hello,
I have done some research on the internet on opening a restaurant or cafe. I thought that I would be too expensive in china, but I read that it is required to register as a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise, costing about 7000 kuai if you do it on your own, and a starting capital of at least 500 000 kuai is required to ensure that your application will be approved by the local government. Does anyone know more about this?
Popular opinion is to go forward with your project and when you see you make enough profit to justify paying taxes then register.......
Unless, of course, you have to invest considerable ammounts to begin operations........
Recently we registered "Bakery 88" in DaLii as a fully foreign owned limited company.
The procedure is straightforward and it took us 8 months to get there. The figures you mentioned may be allright, however, how much you will need to invest depends largely on the business plan you might have prepared. Unless you have a very good command of Chinese, you certainly rely on a good local lawyer.
Be prepared to travel back to your homecountry, because a few papers, references and certificates have to be notarized.
As up to our experience, the registration in YunNan is very much in line with international law and regulations.
well, if you just start your business without any licenses from the chinese government, wouldnt that cause some problems, for example with the health bureau etc.? doesnt every restaurant have all the different licenses hanging on the wall?
With regard to returning to your home country for notarization of various documentaion, I believe that it may simply require a trip to your embassy in China who are able to notarize foreign documents, etc. But I am prepared to stand corrected
For us, the only serious issue was the "proof of identity" which by reciprocal, international law had to be legalized on our (european) homecountry. This is because european passports are not recognized as a proof of identity (maybe the new american passports are?).
Please note: Your country's embassy (in Beijing?) is regarded as "your home country". They are able to legally notarize most documents from their citizens. It may interest others that documents required in order to marry a Chinese person, could be notarized the same way. Of course, if you do not have all your documentation with you in China, that's another ball game. But you could ask your family to send them to you. I suggest talking to your embassy.
Americans can get notarizations at the American consulate in Chengdu...
I would start by budgeting in a consultant. There are several consultants here who specialize in this and can handle the paperwork. There are other options such as a FIE(Foreign Investment Enterprise) which may apply to your situation. Legal in and out I don't know.
If i were you i would give this company an e-mail and see how they can help. check out there web page.
i have used them for different things on and off during my time here in china. Part of there staff is a local lawyer. so you might try asking them what they think.
they are really great with westerners and work really hard to answer all of your questions.
