[법무사김태준] Foreign Direct Investment : FDI for Domestic Branch

Domestic Branch

The Procedure

There are two types of domestic branches: a branch and a liaison office.

A branch undertakes sales activities in Korea to generate profit, whereas a liaison office does not conduct sales activities to create profit but instead carries out non-sales functions such as business contacts, market research and R&D.

Liaison offices can carry out quality control, market surveys, advertising, and other incidental and supportive roles.

However, they are limited in the scope of their activities since they are not permitted to sell products directly, or to stock inventory for sale on behalf of the headquarters.

STEP 01　Application for branch establishment

STEP 02 Branch : Corporate registration

STEP 03 Branch or Liaison office : Application for insurance of business registration number or identification number

Documents

1. Notification of Branch Establishment

In order for a foreign company to establish a domestic branch, a notification should be filed to the head of a designated foreign exchange bank.

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외국인투자-우리은행

< Documents Required for Investors >

• Notification form of the establishment of a foreign company’s domestic branch

• Certificate of appointment of the head of the domestic branch

• Documents certifying the foreign company (headquarters)’s name, location and major business operations (Notarization of the location of the headquarters is required if the documents are not original copies.)

• Where a permit, etc. is required for the establishment of a branch in accordance with other Acts and statutes, a copy of documents certifying that such permit, etc. has been obtained

• Articles of association of the headquarters

• Board meeting minutes containing the company’s plans to establish a branch or liaison office in Korea and details on the appointment of its representative in Korea

• Specifications of the line of business that the company intends to operate in Korea and the scope of business

• Power of attorney in cases where the establishment of a domestic branch is commissioned to a person other than the branch head (Notarization of the location of the headquarters is required)

2. Registration of Branch Establishment

A branch is required to establish and register a business office.

A liaison office does not require registration because it is not permitted to conduct sales activities and is only allowed to engage in activities such as information exchange.

registration of branch establishment.

< Documents Required for Investors >

• Notification form of the establishment of a foreign company’s domestic branch

• Documents certifying the foreign company (headquarters)’s name, location and major business operations (Notarization of the location of the headquarters is required if the documents are not original copies.)

• Where a permit, etc. is required for the establishment of a branch in accordance with other Acts and statutes, a copy of documents certifying that such permit, etc. has been obtained

• Articles of association of the headquarters

• Board meeting minutes containing the company’s plans to establish a branch or liaison office in Korea and details on the appointment of its representative in Korea

• Specifications of the line of business that the company intends to operate in Korea and the scope of business

• Power of attorney in cases where the establishment of a domestic branch is commissioned to another person (Notarization of the location of the headquarters is required.)

• Application form for seal registration of the representative of the Korean office (for the convenience of the representative and is not mandatory)

• The branch representative’s acceptance of appointment with a notarized signature, and certificate of address

※ All the above documents must be certified by a competent government authority of the foreign company’s home country.

If the country where the foreign company’s headquarters is based is a signatory of the Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization for Foreign Public Documents, or the Apostille

Convention, the company may receive an Apostille certification on the documents certified by the competent government authority of the respective country.

If the home country of a foreign company is not a signatory of the Apostille Convention, a consul’s notarization is required after obtaining a general notarization.

Contact us

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