On 1 February 2010, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) released the Administrative Rules on Registration of Foreign-Invested Partnership Enterprises (the SAIC Rules).
The State Council Measures confirm the streamlined registration timeline under the 2007 PRC Partnership Enterprise Law (the Partnership Law), i.e., the AIC may effect the registration on the spot or within 20 days after the AIC accepts the application.
In addition to this general timeline, the SAIC Rules further provide that with respect to (a) projects that fall within the restricted category under the Catalogue but without statutory pre-approval requirements or (b) other projects that involve the consideration of other government department(s), the AIC has to seek written opinion from the relevant government department(s) within 5 days from the FIP establishment application being accepted. The AIC has to decide whether to effect the AIC registration within 5 days from the receipt of the written opinion from the relevant government department(s). This suggests that the establishment timeline for FIPs with projects mentioned under (a) and (b) above could be much longer than 20 days.
