Service 03 · ICP filing
ICP filing for foreign companies
If your site or app runs on a mainland Chinese server, China requires an ICP filing (ICP备案). The number goes in your site footer and in your app store listing. This page covers who needs one, the three ways a foreign company actually gets one, and how long it takes.
What an ICP filing is, and what it is not
Two different things share the word “ICP” and mixing them up wastes months.
ICP filing (ICP备案) is a free recordal. Every domain pointed at a mainland server needs one before it can serve traffic. It takes two to three weeks, costs nothing at the government window, and does not require you to be a Chinese company in the sense most people assume.
ICP license (ICP许可证) is a paid commercial permit. You need it only if you take money from Chinese users on the site itself: online payments, paid memberships, ad revenue, an app store with paid downloads. It requires a Chinese company with registered capital of 1 million RMB and takes three to six months.
Most foreign teams need the filing. If you are not charging Chinese users on the site, stop reading about the license.
Do you need a filing?
| Where it is hosted or listed | Filing required |
|---|---|
| Mainland server (Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Huawei Cloud mainland regions, or any Chinese IDC) | Yes, before launch. Domain is blocked without it. |
| Hong Kong, Singapore, US or EU server | No filing. Load times in China suffer, and ad review on Douyin and Xiaohongshu is harder to pass. |
| iOS app on the China App Store | Yes. Apple checks for an APP备案 number on new apps and updates. |
| Android app on Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo or Tencent MyApp | Yes. Each store checks separately. |
| Overseas landing page used only for ads | No filing. Expect lower quality scores and slower pages. |
Three ways a foreign company gets filed
Every official source says the same thing: the filing entity must be registered in mainland China. That part is true. What the official pages leave out is that there is more than one way to satisfy it.
Path 1: Your own mainland entity
A representative office (代表处) is a liaison setup registered with the local Administration for Market Regulation. It can hold a filing in some provinces, cannot invoice, and cannot trade. A branch office (分公司) is a fuller setup and can hold a filing and invoice. A WFOE is the full version, and it takes two to three months plus real money to stand up.
This path is right if you plan to hire in China, sign local contracts or take RMB revenue. It is overkill for a site that needs to be live next month.
Path 2: A partner entity with a written hosting agreement
The filing sits under an existing Chinese company that operates the site on your behalf. You are not registered anywhere, you do not open a WFOE, and the filing is live in two to three weeks.
The trade-off is legal, not technical. The entity holding the filing carries the legal responsibility for what the site publishes, so the agreement has to be specific: who owns the code, the content, the trademarks and the domain, how the filing is transferred or cancelled if you leave, and who handles user complaints and refunds within 48 hours. If a provider will not put those four things in writing before you pay, walk away.
Path 3: Skip the mainland server
Host in Hong Kong, file nothing, launch in a week. This works for a brochure site or a test market. It does not work for an iOS app, because Apple’s China App Store requires the filing number regardless of where the backend sits.
Side by side
| Path | Time to live | Filing in your name | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Representative office | 6 to 10 weeks | Yes | Brands opening a China office anyway |
| Branch or WFOE | 2 to 3 months | Yes | Hiring, invoicing, RMB revenue |
| Partner entity, written agreement | 2 to 3 weeks | No | Launching now, no China entity yet |
| Hong Kong hosting | 1 week | Not applicable | Brochure sites, testing demand |
What the filing actually records
Provincial authorities record the entity name and legal representative, the domain and its registrant, the server IP and its provider, the site name, the content category, and a contact who answers the phone during review.
That list explains most rejections. The most common one for foreign applicants is a domain registered to an individual or to the overseas parent while the filing entity is a Chinese company. The domain registrant and the filing entity must match. Fixing this after submission means starting over.
Timeline, and what “done” means
A straightforward corporate site filing takes two to three weeks from submission to number. Provincial review is allowed up to 20 working days. Guangdong and Zhejiang often run in three to five. Some provinces use the full window, and there is no way to speed that up.
“Done” means two things: you have a 备案号, and it appears in the MIIT public database at beian.miit.gov.cn. A screenshot of a submitted form is not a filing. Always ask for the number and check it yourself.
What we need from you
- Company name in English and Chinese, or the partner entity we file under
- Domain name, registered with real-name verification
- A mainland server or hosting account, or we provide one
- Legal representative passport scan, and availability for a short face verification
- One paragraph on what the site does, in plain language. We write the Chinese version.
That is the whole list. No business plan, no office lease, no local staff.
Why filings get rejected
- Domain registrant does not match the filing entity. The single most common cause.
- Server provider is not the filing channel. The filing goes through whoever hosts the IP. Moving the site later means a new filing.
- Site name contains restricted words. 中国, 中华, 国家, 银行, 新闻 and similar terms trigger extra review or refusal.
- Content category does not match the site. Filing as a corporate profile while the homepage is a store gets bounced.
- Site is unreachable during review. Reviewers open it. A maintenance page or a login wall fails.
- Missing 核验. The legal representative has to complete identity verification. Skipping it stalls the file indefinitely.
We check all six before submission. It is a fifteen minute pass and it saves three weeks.
Common questions
Can a foreign company file an ICP directly?
Not directly. MIIT requires a mainland-registered entity. A foreign company files through one: its own representative office, branch or WFOE, or a partner entity under a written agreement. The three paths above are the realistic options.
How long does it take?
Two to three weeks for a website, three weeks for an app. Provincial review controls the clock, not us, and we do not promise a date we cannot hold.
Do I need to be in China?
No. The legal representative completes identity verification once, remotely or at a Chinese consulate depending on the province. We schedule it and stay on the call.
Can I file a .com, .io or .ai domain?
Yes. Any TLD works as long as the domain passes real-name verification and the registrant matches the filing entity.
What if I change the domain or the company name later?
That is a change filing (变更备案), one to two weeks, and it is billed separately. Decide the domain and app name before we start. Renaming after the fact is more expensive than waiting a week.
My site is already live on a mainland server. What happens now?
It will be blocked once the provider’s audit catches it, usually within weeks. Filing retroactively is the same process and the same timeline, so start before the block rather than after.
On filing under someone else’s entity. The entity that holds the filing carries the legal responsibility for the site’s content, including user complaints and refunds. That is why the agreement matters more than the price. Ours is four pages and covers IP ownership, the exit and transfer mechanism, the 48 hour refund obligation, and our right to cancel the filing if you stop responding to complaints. We send it before you pay anything.
Thirty minutes, no charge, and the answer is sometimes “you don’t need this yet.”