The code is done, the app runs on a phone, and now comes the part nobody writes about here: how it actually reaches the App Store when your company is registered in Moldova. Little of it is hard, but there are three places where projects sit idle for weeks because nobody started them early enough.
1. The D-U-N-S number: start here, not with the code
To enrol in the Apple Developer Program as an organisation rather than an individual, Apple requires an international company identifier: a D-U-N-S number from Dun & Bradstreet. It is free, but getting one can take up to thirty days.
This is where Moldovan mobile projects lose the most time: the team spends two months building the app, then discovers that publishing waits another month on an administrative form.
Two things to check at the very start:
- Your company may already have a D-U-N-S — many do without knowing it. Check before requesting a new one.
- The name in D-U-N-S must match your real legal name. If the registry says "FIRMA S.R.L." and D-U-N-S says something else, Apple's verification stalls on exactly that.
Practical rule: file the D-U-N-S request in week one of the project, in parallel with design. Not at the end.
2. The account belongs to your company, not to the developer
An Apple Developer account costs about 99 dollars a year and must be held by the client's legal entity, not the supplier.
The reason is simple: the account is where the app lives. If the agency owns it, then updates, analytics, pricing, certificates and the right to pull the app from the store belong to the agency too. Changing supplier becomes a negotiation instead of a decision.
The developer gets access to the account with the role they need. That is all that is required.
3. What Apple wants besides the code
Before submitting for review you need a few things that cannot be produced on the last day:
- A public privacy policy at a permanent address. Apple requires it for every app. In Moldova, since 23 August 2026, Law 195/2024 requires it too.
- Privacy labels — the declaration of what data the app collects and why. They are filled in by hand and must match reality: declare that you collect nothing while the app sends identifiers and you have a rejection.
- Screenshots for every device class you support. If the app runs on iPad, iPad screenshots are required. A mundane and very common reason for rejection.
- Trader status for the European Union. For EU distribution Apple verifies trader details under the Digital Services Act: name, address, phone, e-mail, which then appear publicly on the app listing. Verification takes time, so start it early.
- A bank account and tax details, if the app will have payments or subscriptions.
4. Rejections: normal, but predictable
A rejection on the first submission is not a disaster and does not mean the app is bad. The most frequent causes are the same everywhere:
- The app is incomplete at review time — test data that does not work, empty screens, features "in progress". The reviewer has to be able to actually use the app, so give them test credentials that genuinely work.
- A business app without context. If the product is meant for a limited set of users — employees, customers of a chain, partners — Apple explicitly wants to understand who those users are and how they get access. A demo account and a short explanation in the review notes settle it; their absence adds days.
- A mismatch between what you declared and what the app does — in data, subscriptions or content.
What helps in practice: review notes written for someone seeing the product for the first time, with credentials, a three-step scenario and an explanation of what the app is for.
The right order, briefly
1. Week one: check or request D-U-N-S, open the account under the company. 2. In parallel with development: privacy policy, EU trader details, bank account. 3. Before submitting: privacy labels, screenshots for every device, demo account and review notes. 4. Submit, and budget time in the plan for at least one round of fixes.
How we know
We publish our own products to the App Store and go through the same stages: company account, trader verification, labels, screenshots, review notes and, yes, rejections we have to work through. We wrote separately about [what drives an app's budget](/en/blog/how-much-does-a-mobile-app-cost-moldova) and about [what Law 195/2024 asks of a website](/en/blog/law-195-2024-business-website-moldova).
If you have an app ready or in progress and want publishing not to delay the launch, write to us.
*Apple's requirements change. This describes the situation as of September 2026; check the official documentation before you submit.*