The criterion for determining to which authority an application is referred is approval power. According to the 2004 Decision of the State Council regarding Investment Regime Reform, for a new foreign invested project or a project in the encourage or permitted category which receives over 100 million USD worth of renewed capital injection each time or a project in the restricted category with a total value of over 50 million USD, it should first be filed with the National Development and Reform Commission for the approval of a project application report. Following this approval, the case is further referred to MOFCOM regarding the business contract and articles of association. After that, MOFCOM will issue an approval license.

For a foreign invested project with a total investment lower than the threshold in the preceding paragraph, it will be examined and approval independently by the concerned province/municipality. For a new foreign invested enterprise in the encouraged and permitted category, local approval prevails as long as the monetary amount is below 100 million USD while the monetary threshold for an FIE in the restricted category is 50 million USD.