Be Your Representative Office/Branch in Iraq

Representative office or branch A representative office is the simplest way to establish a presence in Iraq for exploring, marketing, negotiations and feasibility study activities. The representative office is not allowed to engage in commercial activities or transactions. The advantages of setting up a representative office include establishing a legal presence, the ease in converting it into a branch once a governmental contract is obtained, being able to keep the name of the parent company, and reducing the time required to register it as it usually takes about a month to a month and a half to be registered from the date of submission of the application to the Registrar of Companies.

This is one of the relatively faster and simpler ways to set up a company in Iraq.

Steps Required:

• Company submits application
• OCR checks application for completeness and correctness
• Company pays part of the registration fee
• Company collects registration certificate of the branch or representative office 

Initially, all applications are registered as representative offices, with no ability to engage in commercial trade until the foreign company has negotiated a contract with either the Iraqi. Once a foreign company has a governmental contract, it may apply to transfer its status from representative office to branch. The company will maintain branch status and be authorized to do business in Iraq for the duration of the contract. Therefore, foreign companies may benefit from the use of their brand in Iraq; however, the parent companies assume all legal and financial liability for their branch or representative offices in Iraq. Some investors may consider this to be a drawback.