;

• Assistance in execution of visas and invitations for foreign employees;

• Prolongation of accreditation period of the representative office or branch;

• Amending accreditation documents when changing the company’s name, location, director).

Accreditation of representative offices and branches of foreign companies (commercial organizations).

The contemporary regulative framework governing the issues of foreign presence on the Russian market is not significant. It first of all includes Federal Law Concerning Foreign Investments of July 9, 1999 No. 160-FZ, which regulates the procedure for foundation and liquidation of commercial organizations with foreign investments, as well as the branches of foreign legal persons. However, this law does not contain any definition of the notion of a representative office, and the notion of a branch, though mentioned therein, is not explained.

In all other respects, in accordance with Article 2 of the Russian Federation Civil Code civil law regulations are applicable, namely: Article 55 of the Russian Federation Civil Code, which defines the legal status of the representative offices and branches as follows:

A representative office shall mean a separate division of a legal person located outside its place of residence, which is responsible for representation and protection of interests of such legal person.

A branch shall mean a separate division of a legal person located outside its place of residence, which performs all or any part of its functions, including those of a representative office.

Representative offices and branches constitute legal persons. They obtain the property from the legal person that founded them and act by virtue of the regulations adopted by such legal person.
Heads of branches and representative offices are be appointed by such legal person and act by virtue of its power of attorney.

The above cited regulations do not contain any definite instructions as to which authorities are responsible for accreditation, which is the procedure for such accreditation and how one should select the form of foreign presence.

Our advice.

1. Branch or Representative Office?

A representative office may not carry out commercial activities in the RF territory. A representative office is founded exclusively for the purpose of Russian market research, search for new customers, familiarizing of potential customers with the activities of the head company, advertising of the company, performance of the head company’s activities through the representative office on the territory of Russia, preparation of agreements with Russian customers pursuing the interests of the head company. Special taxation conditions are related thereto.

If a foreign company intends to carry out any commercial activity, it founds a branch.

2. Who performs accreditation of branches and representative offices of foreign companies?

1. Federal State Agency “State Registration Chamber supervised by the Russian Federation Ministry of Justice” (SRC):

• accreditation of branches and representative offices,

• maintenance of consolidated state registers of branches and representative offices of foreign companies.

2. Russian Federation Chamber of Trade and Industry (RF CTI):

• accreditation of representative offices

4. Based on the specifics of the activities of a foreign company accreditation of its representative offices may also be performed by the relevant ministries and departments of the Russian Federation.

3. Which is the procedure for accreditation and registration of branches and representative offices of foreign companies?

1. Preparation of documents from a foreign (head) organization, document legalization or apostillizing (for state participating in the Hague Convention), translation of documents into Russian and notarial certification, their submission to the relevant authorized body;

2. Accreditation proper (obtaining of permit):
   With RF CTI – 3 to 7 business days (representative offices only)
   With SRC – 7 to 21 business days based on the selected rate;

3. Entry to the unified state registers. One should bear in mind that only SRC performs the entry to the consolidated registers of branches and representative offices.

The newly founded representative offices and branches that were accredited by the RF CTI, ministries and departments of the Russian Federation, must within one month as of the obtaining of a permit to carry out their activities apply for the receipt of certificate of entry to the consolidated state register of representative offices of foreign companies accredited on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Certificate of entry to the consolidated state register of representative offices of foreign companies accredited on the territory of the Russian Federation serves as a confirmation of the official status of the representative office on the federal level and is required when opening bank accounts, registration with taxation authorities, execution of visas and passing customs procedures.

Representative offices and branches accredited by the SRC receive a certificate of entry to the consolidated state register simultaneously with the permit for its opening.

Certificate of entry of the representative office to the consolidated state register of representative offices of foreign companies accredited on the territory of the Russian Federation is generally issued within 21 business day as of the submission of a full set of documents. If necessary, the term for execution of such certificate may be reduced to 7 business days.

4. Validation of the sample stamp and its manufacture (2 to 7 business days);

5. Registration with statistics authorities (1 to 2 business days);

6. Registration for fiscal accounting (5 business days), registration with non-budgetary funds (within 30 days as of the issue of permit for accreditation);

7. Opening of settlement account.

The cost of our services:

The cost of our services includes the costs of all the required preliminary works, preparation of any documents, recommendations, letters, as may be necessary for accreditation, representation of interests in the CTI and SRC.

For more detailed information, please contact our employees on: 933-36-72, 797-17-53