This article will provide you with some insights on attesting Hong Kong company's statutory documents (e.g. Certificate of Incorporation and Business Registration Certificate) by the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Hong Kong.
Pre-attestation
Before bringing the relevant documents to the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Hong Kong, you should arrange certification of the said documents first. To achieve this, you can either go to a notary public or a commercial camber in Hong Kong (e.g. the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce) to arrange for certification. In this article, we will focus on the latter approach because it is less costly (please contact our advisor for connecting you with a notarization service if you would like to have a notary public to help).
In order to apply for certification by a Chamber, you will need to submit an application to your selected Chamber, in general, it only takes a day or two to complete the certification process. However, it is required by the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia that a Certificate of Business Identity issued by a Chamber should also be presented while applying for the attestation service, the said certificate is served as a proof that the entity in question is legally and actively doing business in Hong Kong.
Certificate of Business Identity
A Certificate of Business Identity will show the following information of the entity in question:
Business registration status;
Bona fide nature of carrying on business in Hong Kong;
Physical location(s) and contact to operate business; and / or
Corporate profiles – qualifications, licenses and other recognitions etc.
The Chamber is required to conduct due diligence before issuing the certificate, hence, if the entity in question is a recently incorporated / have not entered into any business contract / do not have a physical office (e.g. using a virtual business address), the Chamber may not be able to issue the certificate (except the entity in question is backed by a financially strong company e.g. a company listed in a stock exchange). Therefore, companies that wish to enter into Saudi Arabia market is recommended to make a comprehensive plan at least 6 - 12 months before.
In general, if everything goes smooth, the issuance of Certificate of Business Identity will take 1 - 2 week(s) to complete, the fee of applying for the said certificate is around USD260 (in year 2022), taking the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce as an example.
Attestation Service
After obtaining the certified document(s) and Certificate of Business Identity, the entity in question can submit the application for attestation service with the Consulate General of Saudi Arabia in Hong Kong, the service fee is under USD10 per signature (in year 2022). The whole processing time can be last for 2 - 3 week(s).
LibraryStone Services
LibraryStone is professional service firm that can help companies in Hong Kong to deal with the above-mentioned time consuming tasks for obtaining the attested documents as required for their business need in Saudi Arabia. Please feel free to contact us for more insights and advice.