According to the Decision made by the State Council for cancelling Administrative Approval (Guo Fa [2015] No. 27), the approval of the quota of foreign debt issued by enterprises has been cancelled, the management mechanism of foreign debt has been reformed and the filing and registration system has been implemented. Through the registration and information submission of foreign debts issued by enterprises, the macroscopic supervision and management of the scale of borrowing foreign debts can be realized. This article aims to solve frequently asked questions in the form of Q&A for clients’ reference.

Q:	What is foreign debt?
A:	Foreign debit refers to debt instruments with a maturity of more than one year that are borrowed by domestic enterprises and overseas enterprises or branches controlled by domestic enterprises, denominated in domestic or foreign currencies, and repay the principal and interest as agreed upon, including overseas issuance of bonds, medium and long-term international commercial loans, etc.
Q:	Under what circumstances does the foreign debt issued by enterprises need to be filed and registered?
A:	According to relevant regulations, domestic enterprises and overseas enterprises or branches controlled by the domestic enterprises borrowing debt instruments with a maturity of more than one year, denominated in domestic or foreign currencies, and repay the principal and interest as agreed upon, including overseas issuance of bonds, medium and long-term international commercial loans, etc., need to apply to the National Development and Reform Commission for filing and registration in advance.
Q:	Does debt instruments with maturities of one year or more include one year?
A:	No, one year is not included.
Q:	When issuing foreign debts, enterprises must apply to the National Development and Reform Commission for filing and registration in advance. Must the filing and registration be done before signing the contract or before issuing the debt?
A:	Filing and registration needs to be done before the bond issuance or loan withdrawal. Approval for filing and registration of foreign debits must be granted by the National Development and Reform Commission before foreign debt issuance or fund withdrawal.
Q:	What conditions should an enterprise meet to issue foreign debt?
A:	The credit history is good, and the issued bonds or other debts are not in default. It has good corporate governance and foreign debt risk prevention and control mechanisms. The credit status is good, with strong solvency.
Q:	Can the applicant for filing and registration of foreign debt issuance be an overseas enterprise?
A:	No, the filing and registration of foreign debt must be applied by China domestic company with the National Development and Reform Commission.
Q:	How long does it take to file and register foreign debts?
A:	It takes 5 working days to decide whether to accept the application after receiving all the application documents for filing and registration, and another 7 working days to issue the Certificate of Registration of Foreign Debt Borrowed by Enterprises from the date of acceptance.