# BRD-035 — The country of registration must be on the permitted list

> A brand registered in a country outside TCR's permitted-country list cannot be registered at all.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-035
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand.country + brand.ein_issuing_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:** External record we cannot query — reported as a warning to verify
- **Fix type:** Wait on an external system or a required interval
- **Required by:** TCR
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-035/

## Why this rule exists

This is an eligibility gate rather than a data problem: some countries are excluded from the US A2P framework entirely, usually for sanctions or fraud-rate reasons, and no amount of correct paperwork moves a brand from the wrong side of it. Finding out late is expensive because everything else in the onboarding will have succeeded first.

## How to fix it

Check the country against TCR's current permitted list before collecting anything else from the customer. Where the country is excluded, the only route is a US or otherwise permitted entity that genuinely owns the customer relationship — not a nominee registration under someone else's name.

## Provider rejection codes

| Provider | Code | Resubmission allowed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| TCR | `529` | no |

## Check this yourself

**Is the country of registration on TCR's current permitted-country list?**

1. Check the country against the list TCR publishes and revises, before you collect anything else from the customer.
2. Where the country is excluded, the only legitimate route is a US or otherwise permitted entity that genuinely owns the customer relationship.

*What wrong looks like:* Everything else in the onboarding succeeds first and the eligibility gate is discovered last. Registering under a related entity in a permitted country to get around it is a fabricated registration, which is a far worse outcome than a refusal.

## Notes

TCR publishes and revises the list; we do not hold it. The user has to check their country against the current published list before starting, and must not work around an exclusion by registering under a related entity in a permitted country — that is a fabricated registration (BRD-286) and carries a much worse outcome than a refusal.