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International Business Search: API Quickstart

This quickstart covers the Business Verification side of Baselayer International Search product, which returns corporate registration data for businesses in 76 supported jurisdictions. For the conceptual overview (and for international Web Presence), see International Products: Basics.
Note: International Business Search is API-only for now, and uses a separate route from the US Business Search (/international/searches, not /searches). The two are not interchangeable.

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Before you start

  • You need a Baselayer API key. Requests are authenticated the same way as every other Baselayer endpoint. See Authentication.
  • You can develop against the sandbox before going live. See Sandbox vs. Production Environments.
  • Every request must include an iso2_country_code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, e.g. GB, DE, CA). It must be one of the 76 supported countries listed in the Basics guide.
POST /international/searches accepts two ways to identify a business. Both require iso2_country_code. Name + address is the standard approach, and all you need for the vast majority of searches, treat it as your default. The registration number is a good optional input to offer alongside it. In many countries, owners and finance staff know their company’s registration number by heart, so letting them enter it is fast and familiar. When filing_number is provided, the registry is searched by that number first; a name, if also provided, is used as a fallback when no company matches the number. With a filing_number, name and address are each optional; without one, both are required.
Tip: Label the registration-number field with the local term so users recognize it: for example, in Spain it’s the CIF. See Best Practices for more.

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Step 2 (optional add-on): Offer a registration lookup

This step is entirely optional and not needed for a great result. If you find match rates in a particular market could be better, you can offer users a smoother path: look up candidates with GET /international/registrations, show them the list, and let them pick the right one. Then search using that result’s filing_number.
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Query parameters: iso2_country_code, name, and/or filing_number. The endpoint returns a list of matching registrations to choose from. Take the filing_number of the chosen result and use it in Step 3. Think of this as a nice enhancement, not a requirement: a plain name + address search is a perfectly good one-step flow.
By name + address:
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By filing number (e.g. a filing_number chosen from Step 2):
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Optional fields (either mode): officer_names, website, phone_number, email, alternative_names, and reference_id (your internal tracking ID). Enhanced Profile add-on: to also return directors, ultimate beneficial owners, shareholders, and share capital where available, request the Order.Enhanced option. It is billed separately, and cost varies per country.
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Step 4: Get the results

International Business Search is asynchronous. The POST returns immediately with an id; retrieve results when the search completes, via webhook (recommended) or polling.
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Webhooks:
  • InternationalBusinessSearch.submitted: accepted and processing
  • InternationalBusinessSearch.completed: results are available
  • InternationalBusinessSearch.failed: no associated business was found
See the Webhooks at Baselayer to configure delivery.

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Step 5: Read the response

A completed search returns a business object. These fields are present across all countries:
  • name: the official registered name
  • file_number: the registration/filing number in the local registry
  • status: normalized to active, inactive, or unknown
  • country: the ISO2 country code of the registration
The response also tells you how well your inputs matched the company found at the registry, the same match signals the US Business Search returns:
  • business_name_match: how closely your name matched: EXACT, SIMILAR, or NO_MATCH (identical to the US).
  • business_address_match: how closely your address matched, at international granularity: EXACT, CITY, REGION, COUNTRY, or NO_MATCH.
  • filing_number_match: a boolean specific to international search: true if the filing_number you supplied located the company at the registry, false if the search fell back to the name, and null if you didn’t supply a filing number.
Any match field is null when the corresponding input wasn’t provided. Use business_name_match and business_address_match for decisioning exactly as you do for US searches. The response also includes watchlist_hits: the company, any alternative_names you sent, and its current officers and beneficial owners are screened against OFAC, CSL, FBI, Canadian sanctions and OIG (plus PEP when you order Order.Pep), following your Account Settings. Each entry has code, name, count and details. A count of 0 means screened with no match; a list that’s absent wasn’t screened. A confirmed OFAC hit sets Risk to 0 / F. International Business Search also returns KYB and Risk ratings on the same scale as the US product, with the same grade bands (A ≥ 90, B ≥ 80, C ≥ 60; only A and B count as verified), so you can apply your existing thresholds. The KYB score only counts the inputs you sent. See the international scoring section and Scores & Ratings.
Important: Data depth varies by country. Most countries return the core registration fields above; some return more. status is always normalized to active / inactive / unknown.

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End-to-End Flow Summary

That’s a complete international business verification:
  1. Identify the business: by name + address (the default), or by registration number where the user has it.
  2. Create the search: POST /international/searches with iso2_country_code, optionally adding Order.Enhanced for ownership data.
  3. Receive results: via the InternationalBusinessSearch.completed webhook, or by polling GET /international/searches/{id}.
  4. Decide: read the business object and apply your existing KYB and Risk thresholds.
With this in place, you can verify businesses across 76 jurisdictions through the same request-and-webhook pattern you already use for US searches.

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Where to Go Next

  • International Products: Best Practices — Offering and localizing the registration-number field, when to use Enhanced Profiles, what varies by country, and how to handle low match rates.
  • International Products: Basics — The full overview: supported countries and international Web Presence.
  • Scores & Ratings — How KYB and Risk ratings are calculated and how to threshold on them.
  • Webhooks — Configuring delivery for InternationalBusinessSearch events.