# BR-CL-14 Country codes must use ISO 3166-1

Every country code in an address, such as the seller (BT-40), buyer (BT-55), tax representative (BT-69) or deliver-to (BT-80) country, must be an ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code.

## Problem Description

> **ERROR**: EN 16931 code-list rule (BR-CL)

## Context and Significance

The rule checks cac:Country/cbc:IdentificationCode in UBL and ram:CountryID in CII. It fails when an ERP exports three-letter codes (DEU), country names or lowercase codes, and in two common special cases: UK is not an ISO 3166-1 code (use GB), and EL is only the Greek VAT prefix, while the Greek country code is GR. Example: a buyer in Athens has BT-55 = GR, although its VAT identifier starts with EL.

## Solution

Use the two-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code in capital letters, e.g. DE for Germany, FR for France or GB for the United Kingdom. In addresses, Greece is GR (not EL) and Northern Ireland is XI.

- [Validate XML](/en/xrechnung-validator?source=resource&rule=BR-CL-14)
- [Convert invoice](/en/pdf-to-xrechnung?source=resource&rule=BR-CL-14)

## Valid Examples

- BT-40 = DE
- BT-55 = GB — United Kingdom
- BT-55 = GR — Greece

## Invalid Examples

- BT-55 = UK — not an ISO 3166-1 code; use GB
- BT-55 = EL — Greek VAT prefix; use GR
- BT-40 = DEU — three letters, not alpha-2

## Code Examples

### Valid XML
```
<cac:PostalAddress>
  <cac:Country>
    <cbc:IdentificationCode>GB</cbc:IdentificationCode>
  </cac:Country>
</cac:PostalAddress>
```

### Invalid XML
```
<cac:PostalAddress>
  <cac:Country>
    <cbc:IdentificationCode>UK</cbc:IdentificationCode>
  </cac:Country>
</cac:PostalAddress>
```

## Affected Fields

- [BT-40 Seller country code](/resources/xrechnung/bt-40-seller-country-code)
- [BT-55 Buyer country code](/resources/xrechnung/bt-55-buyer-country-code)
- [BT-69 Tax representative country code](/resources/xrechnung/bt-69-tax-representative-country-code)
- [BT-80 Deliver to country code](/resources/xrechnung/bt-80-deliver-to-country-code)

## Related Rules

- [BR-CL-15](/resources/kosit-validator-errors/br-cl-15-iso-3166-item-origin-country)
- [BR-CO-9](/resources/kosit-validator-errors/br-co-9-vat-identifier-must-have-iso-country-prefix)

## Validation Tools

- [Official KoSIT Validator](https://github.com/itplr-kosit/validator): Run the official KoSIT validator with the XRechnung configuration to check EN 16931 and XRechnung rules.
- [Convert PDF to XRechnung](/pdf-to-xrechnung): Find validation errors during conversion and review each correction.

## Related Resources

- [Official Specification](https://docs.peppol.eu/poacc/billing/3.0/rules/ubl-tc434/)
- [Test Suite](https://github.com/itplr-kosit/xrechnung-testsuite)
- [All validation errors](/resources/kosit-validator-errors): Overview of the EN 16931, XRechnung and Peppol validation rules explained here.