This topic provides an overview of the preparations that you need to make before you apply for Internet Content Provider (ICP) filing. For a quick approval of ICP filing, we recommend that you make preparations in advance.

Learn ICP filing regulations

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China (MIIT) has different regulations and requires different documents for ICP filing applications in different provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. We recommend that you read and understand the ICP filing regulations of different provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. For more information, see ICP filing regulations. Alternatively, you can visit the MIIT ICP filing management system for details.

Prepare a domain name

You must provide the domain name of your website when you apply for ICP filing. Your domain name must meet the following requirements:
  • The top-level domain name is approved by MIIT.
  • The domain name is valid.
  • Your domain name registrar is approved by MIIT.
    Note The Alibaba Cloud international website (alibabacloud.com) provides registration services only for internationalized domain names. Domain names registered with this website (alibabacloud.com) must meet the following requirements:
    • Beginning from January 1, 2018, domain names that are registered with international registrars such as the Alibaba Cloud international website (alibabacloud.com) must be transferred to registrars in mainland China and complete real-name verification before the ICP filing procedure. For more information on how to transfer the domain name to the Domains service of the Alibaba Cloud China website (aliyun.com), see Transfer a domain name to Alibaba Cloud.
    • Domain names that have been registered with international registrars such as the Alibaba Cloud international website (alibabacloud.com) and have ICP filing completed before January 1, 2018 are not required to be transferred.
  • For an ICP filing application from an individual, the domain name registrant must be individual. For an ICP filing application from an organization, the registrant can be the organization (including shareholders), the major principal, or a senior executive of the organization.
  • The domain name has passed real-name verification.
    Note If real-name verification is not completed or the real-name verification information is inconsistent with the ICP filing entity information, the ICP filing application cannot be submitted and the application may fail the review. For more information, see ICP filing regulations of MIIT in different regions. You must submit required ICP filing information based on corresponding regulations.
  • The entity information provided during ICP filing must be consistent with the real-name verification information of the registrant. Such information includes the name, certificate type, and certificate number.
For more information on domain name preparations and check, see Prepare and check the domain name.

Purchase and prepare an instance

To apply for ICP filing through Alibaba Cloud ICP Filing System, you must purchase an Alibaba Cloud instance in Mainland China. You can apply for ICP filing for your domain name if the corresponding website is hosted on any type of Alibaba Cloud instances listed in the following table.
Table 1. Supported instance types and maximum number of supported websites
Instance type Purchase requirement Purchase URL Quantity of service identification numbers
Elastic Compute Service (ECS)
  • The instance is deployed in an Alibaba Cloud region in Mainland China.
  • The subscription duration must be three months or more (including renewal).
  • You must purchase an Internet bandwidth package.
Note
  • You cannot apply for service identification numbers for pay-as-you-go instances.
  • For more information on how to purchase an Internet bandwidth package, see Adjust Internet bandwidth in Overview of instance upgrade and downgrade.
ECS Up to five per instance
Cloud Web Hosting
  • The instance is deployed in an Alibaba Cloud region in Mainland China.
  • The subscription duration must be three months or more (including renewal).
 Cloud Web Hosting Up to five per instance
Simple Application Server
  • The instance is deployed in an Alibaba Cloud region in Mainland China.
  • The subscription duration must be three months or more (including renewal).
 Simple Application Server Up to five per instance
Elastic Web Hosting
  • The instance is deployed in an Alibaba Cloud region in Mainland China.
  • The subscription duration must be six months or more (including renewal).
 Elastic Web Hosting has been offline since December, 2019. The instances purchased before the offline date can be used for ICP filing application normally. We recommend that you purchase Cloud Web Hosting for future use. Up to five per Alibaba Cloud account
Network Address Translation (NAT) Gateway
  • The instance is deployed in an Alibaba Cloud region in Mainland China.
  • The subscription duration must be one month or more.
 NAT Gateway Up to two per instance
IPv6 Translation Service
  • The instance is deployed in an Alibaba Cloud region in Mainland China.
  • The subscription duration must be one month or more.
 IPv6 Translation Service Up to two per instance
ENS
  • The instance is deployed in an Alibaba Cloud region in Mainland China.
  • The subscription duration must be three months or more (including renewal).
 ENS Up to five per instance
IoT Package
  • The subscription duration must be six months or more.
  • The order amount must be RMB 90 or more.
 IoT Package One per package
Product from Alibaba Cloud Marketplace for website building
  • The initial subscription duration must be 12 months or more.
  • The order amount must be RMB 99 or more.
  • You shall carefully read the introduction to the product from Alibaba Cloud Marketplace for website building and confirm that the server used by the product is located in Mainland China before purchase. Otherwise, you will not be able to proceed with the subsequent ICP filing application procedures. If you are not sure where the server is located, consult customer service first to ensure that the server is located in Mainland China.
Alibaba Cloud Marketplace One per instance
Note
  • If the remaining time before your Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance or Elastic Web Hosting instance expires cannot meet the requirements for ICP filing, you must renew your subscription before you apply for ICP filing.
  • You can apply for only a limited number of service identification numbers for each instance. You cannot increase the upper limit by renewing the subscription of the instance. If the number of service identification numbers reaches the upper limit, you need to purchase another instance for more identification numbers.
For more information on instance preparations and check, see Prepare and check the instance and access information.

