What it means
Every country code for an item's country of origin (BT-159) must be a two-letter ISO 3166-1 code, such as DE, FR, NL or BE. Names such as Germany, three-letter codes such as DEU, and lower case are not allowed. Note that Greece is GR and the United Kingdom is GB.
Why it matters
Codes are read by software, not by people. A value outside the agreed code list cannot be interpreted, so the recipient's system rejects the invoice even when the value looks sensible to a person.
How to fix it
Choose the country from the list in your invoicing software rather than typing it, and export again. If you build the XML yourself, write the two capital letters only, for example cac:OriginCountry/cbc:IdentificationCode with CN (UBL) or ram:OriginTradeCountry/ram:ID (CII).
The rule as published
Country codes in an invoice MUST be coded using ISO code list 3166-1 Where this rule applies
| Rule set | Version |
|---|---|
| EN 16931 (UBL) | 1.3.17 |
| EN 16931 (UBL credit note) | 1.3.17 |
| EN 16931 (CII) | 1.3.17 |
| XRechnung 3.0 (UBL) | 3.0.2 |
| XRechnung 3.0 (UBL credit note) | 3.0.2 |
| XRechnung 3.0 (CII) | 3.0.2 |
| Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (invoice) | 2026.5 |
| Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 (credit note) | 2026.5 |
| SI-UBL 2.0 / NLCIUS (invoice) | 2.0.3.13 |
| SI-UBL 2.0 / NLCIUS (credit note) | 2.0.3.13 |
| NLCIUS (CII) | 1.0.3.13 |
| France CTC (UBL invoice) | 1.4.0-04 |
| France CTC (UBL credit note) | 1.4.0-04 |
| France CTC (CII) | 1.4.0-04 |
| CIUS-RO UBL Invoice 1.0.9 | 1.0.9 |
| CIUS-RO UBL Credit Note 1.0.9 | 1.0.9 |
Check your file
Drop your e-invoice to see whether BR-CL-15 still fails, and which other rules do.
Related rules
- BR-CL-16 The payment means code must come from UNTDID 4461
- BR-CL-17 VAT categories of the breakdown, discounts and charges must come from UNCL 5305
- BR-CL-18 VAT categories of invoice lines must come from UNCL 5305
- BR-CL-19 Allowance reason codes must come from UNTDID 5189
- BR-CL-20 Charge reason codes must come from UNTDID 7161
- BR-CL-21 The item standard identifier scheme must come from ISO 6523