Bahrain company search: the owners of any Bahrain company, free on Sijilat

Bahrain keeps one register for every commercial registration, run by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce on Sijilat. Companies, branches and sole traders all sit in it, so a single search covers them.

1. Open the public CR search

   It's on Sijilat's public pages. You don't sign in, and you don't need a Bahraini identity card.

   Free
2. Use the CR number if you have it

   It's printed on invoices, letterheads and contracts. Type it without the branch suffix after the hyphen. A number search returns one record; a name search may return several with similar wording.

3. Try the Arabic name if English fails

   Records carry both. A transliterated English name can differ from the one on your paperwork, so the Arabic spelling is the safer key.

4. Open each section of the result

   Partners, signatories, activities and branches sit in separate parts of the page. The next chapter walks through them.

Tap through the parts of a record below. The company is invented; the fields are the ones Sijilat's result page uses.

The partner on the record and the person in control are often the same in Bahrain, because most companies are owned by people, not by other companies. When they differ, the gap sits in a filing you can't read.

So when a partner on the record is another company, search that company in its own register. When it's a Bahrain company, that's simply another Sijilat search.

A Bahrain CR isn't permanent. It's renewed every year, BD 50 plus the activity fees, and the record shows the date it runs to. A date in the past is the first thing to ask about: the company may still exist, but it's behind with the Ministry, and the fines grow every month under Resolution 129 of 2016.

Read the status line next to it. Active means it's trading. Expired, Cancelled, Deleted or Under Liquidation mean you shouldn't rely on it, and those records stay listed so you can still find them.

Past three years, a 2024 order is reported to switch to BD 500 for each further year, capped at BD 5,000. Restoring a registration afterwards is its own BD 50 fee under Resolution 128 of 2016.

The screen is enough to check a company yourself. When a bank, court or another registry wants paper, these are the Ministry's fees from Resolution 128 of 2016 and the Sijilat FAQ.

Using a Bahrain extract in another country usually needs the apostille on top.

Tick off what you've done. Each line is something the free record lets you test.

• The CR number on the invoice matches the recordSame name in English and Arabic, same number.
• The expiry date is in the futureA lapsed date means fines are running and something's behind.
• The person signing your contract is a listed signatoryCheck their level too: some can sign alone, some only jointly.
• The activities cover what they're selling youA trading CR selling consulting, or the reverse, is a reason to ask.
• The bank account is in the company's exact namePayment to a person or a differently named company is the classic warning.
• Any partner that's a company has been searched tooIn its own country's register.

If you form a Bahrain company, someone will search you this way too: a supplier, a bank, a future partner. Here's what they'll find on a single owner WLL formed with us.

Prefer your company's name in the partner line? A holding company can own the WLL, and then that company is what the search shows. You remain on the owner filing either way, and we keep it up to date for you. Our Bahrain company is BD 1,490 to start and BD 1,090 a year, renewal before the expiry date included, so your own record never shows a lapsed CR. Each yearly date is set out in Bahrain annual fees and filings.