🇫🇲How to verify a supplier in Micronesia
To verify a supplier in Micronesia, look the company up for free in the official FSM Registrar of Corporations (Department of Justice) and confirm it is registered and currently active. The registry returns a national FSM Corporation Listing of a few hundred registered entities (weighted toward foreign Major Corporations and captive insurers, not small local shops) as static HTML tables; there is no API, JSON endpoint or bulk file, and detailed incorporation documents require emailing or visiting the Registrar in Palikir, Pohnpei.
The official registry
- Registry
- FSM Registrar of Corporations (Department of Justice)
- Company ID
- corporation number
- Cost
- Free basic lookup
- Active status
- A company on the FSM Corporation Listing is nationally registered, but operating a physical business also needs a state-issued licence (Pohnpei, Chuuk, Yap or Kosrae), so confirm the state licence too before treating an FSM company as a live local supplier.
- Micronesia has NO VAT; it runs a Gross Revenue Tax plus import duties and corporate income tax, so there is no VAT number to validate. Foreigners generally cannot own land, and a physical business is licensed at state level rather than nationally.
- The national register is skewed to a Major Corporations programme (run with the private firm Micronesia Registration Advisors) that courts foreign and captive-insurance entities for a favourable tax regime, so a listing there does not by itself mean a real local maker.
- Real exportable production is artisanal: Pohnpei gourmet black pepper, sakau (kava), copra and coconut products (oil, molasses, meal), banana-fibre paper goods and handicrafts (urohs skirts, Yap and Chuuk wood carvings), plus MSC-certified tuna. The Department of Resources and Development (fsmrd.fm) publishes economic and trade policy, not a company register.
Before you sign: five asks no registry can answer
The register proves the company exists and who signs. It says nothing about whether the supplier survives a bad quarter, a fire or a key person leaving. Serious suppliers answer these five asks without friction; hesitation on any of them is information too.
- Business continuity: what happens to your order if their plant loses power, a strike hits or their systems go down? Ask for the plan, not a reassurance.
- Liability insurance: is product or professional liability insured, with which insurer and to what ceiling? A certificate of insurance is a one-page email for a real firm.
- Exit terms: how do you terminate if it goes wrong, what notice and fees apply, and how do you get your tooling, molds or data back?
- Support in numbers: ask for response and resolution times as figures, not adjectives. A supplier who commits to hours in writing has a support process; one who writes fast support does not.
- Named people: who exactly runs production and who owns your account? Continuity of a named team matters more than a polished sales deck, and employee-review sites often show whether that team stays.
General commercial hygiene, not legal advice.
Verify it in four steps
- 1
Open the FSM Registrar of Corporations (Department of Justice)
FSM Registrar of Corporations (Department of Justice) is the official government record of companies in Micronesia. Basic name or number search is free.
- 2
Search the exact legal name or ID
Search the supplier's registered name or its corporation number. If the name does not match cleanly, treat it as a red flag, it may be a trade name, a different entity, or wrong.
- 3
Confirm it is active, not struck off
A company on the FSM Corporation Listing is nationally registered, but operating a physical business also needs a state-issued licence (Pohnpei, Chuuk, Yap or Kosrae), so confirm the state licence too before treating an FSM company as a live local supplier.
- 4
Check it makes what it sells
A real factory carries a manufacturing activity code and a consistent trade history; a middleman reselling everything is the most common mismatch.
This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice. For the full method, see the 7 checks that separate a real supplier from a scam.
We do this check for you
On every Micronesia company we list, we show what the open record says, each linked to its free public source so you can re-check it yourself, no paid badge. And we go past the big directories to the local and craft makers who are too small for them but real, then verify and sort them, so you find genuine Micronesia suppliers, not just the loudest.
Related guides
Questions
Is checking a Micronesia supplier free?
Yes. A basic name or number lookup in the FSM Registrar of Corporations (Department of Justice) is free. Some full official extracts are paid, but confirming a company exists and is active costs nothing.
What ID does a Micronesia company have?
Its corporation number. Ask the supplier for it, then confirm it in the FSM Registrar of Corporations (Department of Justice) and check the registered name matches.
How do I know a Micronesia supplier is a real manufacturer, not a reseller?
The registry's activity code is the tell: a manufacturing code means a real maker, a wholesale or retail code means a trader. Micronesia has NO VAT; it runs a Gross Revenue Tax plus import duties and corporate income tax, so there is no VAT number to validate. Foreigners generally cannot own land, and a physical business is licensed at state level rather than nationally.