Apostille Korea offers administrative agency solution for companies expanding abroad Documents for setting up an overseas branch must be translated and notarised in the local language, then legalised by the foreign ministry or the relevant embassy in Korea.

Apostille Korea said it provides a comprehensive administrative agency solution for Korean companies expanding overseas. The service handles the issuance and legalisation of the administrative documents required across corporate operations, from branch establishment to personnel deployment, procurement and human resources records.

Paperwork becomes the bottleneck for overseas expansion

In March, a mid-sized Korean construction company reportedly ran into difficulty while surveying the documents, costs and timelines needed to establish a branch in Vietnam, finding the procedure complex and the time and expense hard to absorb. Documents for overseas expansion vary from one to another in cost, price, issuing body and issuing authority, so it is not easy to map out the process in advance. Every document must also be translated into Vietnamese and notarised, then legalised by the foreign ministry or by the Vietnamese embassy in Korea, which makes the procedure complicated and demanding. This is not unique to Vietnam, and countries such as those in the Middle East and Latin America, as well as China, are noted as requiring even more complex preparation. Concern is being raised that beyond branch establishment, the burden of assembling complex administrative documents across hiring, business travel, personnel deployment, procurement and human resources records can undermine corporate initiative and productivity.

Why companies turn to an agency service

Apostille Korea explained that the documents a company preparing to expand abroad must assemble differ in content from one record to another, and that the issuance, notarisation and legalisation processes are equally complex. Because these are documents used internationally, the company says the safest route is to work through an agency with recognised standing and an international network. It provides a business-to-business administrative agency solution covering markets worldwide. Meanwhile, the government has continued support policies for Korean companies going abroad, and the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced on the 3rd that it would run a 2017 programme supporting overseas expansion in the smart content industry. Policy bodies are also offering incentives such as tax reductions to encourage expansion. Even so, it is argued that the effect of such support is halved because the issuance and preparation of the administrative documents required for overseas expansion has not improved.

Frequently asked questions

Source: SBSCNBC · 2017-04-13