Skip to main content

​
Overview

​
Identifiers

Collect two identifiers from each business customer in Timor-Leste and submit them as strings on the application body. Tax ID: Numeric, issued at registration; certificate called Certificado de NIF. Registration number: Assigned upon commercial registration; appears on Certidão de Registo Comercial.

​
Sector regulators

BCTL

​
How documents combine

For each evidence area, this table shows whether the listed documents are alternatives (any one of) or a bundle (all required). The artifact-by-artifact lookup follows below.

​
Documents to collect

The physical documents you’ll collect from your customer, with the evidence area each one proves. One document can prove multiple areas — for example, Brazil’s Cartão CNPJ covers both tax and business-registration proof, so it appears once with both areas listed.

​
Collection notes

  • Legal Registration: Issued by SERVE I.P.; covers name, number, type, seat, status; free to obtain. Decree-Law 16/2017 governs registration procedure (1–5 business days).
  • Constitutive Documents: Filed with SERVE I.P. at formation; constitutive document setting capital, governance, and quotas/shares.
  • Tax Registration: Issued by ATTL/DNRD; required before commencement of business; distinct from tax-clearance (Certidão de Dívidas).
  • Operating Permit: Issued by the competent sectoral ministry or municipality; required by industry. No single unified municipal alvará exists nationally.
  • Sector-Specific License: Banco Central de Timor-Leste (BCTL) licenses banks, insurers, payment institutions, and FX dealers. Required only for financial-sector applicants.
  • Governance Records: Filed with SERVE I.P.; Lda. managed by Gerente(s) appointed by quota holders; S.A. governed by Conselho de Administração.
  • Signing Authority: Quota-holder or board resolution granting signing authority; notarised POA for third-party representatives.
  • Address: Conduit universal policy: lease (no time bound) OR utility bill OR bank statement, with utility/bank dated within 90 days. Same evidence satisfies both registered-address and operating-address checks.
  • Good Standing: Timor-Leste’s SERVE I.P. does not issue a separate Certificate of Good Standing. The Certidão de Registo Comercial is dated, free to obtain, and carries the entity’s current legal status, registered seat, and corporate officers; under the Portuguese-tradition registo comercial model it serves the same live-status function as a CoGS. Request a Certidão dated within 30 days for banking use.

​
Person roles

When you submit a person on the application body, set their role to one of Conduit’s canonical BusinessPersonRole values. Use this table to map a local corporate-governance title onto the right canonical role.

​
Notes

  • USD functional currency. Timor-Leste uses the US Dollar as its sole official currency (no national currency); no FX conversion risk on USD-denominated capital or transactions.
  • SERVE registration is free and fast (1–5 days) under Decree-Law 16/2017, but sector operating licences from line ministries are separate and timeline/cost varies; confirm licence status independently.
  • Foreign ownership cap in petroleum and media. Foreigners may own up to 100% in most sectors, but petroleum and media communications have sub-100% foreign ownership limits — verify sector before onboarding.
  • Lei 10/2017 replaced Law 4/2004 as the governing commercial companies statute; any pre-2017 constitutional documents were issued under the old law — check for updated Estatutos filed post-September 2017 (Lei 10/2017 entered force 120 days after 17 May 2017 publication).