API Introduction

The API is an asynchronous service which accepts the request and does the validation, and the users need to keep polling the API to check the status of the request. The API can accept a batch of VAT Registration Numbers and make the call to the appropriate service by looking at the registration number of the company making the validation request. It will do this for all the registration numbers submitted for a validation request. Thus, registration numbers need to be submitted in pairs to identify the company which wants to do the validation so that the correct service can be determined for the validation.

Once the user makes a validation request, the API will do an initial scan of all the registration numbers to ensure that there are no inconsistencies such as the length of the registration number (unduly long or short) or no special characters are present in any registration number. If the registration numbers are found to have any inconsistencies, then the request will not be used for validation and an error response will be provided to the user. This is meant to ensure that Thomson Reuters is not submitting junk registration numbers for validation which can lead to blacklisting of Thomson Reuters IP by the external services and serves as a precautionary mechanism.

If the request passes the first step, then the user receives a request ID which serves as a confirmation that the registration numbers look good on the surface and will be validated. All the registration numbers then undergo the mask check of the issuing country. Registration numbers failing mask check will not be sent to the external services for validation. All the other registration numbers are sent to the external services for validation depending on the requesting registration number.

Since the validation can be time consuming depending on the number of registration numbers submitted or the number of concurrent requests or the load being experienced by the external services, the user needs to poll the API (different endpoint) using the Request ID to check the status of their request. Once the validation is completed for all registration numbers, the user will need to make a second call to the API using the request ID to get the response for all the registration numbers.

The response will contain all the information received by the API from the external services including address information. It will also contain error codes if any occurred during validation. Any user can make only one request at a time and the API will accept a new request only after the first request has been completed.