Includes steps involved in establishing a local office.
Last Published: 8/8/2017

The U.S. Embassy can provide only basic counseling on registration requirements and procedures. The U.S. Embassy strongly recommends that interested U.S. companies seek legal advice on business registration.  The U.S. Embassy can provide contact information for local consulting firms that offer professional legal advice in this area.

Every company doing business in Moldova must be registered with Moldovan authorities.  The following laws regulate the registration and activities of companies in the Republic of Moldova: the Civil Code, the Law on Enterprises and Entrepreneurship, the Law on Joint-Stock Companies, the Law on State Registration of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs, the Law on Limited Liability Company and the Law on Joint-Stock Companies.

According to Moldovan legislation, a foreign company may be registered as one of the following entities: sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, limited liability company, joint stock company, cooperative, or representation or branch office.

The limited liability company is the most popular form of legal registration among foreign businesses operating in Moldova.  Joint-stock companies are a distant second.   In choosing the registration mode, companies must consider the advantages and disadvantages of one over another.  For example, by Moldovan law, a foreign company registered as a representation or branch office does not have a legal entity status and cannot engage in economic activities.  For example, Microsoft has a representative in Moldova who does not sell Microsoft products. The Microsoft representative observes the activities of its distributors to ensure compliance with Microsoft quality standards and rules.  Other companies distribute Microsoft software through sales in Moldova.  U.S. businesses may prefer to seek majority ownership stakes in joint ventures to minimize risks.

Business registration is done with the Moldovan State Registration Chamber, which keeps theState Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs.  By law, registration should take five days in a standard procedure or four hours in the event of a sped-up procedure and is done in two stages.  The first stage involves submission of an application and a set of documents, the type of which may vary depending on the legal form of the business (LLC, joint-stock company, sole proprietorship, etc.).  At the second stage, the State Registration Chamber issues a registration certificate and a unique identification number for the business conferring full legal capacity to the entity.  In 2010, the government introduced the “one-stop-shop” principle, under which businesses were relieved of the requirement to register with fiscal, statistical, social security or health insurance authorities.

For the purpose of registration, a foreign company must provide the following documents: application for registration; resolution of establishment of the local company (indicating the senior manager and person authorized to sign constitutive documents); constitutive documents (articles of incorporation, charter, etc.); and excerpts from the commercial register of the foreign company’s home country.

Any foreign citizen who founds a new company or acts as a senior manager must provide a copy of her/his foreign passport and criminal records from her/his country of origin and Moldova.  Foreigners have also to submit copies of their passports and residence permits.

The regular procedure requires foreign companies to notarize copies of constitutive documents with the Consular Office of the Moldovan Embassy in Washington D.C. and have them translated into Romanian.

In March 2006, the Moldovan Parliament ratified the 1961 Hague Convention on Abolishing the Requirement for Legalization for Foreign Public Documents.  Acceptance of U.S. apostilles applied on official documents simplifies the legalization of official documents.

Following registration, certain types of business activities require the issuance of a license. While most businesses are licensed via a one-stop shop procedure, certain specialized activities require other regulating agencies to issue licenses: the National Bank, the National Financial Market Commission, the National Energy Regulatory Agency, the National Electronic Communications and IT Regulatory Agency, and the Audiovisual Coordinating Council.

To get a license, a business must file an application and provide a copy of the business registration certificate as well as additional documents, the number and type of which will vary by business activity.  Aside from licenses, businesses may be required to obtain other authorizations and certificates, which will differ by business activity and product.  Such documents may deal, for example, with sanitary, environmental, fire security and safety compliance issues.

Prepared by our U.S. Embassies abroad. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the U.S. Commercial Service trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.