International Business Search: Best Practices

This guide covers how to get the best results from International Business Search. For a step-by-step walkthrough, see the API Quickstart; for the overview and country list, see Baselayer International Products.

Name + address is the standard, offer the registration number as an option

POST /international/searches works well with just name + address, and that's all you need for the vast majority of verifications. You don't need the registration number to get good results.

That said, offering the registration number as an optional input is a nice touch. In many countries, owners and finance staff know their company's registration number by heart, so letting them type it in is fast and familiar.

Pass filing_number (with iso2_country_code) whenever the user provides it.
When filing_number is provided, the registry is searched by that number first; a name, if also included, is used as a fallback when no company matches the number.

Tip: Localize the field label to the term your users know. In Spain, for example, the registration number is the CIF. Labeling the input with the local term (rather than a generic "registration number") makes it obvious what to enter and improves completion.

Optional: smooth out low match rates with a registration lookup

If you notice match rates in a particular market aren't as high as you'd like, you can offer users a smoother path with GET /international/registrations: list the candidate registrations, let the user pick the right one, then search using that result's filing_number.

The flow:

List candidates: GET /international/registrationsreturns a list of matching registrations.
Let the user pick the correct entity from that list.
Search: take the filing_number from the chosen result and pass it to POST /international/searches for the complete business profile.

// 1. Find candidates
GET /international/registrations?iso2_country_code=GB&name=Acme%20Ltd

// 2. User selects the right one → take its filing_number

// 3. Verify that exact entity
POST /international/searches
{ "filing_number": "01234567", "iso2_country_code": "GB" }

This lets the user confirm the specific company they intended before you run the search, which can help in markets where name-based matching is trickier.

Note: This is a nice-to-have, not a requirement. A plain name + address search is the standard, fully-supported path and works well on its own. Reach for the registration lookup only if you want to improve the experience.

Request Enhanced Profiles when you need ownership depth

By default a search returns the core registration profile (name, file number, status, country). To also return directors, ultimate beneficial owners (UBOs), shareholders, and share capital, add the Order.Enhanced option:

POST /international/searches
{
  "filing_number": "01234567",
  "iso2_country_code": "GB",
  "options": ["Order.Enhanced"]
}

Enhanced Profiles are billed separately, per country. Coverage and available fields vary by jurisdiction. Contact your account manager for more details.

Expect data depth to vary by country

International Business Search covers 75+ jurisdictions through different corporate registries, and the depth of data differs between them. Design for this:

Treat core fields as guaranteed, extras as best-effort. name, file_number, status, and country are present everywhere; richer detail depends on the jurisdiction.
Country availability can change as registry access evolves. Confirm the current list in the Basics guide or with your account manager.

Reuse your US scoring and matching logic

International Business Search returns the same KYB and Risk ratings as the US product, computed with the same methodology and on the same scale. It also uses a very similar matching logic. You can apply the same thresholds and decisioning you already use for US searches, no separate calibration required. See Scores & Ratings.

Read the match indicators like you do in the US

Every result includes match signals that behave just like the US Business Search:

business_name_match: EXACT / SIMILAR / NO_MATCH (identical to the US).
business_address_match: EXACT / CITY / REGION / COUNTRY / NO_MATCH (international granularity).
filing_number_match: an international-only boolean - true if the registration number you sent located the company, false if the search fell back to name matching, and null if none was sent.

Use business_name_match and business_address_match in your decisioning exactly as you do for US searches. filing_number_match is also a useful way to monitor your registration-number option: if it's frequently false, users are likely entering a number that doesn't resolve for that jurisdiction - a signal to revisit the field's label or help text (see offer the registration number above).

Prefer webhooks over polling

International searches are asynchronous. Subscribe to InternationalBusinessSearch.completed (and .failed) rather than polling GET /international_searches/{id} on a tight loop, it's more efficient and gives you results as soon as they're ready. See the Webhooks Guide.

Know what International Business Search does not do

No TIN verification: IRS TIN matching is US-only.
No online-presence add-ons on the search: for website analysis, industry prediction, and other online-presence signals internationally, use the Web Presence endpoint (POST /web_presence_requests), which supports international requests via iso2_country_code. See Baselayer International Products.
API only: International Business Search is not available in the Console today (coming soon).
Country-specific pricing: negotiated separately from your US contract.

Putting It All Together

A strong international KYB integration:

Uses name + address as the default: and gets great results with it
Offers the registration number as an optional, locally-labeled input where users are likely to know it
Adds Enhanced Profiles only when you need ownership depth
Reuses your existing US scoring and matching thresholds, since they are similar
Falls back to the registration lookup if necessary

Get those right and international verification behaves like a natural extension of your US flow: same ratings, same matching logic, same webhook pattern, with a bit of per-country awareness.

Where to Go Next

International Business Search: API Quickstart: The step-by-step walkthrough, from request to response.
Baselayer International Products: Supported countries and international Web Presence.
Scores & Ratings: How KYB and Risk ratings are calculated.