Translating a Chinese business licence (营业执照)
A business licence is a short document that carries a lot of legal weight. The company type and the nature of the registered capital are where translations quietly misstate what the company is.
What the licence is
The 营业执照 (Business Licence) is issued by the market regulation authority and is the company's proof of legal existence. Since the 2015 "three certificates in one" reform, it also carries the tax registration and organisation code, consolidated into a single unified social credit code.
Two copies exist: 正本 (the original, displayed at the place of business, a large certificate) and 副本 (the duplicate, a smaller booklet used for filings). Both carry the same content. If you are translating the duplicate, say so — a foreign reviewer who knows the system will otherwise wonder where the original is.
Field by field
| Chinese field | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 统一社会信用代码 | Unified Social Credit Code | 18 characters, letters and digits. The one value a foreign registry, bank or counterparty will check. Copy exactly, no spaces |
| 名称 | Name | The registered Chinese name. See below on English names |
| 类型 | Type | See the table of company types |
| 住所 | Domicile | The registered address. Not "residence" |
| 法定代表人 | Legal representative | Not "legal person" — the company is the legal person; this is the individual authorised to act for it |
| 注册资本 | Registered capital | With currency. Note the subscription point below |
| 成立日期 | Date of establishment | |
| 营业期限 | Business term | A date range, or 长期 / 永续经营 (indefinite) |
| 经营范围 | Business scope | Often the longest field on the licence, and it must be translated in full |
| 登记机关 | Registration authority | Named in the seal |
| 登记日期 / 核准日期 | Date of registration / approval | |
| 二维码 | QR code | Describe it: [QR code] — do not attempt to encode anything |
Company types
| Chinese | English |
|---|---|
| 有限责任公司 | Limited liability company |
| 有限责任公司（自然人独资） | Limited liability company (sole proprietorship by a natural person) |
| 有限责任公司（法人独资） | Limited liability company (wholly owned by a legal person) |
| 有限责任公司（外商投资企业） | Limited liability company (foreign-invested enterprise) |
| 股份有限公司 | Joint stock limited company |
| 个人独资企业 | Sole proprietorship enterprise |
| 合伙企业（普通合伙） | Partnership (general partnership) |
| 合伙企业（有限合伙） | Partnership (limited partnership) |
| 个体工商户 | Individually owned business |
| 农民专业合作社 | Farmers' specialised cooperative |
| 分公司 | Branch |
| 国有独资公司 | Wholly state-owned company |
The parenthetical matters. 有限责任公司（自然人独资）is a one-person LLC, which is a materially different thing from a multi-shareholder LLC when someone is assessing control or liability. Keep the bracket.
Registered capital: the subscription trap
Since the 2014 company law reform, registered capital is generally subscribed, not paid up. A licence showing 注册资本 RMB 10,000,000 does not mean ten million was contributed; it means the shareholders undertook to contribute it, on a schedule recorded in the company's registration file.
The licence itself does not distinguish. So translate the field as registered capital and resist any temptation to render it as "paid-in capital" or "capitalisation". If the reader needs to know what was actually paid, that comes from the registration file or an audit report, not from the licence.
Note also that the 2023 amendments to the Company Law introduced time limits for contributing subscribed capital for companies established after 1 July 2024. If the licence is being used to demonstrate substance, this is a question worth asking a Chinese lawyer, not a translation issue.
Business scope
The 经营范围 is a controlled vocabulary, and it is legally load-bearing: a Chinese company may only conduct business inside its scope. It commonly ends with a formula like:
（依法须经批准的项目，经相关部门批准后方可开展经营活动） (For items subject to approval by law, business activities may only be conducted after approval by the relevant authorities.)
Translate the whole thing, including that closing formula. It is not boilerplate to a reader assessing whether the company is licensed for a given activity — it tells them some of the listed items require a separate permit.
Items are separated by 、 or ；. Keep them as a list in the same order rather than merging them into a sentence.
The company's English name
Chinese companies often have an English name in marketing use that is not on the licence. Do not substitute it.
Give the registered Chinese name, a translation of it, and, if there is a known English trading name, note it separately as such. A foreign registry searching for the entity will search the Chinese name or the credit code, and a translation that presents only a marketing name gives them nothing to search.
Seals
[Round red seal: XX Municipal Administration for Market Regulation] [QR code] [National emblem printed at the top of the certificate]
Related documents you may also need
A business licence rarely travels alone. For overseas registration, banking or litigation, the set commonly includes:
- 公司章程 Articles of Association
- 股东名册 Register of shareholders
- 董事会决议 Board resolution
- 法定代表人身份证明 Certificate of the legal representative's identity
- 审计报告 Audit report
- 完税证明 Tax payment records — see tax records
For use abroad these usually go through notarisation and an apostille. A business licence is a public registry document; the resolutions and the articles are private documents that must be notarised before they can be apostilled. See apostilles on Chinese documents.
Mistakes that matter
法定代表人 rendered as "legal person". The company is the legal person. This field is the individual who represents it. "Legal representative" is the established term.
住所 rendered as "residence". It is the registered domicile of the company.
The credit code retyped with spaces or in lowercase. It is 18 characters, case as printed, no grouping.
Business scope summarised. Every item is there because the company applied for it, and the list defines what it may lawfully do.
注册资本 presented as paid-in capital. Overstates the company's substance, in a document usually submitted precisely to establish substance.
营业期限 of 长期 rendered as "long term". It means indefinite or perpetual.
FAQ
Is the unified social credit code the same as a tax number?
Since the 2015 consolidation, yes — it serves as the tax registration number as well as the registration and organisation code.
Do I need to translate both the original and the duplicate?
No. They carry identical content. Translate one and identify which one it is.
How do I verify a Chinese business licence?
The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System publishes registration data by credit code or company name. A reviewer can check the licence against it, which is another reason the code has to be transcribed exactly.
The licence has been amended. Which version do I translate?
The current one. If the history matters — a name change, a capital increase — the registration archive file (工商档案) records it, and that is a separate document.
Does a business licence need an apostille to be used abroad?
If the receiving authority wants it authenticated, yes. It is a public document, so it can generally be apostilled without prior notarisation, unlike the articles and resolutions that usually accompany it.
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Related guides
- Translating a Chinese individual income tax record (纳税记录)The 2019 reform replaced the old 完税证明 with the 纳税记录. Every field, all nine income categories in English, and the verification code that lets a reviewer check the document themselves.
- Translating a Chinese notarial certificate (公证书)How the notarial booklet is structured, what the certificate number encodes, the standard notarial wording, and the difference between a certificate of a fact and a certificate that a copy matches the original.
- Certified, notarised, sworn, apostilled — which one do you actually needFour words that get used interchangeably and mean four unrelated things. What each one certifies, who can produce it, roughly what it costs, and how to tell which your case requires.
About this page
This page explains rules published by third parties. It is general information, not legal or immigration advice, and requirements change — check the receiving authority's own current page before you rely on anything here. Every external rule cited is linked so you can do exactly that.
CertTwin is software that produces a translation draft marked PREVIEW_ONLY for you to review. It is not a certified translation service, not a law firm, and it does not certify, notarise or swear translations. Where a certified or sworn translation is required, that step is done by you or by a qualified translator.