Just got a call from a United States client who is being told it needs a company seal to put on a document to be filed in China. Their question was whether the seal is “really” required.
We told them they had the following two choices:
1. Pay my law firm a lot of money to figure out whether Chinese law really mandates the company seal for the particular document at issue and also whether the government entity with whom the document will be filed really will require our client’s seal; or
2. Rush order a company seal online from Office Depot for maybe USD $50. “Is it really that easy? She asked. “Yes,” I answered.
Bottom Line: If you are going to be doing business in an emerging market country, make it easy on yourself and get your company seal now.