European patent applications may be filed in writing, directly or by post, at the EPO's filing offices in Munich, The Hague or Berlin. The EPO's suboffice in Vienna is not a filing office.

The opening hours of the filing offices of the EPO were published in OJ 12/1994, 954. Dates on which at least one of the filing offices of the EPO is not open to receive documents are likewise announced at regular intervals in the Official Journal of the EPO (see also E-VIII, 1.4).

The EPO filing offices in Berlin and Munich are equipped with automated mail-boxes, which may be used at any time. The automated mail-box facility is not currently available at the filing office at The Hague. Outside office hours documents may be handed in to the porter.

European patent applications may also be filed (with the exception of divisional applications, see IV, 1.3.1) at the central industrial property office or other competent authority of a Contracting State if the national law of that State so allows (see II, 1.6).