# BRD-025 — The issuing country must be declared, and must match the country of registration

> einIssuingCountry must be a valid ISO-3166 alpha-2 code and must equal the country the business is registered in.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-025
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand.ein_issuing_country + brand.country`
- **Severity:** BLOCKING — Breaking this rule gets the submission rejected outright.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** Deterministic (settled in code from the submitted values)
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** TCR, AWS, Klaviyo
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-025/

## Why this rule exists

TCR defaults this field to US when it is left unset, so a foreign brand that omits it is silently looked up in the US registers and fails as an unverifiable business rather than as a missing field. The default is the trap: the registration looks complete, and the one field that would have routed it correctly is the one nobody filled in.

## How to fix it

Set einIssuingCountry to the two-letter code of the country that issued the identifier, and make sure the brand country matches it. Done when both fields hold the same ISO-3166 alpha-2 code, in upper case.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
ein_issuing_country: US · country: US — or GB and GB for a UK company number
```

## Common mistakes

- A US subsidiary of a foreign parent registers with US and its own EIN. The issuing country follows the identifier, not the head office.

## Provider rejection codes

| Provider | Code | Resubmission allowed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| TCR | `501` | yes |