Prepare materials required for ICP filing

You must prepare and upload a scanned copy or a color photo of the following materials:
  • Basic materials
    Note If the entity of ICP filing is an individual, the identity documents of the entity leader and website administrator, and the certificate of the organization mean the identity document of the individual. You need to upload the identity document only once in Alibaba Cloud ICP Filing System.
    Certificate type Scenario Materials to upload
    Certificate of the entity leader Verify the identity of the entity leader. Individual: the ID card or other identity documents of the individual.
    Enterprise: the ID card or other identity documents of the legal representative.
    Note If the entity leader or website administrator is a resident in outside Mainland China, provide the following valid certificates as needed:
    • Residents of Hong Kong and Macao, China: a Residence Permit for Hong Kong and Macao Residents or a Mainland Travel Permit for Hong Kong and Macao Residents.
    • Residents of Taiwan, China: a Residence Permit for Taiwan Residents or a Mainland Travel Permit for Taiwan Residents.
    • outside Mainland China residents: passport.
    Identity document of the website administrator Verify the identity of the website administrator.
    Certificates of an organization Verify the information about the entity. Individual: the ID card or other identity documents of the individual.

    Enterprise: the business license or other certificates of the enterprise.
  • Auxiliary materials
    Type of the material Scenario and download
    A photo of the website administrator holding his/her identity document If the ICP filing entity is an individual, some provincial and municipal administrations require that you upload a photo of the website administrator holding his/her identity document, for example, his/her ID card or registered permanent residence page.
    Photo of you holding the certificate of the organization If the ICP filing entity is an organization, some provincial and municipal administrations require that you upload a photo of the website administrator holding the corresponding certificate of the organization, for example, the business license.
    Power of attorney Some provincial and municipal administrations require that you provide a power of attorney for the entity leader or the website administrator if the entity leader or the website administrator is not the legal representative of the enterprise.
    Certificate of the registrant Some provincial and municipal administrations require that a domain name must be under an organization. If the corresponding domain name is under an individual, you must provide a certificate of the registrant for the ICP filing application.
    Website construction proposal The Guangdong provincial administration requires that you provide a website construction proposal if the ICP filing entity has many domain names.
    Domain name certificate Some provincial administrations require that you provide a domain name certificate. For more information on the regulations of administrations in different provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, see ICP filing regulations of MIIT in different regions.
    Temporary or permanent residence permit Some provincial administrations, such as the Fujian provincial administration, require that you submit a scanned copy or color photo of the temporary or permanent residence permit if the domicile registered on your ID card is not located in the province where you submit the ICP filing application.
    Certificate issued by the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform (SCOPSR) Provincial administrations of Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, and Jiangxi require that public institutions and government agencies provide a certificate issued by SCOPSR when they apply for ICP filing.
    Certificate of change If the ICP filing entity is an enterprise and the enterprise name is changed, you must provide a certificate of change issued by the corresponding industry and commerce administration when you apply for ICP filing.
    Certificate of employment If the certificate number of an entity leader or a website administrator appears in the ICP filing information of multiple organizations or individuals, some provincial administrations, such as the Sichuan provincial administration, require that you provide a certificate of employment of the entity leader or website administrator.
    Business statement If the name, business scope, website name, or website remarks of an organization in Sichuan province contain commerce-related terms, and such organization is not required to obtain an ICP license as notified by the local administration, a business statement of the organization must be provided for ICP filing applications.
For more information on other materials to upload, see Required materials.
When uploading the materials, you must comply with the following requirements:
  • If no separate upload button is provided for certain auxiliary materials, you need to use a drawing tool to splice the photos of the auxiliary materials and the certificates of the ICP filing entity into one image and then upload the image.
  • The ratio between the photos for the front and back of the entity leader's identity document must be 1:1. We recommend that you take the photos to be uploaded in the same background and light environment, and keep the camera lens and the identity document at almost the same distances and positions.
  • Make sure that the uploaded certificates are valid.
  • You can upload images in the JPG, JPEG, PNG, or GIF format. The size of each image must be smaller than 4 MB.
    Note If an image fails to be uploaded but its format and size meet the requirements, you can clear the browser cache or use another browser such as Google Chrome to upload the image again.
  • Upload scanned copies or color photos of these materials.
  • To make sure that your ICP filing application can be approved, you must upload clear, complete, and valid images.

Sign up an Alibaba Cloud account

Before you apply for ICP filing in Alibaba Cloud ICP Filing System, you must sign up an Alibaba Cloud account. We recommend that you prepare and sign up Alibaba Cloud account for ICP filing in advance. For more information, see Register an Alibaba Cloud account.

(Optional) Obtain a pre-approval

If your website involves information on some special industries, such as news, publishing, medicine, and medical devices, you must obtain a pre-approval before applying for ICP filing. You need to provide the corresponding pre-approval documents during ICP filing.

For more information on the industries that require pre-approvals and relevant instructions, see Pre-approval.