New incorporation regulations that will affect foreign investors setting up representative offices in China, as well as those already already established on the mainland have been released by the Chinese State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC).

Issued January 4, the new regulations stipulate the following:

• The parent company must been in existence for two years
• In addition to the incorporation certificate, a bank reference letter also will need to be notarized and legalized
• The registration certificate for an RO is now only valid for one year rather than three years; all existing ROs will have a one-year valid registration license when they renew their current registration certificate
• Every year when an RO renews its license, a notarized and legalized incorporation certificate of the parent company will need to be provided
• Foreign representatives of an RO, including the chief representative, cannot exceed four; for existing ROs with more than four foreign representatives (including a chief representative), SAIC will not require the RO to decrease their number of representatives but will not approve any additional foreign representatives
• The local branch of the AIC will verify all the information of the RO including its registered address within three months after the RO obtains its registration certificate

For more details, see new incorporation regulations