Company registration certificate for a Romanian SRL

Two different certificates, one confusing name

Foreign founders are frequently asked to "send the company registration certificate" and reply with the wrong document. Romania issues two things that both translate loosely that way, and only one of them is what a bank, a notary or a corporate client normally wants.

The first is the certificate of registration (certificat de înregistrare), which carries the company's unique registration code, or CUI. It is issued once, when the SRL is incorporated, and is only reissued if the details printed on it change. It is the company's identity card.

The second is the certificat constatator, the constative certificate issued on request by the Trade Register. It sets out the company's situation as recorded on the day it is issued: registered office and how long the right to use it runs, activity codes, administrators and their powers of representation, share capital, company status and any secondary establishments. This is the document meant when someone asks for a certificate "not older than 30 days".

If your counterparty asks for a document with a freshness requirement, they are asking for the second one.

What the certificat constatator is used for

For a Romanian SRL owned by foreign shareholders, the same short list comes up again and again:

• opening the company bank account, and later for any credit facility;
• leasing vehicles or equipment;
• public procurement files;
• notarial deeds, including buying property in the company's name or a share transfer;
• registering a vehicle in the company's name;
• grant and funding applications;
• onboarding as a supplier with larger corporate clients, whose compliance teams request it as standard.

It is also the cleanest way to prove a change once it has been filed, for example after you change the administrator, add a shareholder or move the registered office. The Trade Register decision proves that a filing was approved on a given date; the certificate shows what the company looks like now.

How to obtain it, and what it actually costs

The Trade Register is the issuer. The official fee for the standard constative certificate is 30 RON. Anything above that is an intermediary's service fee, which is legitimate but should be shown to you separately rather than folded into a single unexplained price.

There are three practical routes. You can request it yourself through the Trade Register's online services portal, which is the cheapest option but requires a qualified electronic signature. You can request it at the counter, which means being in Romania during opening hours. Or you can order it through an intermediary and receive it by email, paying the fee plus a commission.

For reference, the same team behind this site also runs cautarefirme.ro, a Romanian company data platform where the standard certificate can be ordered for 69 RON in total, that is the 30 RON Trade Register fee plus a 39 RON service fee, using only the company's CUI. We mention it as our own service rather than as a neutral recommendation. Orders there are processed manually, Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00, and the site is in Romanian.

Validity, translation and use abroad

Romanian law does not set a general validity period for the certificate: it describes the company's situation on the date of issue. In practice the requesting institution sets its own limit, most often "issued within the last 30 days", sometimes 15 or 90. The practical rule is not to order it weeks before you actually need to file it.

If the certificate is going to be used outside Romania, expect two extra steps. A sworn translation into the destination language is almost always required, and depending on the country and the institution an apostille may also be needed. Both add time and cost, so confirm the exact requirement with whoever is asking before you order anything, rather than assuming.

Before you pay: what the free public data already tells you

A large part of what people order a certificate for is simply information, and Romanian company data is public. Identification details, registered office, activity codes, company status and the annual financial statements filed with the tax authorities can all be looked up free of charge, without an account, on public company directories, including our own cautarefirme.ro. Our guide on how to check a Romanian company before you sign covers what those checks can and cannot answer.

Pay for the certificate when you need an official document for a file, not when you need to satisfy your own curiosity. One further detail worth knowing: when a change has just been filed and approved, the Trade Register issues a free information sheet reflecting the updated situation, which is often enough for internal use.

Pricing for our services

Formation for foreign citizens starts from €300, with a registered office from €150 per year and a combined remote SRL and registered office package from €450. Later company changes start from €200. As always, the final quote depends on your citizenship, your documents, the number of shareholders, whether translations are required, and whether the shareholder is an individual or a foreign legal entity.

Tell us which certificate you were asked for

If someone has asked your company for a certificate and you are not sure which one is meant, send us the request wording, your company details and your country of residence, by WhatsApp or through the contact form. We will tell you which document applies, whether a translation or apostille is likely to be needed, and how to obtain it in the least expensive way.