Company Registration in India for Foreign Companies

Can a foreign company actually register a company in India, and own 100% of it? Yes, in most sectors, under the automatic route, where you invest first and report afterwards.

Here is what most guides skip: the filing is online and takes days. What sets the real timeline is everything around it, the apostilled documents, a resident director, and a bank that will accept your share capital.

This guide is for US, UK and global companies entering India, and the founders, CFOs and legal leads who own the call. It answers the two questions that actually decide the move: what registration costs in time and money, and whether you need an entity at this stage at all.

Can a foreign company or foreign national register a company in India?

Yes. A foreign company or a non-resident individual can hold 100% of an Indian private limited company in most sectors, under the automatic route, which means you invest first and report afterwards rather than seeking prior approval.

Sensitive sectors still need government approval, and so does any investor from a country sharing a land border with India, whatever the sector. Check the ownership chain, not just the immediate investor.

Three requirements apply to you that do not apply to a domestic founder:

• Apostilled documents: passports and address proofs need an apostille and an English translation. The United States and the United Kingdom are both Hague Convention members, so this is a courier exercise rather than a legal problem.
• A resident director: at least one director on the board must have stayed in India for at least 182 days in the financial year, under section 149(3) of the Companies Act, 2013. Foreign founders commonly appoint a nominee director until a local hire is in place.
• Post-investment reporting: the share allotment is reported to the Reserve Bank of India within 30 days, on Form FC-GPR through an authorised dealer bank and the RBI FIRMS portal.

Get the apostille started before anything else. It is the item that sets the real timeline, and it is the one nobody plans for.

If you are the founder investing personally rather than a parent company, who can own and direct an Indian company covers the eligibility, visa and personal tax angles that apply to you.

That resident director requirement also carries a tax consequence worth understanding, because a board presence in India can affect permanent establishment risk.

Eligibility is the easy part. Here is the filing itself, start to finish.

What are the four steps to register a company in India?

Four filings through the Ministry of Corporate Affairs SPICe+ form. SPICe+ bundles the name reservation, the incorporation itself, director identification, PAN and TAN into one linked flow.

Here is the sequence:

1. Get Digital Signature Certificates: every director and subscriber needs a DSC to sign the forms, usually issued within a day or two.
2. Reserve the name with SPICe+ Part A: submit your proposed names for approval by the Central Registration Centre.
3. File SPICe+ Part B: lodge the memorandum and articles of association plus registered office proof. This filing also allots the Director Identification Number, PAN and TAN.
4. Receive the Certificate of Incorporation: the Registrar issues the certificate with a Corporate Identity Number, and the company legally exists from that date.

One detail that catches people out. An approved name is reserved for 20 days from approval for a new company, and the clock does not pause while your apostilled documents are in transit.

The MCA does let you buy time. A reserved name extends from 20 to 40 days for a fee of 1,000 rupees, from 40 to 60 days for 2,000 rupees, or straight from 20 to 60 days for 3,000 rupees, each paid before the current window expires.

Note also that the older RUN service now applies only to changing the name of an existing company, not to a new incorporation, so guides that send you to RUN first are out of date.

Before you file any of it, pick the structure, because that choice sets your ownership, your tax position and your compliance load.

Which business structure should a foreign company choose?

From our experience registering India entities for global companies, most foreign entrants choose a private limited company, held as a wholly-owned subsidiary. It allows 100% foreign ownership, limits liability, and is the structure investors and customers expect to see.

The alternatives are narrower than they look. A branch, liaison or project office is not a separate company, and each carries real activity restrictions.

The activity limits on the non-entity options are the part to read twice. A liaison office cannot invoice anyone, which surprises founders who expected it to be a cheap subsidiary.

For the wider decision about how to enter the market, business setup in India covers the structuring and tax comparison in full.

And doing business in India covers what operating here actually looks like once the certificate is issued.

If the only reason you are incorporating is to put people on payroll, read the last row again. Hiring employees in India without an entity is a genuinely different route.

It is also worth confirming the model is sound before you rely on it, and is an EOR legal in India answers the question most boards ask first.

With the structure settled, here is the paperwork you will actually need.

What documents are required to register a company in India?

Identity and address proof for every director and shareholder, proof of the registered office, and the charter documents. Indian nationals provide PAN and Aadhaar. Foreign nationals provide an apostilled passport and address proof in English.

Gather these before you start the filing, not during it:

• For Indian directors and shareholders: PAN, Aadhaar, a recent address proof, and a passport-size photograph.
• For foreign directors and shareholders: an apostilled passport and address proof in English, a photograph, and for a corporate shareholder the parent company's board resolution and incorporation documents, also apostilled.
• For the registered office: a recent utility bill, a no-objection certificate from the owner, and the lease agreement if the premises are rented.
• For the company itself: the memorandum and articles of association, drafted to match the objects you actually intend to pursue.

The registered office proof is the quiet blocker. You need a real address in India before the Registrar will issue the certificate, which is why the office decision usually has to be made earlier than founders expect.

Documents ready, what does all this cost, and how long does it take?

How much does company registration in India cost, and how long does it take?

Treat roughly 60,000 to 1,25,000 rupees as an indicative planning range for a foreign-owned private limited company. That is about $625 to $1,300 at roughly 95 to 96 rupees to the dollar.

Nobody publishes a fixed rate card for this, because government fees scale with authorised capital and professional fees vary by provider.

On timing, the filings themselves are quick. The surrounding work is not.

One reconciliation before you build a plan. The figures above cover incorporating the company and nothing else.

Our global capability centre page publishes 8 to 12 weeks for entity registration and 3 to 6 months for a full wholly-owned subsidiary setup, because that scope adds banking, staffing and an operating footprint.

So read the smaller figure as the cost of existing and the larger one as the cost of operating. Both are true at different scopes.

If you want the cost of the people rather than the company, our employee cost calculator models a single hire end to end.

And if the EOR route is the comparison, what an India EOR costs puts the two cost shapes side by side.

Costs also do not stop at incorporation, which brings us to the recurring half.

What compliance starts once the company is registered?

Four heads, and all of them begin immediately rather than at the end of the first year:

• Corporate income tax: an Indian company files as a domestic company, taxed differently from the branch of a foreign company. A domestic company that opts into the concessional regime under section 115BAA pays 22%, about 25.17% once surcharge and cess are added, and the older 15% rate for new manufacturers under section 115BAB has lapsed. That gap is one of the strongest arguments for incorporating rather than opening a branch.
• Goods and Services Tax: registration becomes compulsory once turnover crosses the applicable threshold, and thresholds differ for goods and for services. Since September 2025 most goods and services sit at 5% or 18%, with a 40% rate on luxury and sin goods. The current rates and slabs are on GST rates in India.
• Payroll statutory obligations: provident fund, employees' state insurance, tax deducted at source and state professional tax, all under India's four Labour Codes, now in force.
• Annual MCA filings: the annual financial statements and annual return, alongside a statutory audit and director KYC. Late filing carries a daily penalty, so the calendar matters more than the amounts.

Budget for a company secretary or chartered accountant from month one. The filings are not optional and the penalties accrue per day rather than per notice.

For the payroll half specifically, payroll compliance in India sets out what each contribution is and when it falls due.

Statutory compliance in HR covers the wider obligation set once you have staff on the books.

There is also the labour law layer, and India's four Labour Codes is the current picture of what replaced the older Acts.

Some obligations only switch on at a headcount, which is why the India statutory compliance checklist after 10 employees is worth reading before you cross it.

And on the tax side generally, tax compliance in India is the fuller picture behind these four heads.

All of that assumes you want the entity. Here is how to be sure you do.

Should you register an entity or use an Employer of Record instead?

In our work standing up India subsidiaries, the honest test is purpose, not headcount. Register the entity when you need to hold assets or intellectual property in India, sell to Indian customers, raise money locally, or run a permanent operation of real size.

Use an Employer of Record when what you actually need is people. The EOR becomes the legal employer, so there is no incorporation, no resident director, no MCA calendar and no audit.

The break-even is not really a headcount, it is a purpose. If you need to hold IP, sell locally or raise money in India, incorporate. If you only need people on the ground, an entity is overhead you have not earned yet.

Model the crossover for your own numbers with our EOR versus entity calculator.

Then read EOR versus entity in India for how the two compare on compliance rather than on cost.

There are middle routes too. Build-operate-transfer gets you to an owned entity in stages.

A captive engineering centre is what that same operation looks like at scale.

For the operating models, the steps in order and realistic timelines of an owned centre, how to set up a GCC in India walks through it end to end.

And if you already hold an Indian entity but do not want to run its HR, hiring through a PEO in India is the third option.

Going the other way is also normal. Moving from an entity to an EOR is what companies do when the India operation turns out smaller than planned.

If you have decided on people rather than a company, the best way to hire employees in India compares every route on one page.

US buyers in particular should read common mistakes US companies make hiring in India before committing to either path.

Planning beyond incorporation? See the global captive centers in India, the GCC hubs, the GCC setup cost, why companies build GCCs, and the reasons to expand in India.

Whichever route you choose, here is how we help you run it.

How can Wisemonk help you enter India?

Wisemonk is an India-specialist Employer of Record (EOR) that helps global companies hire, pay, and manage talent in India without setting up a local entity.

For a company weighing incorporation, that means options, and we cover all of them. Register your own entity, employ your team on an EOR while you decide, or do both in sequence, whichever your plan calls for.

We support 300+ global clients and more than 2,000 employees across India, process $20M+ in annual payroll, and hold a 4.8/5 rating on G2. Employer of Record starts from $99 per employee per month.

Whatever your India entry needs, we deliver it:

• Entity and GCC setup: we incorporate and operate your India company, Build, Operate, Graduate, Own, so you own 100% from day one, and can scale it into a full capability center. Custom quote.
• Employer of Record: hire compliant India employees from $99 per employee per month, with no entity of your own.
• Build-Operate-Transfer: we build and run the team, then hand the entity over to you.
• Managed payroll: the India pay run and statutory filings under your own entity.
• PEO and HR services: payroll, PF, ESI and benefits run under your entity's registrations.
• India recruiters: source and screen engineering, finance and operations talent with Mira AI.
• Contractor of Record: engage Indian contractors compliantly, with IP assignment, at 6% per payout.
• Freelancer payments: pay Indian freelancers and agencies through compliant channels.
• Background verification: screen every hire before their start date.

From our experience running India entry for global companies, the teams that move fastest match the model to the goal and let one partner carry the whole sequence, so registration, hiring and compliance never wait on each other.

The Wisemonk team played a key role in helping us hire for specialized B2B SaaS marketing skills. We were able to build the team within four months, and hire experienced professionals from Tier 1/major B2B SaaS brands. This includes SEO, digital marketing, business development, product marketing, content marketing, and GTM roles. They are a great partner providing integrated services for EOR and recruitment/hiring and I'd recommend them to any B2B SaaS vendor.
- Saurabh Sharma, Co-founder & CEO at Onereach, USA. Read the full case study.