01Introduction
Expanding to India as a foreign company
What the move requires, who this guide is for, and which structure to use.
India lets you incorporate without ever setting foot in the country. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs runs the whole process online, 100% foreign ownership is permitted in most sectors, and a wholly owned subsidiary can hire, invoice and contract exactly like a domestic company.
India is exact about paperwork. The utility bill for your registered office cannot be more than a month old when you file, and no two people named in the application can share an email address. Neither rule is hidden, and both send applications back when they are broken.
Everything here comes from filings our team has made, including the ones that came back.
Who this guide is for
A foreign company or a foreign national setting up in India: a US parent standing up an engineering subsidiary in Bengaluru, a German group opening a capability centre, or a founder in Singapore who needs an Indian entity before an investor will wire money.
It is not written for two groups.
- Indian residents incorporating at home, who have a different and simpler path.
- Solo founders. Foreign nationals cannot run a sole proprietorship in India, and a private limited company needs two shareholders and two directors.
How hard is it to expand to India?
Moderate. No single step is difficult, but there are a lot of them and they have to happen in order. Budget roughly two months from kickoff to a company that can legally trade.
- Where
- South Asia. Five and a half hours ahead of GMT
- English support
- 9 / 10. English is the working language of the judiciary, corporate contracts and every central tax portal
- Do you need to visit
- No. Incorporation is entirely remote
- Foreign ownership
- 100% permitted under the automatic route in most sectors
- Core incorporation to certificate
- 34 to 44 working days
- Including post-incorporation
- 45 to 60 working days
- Minimum people you need
- 2 shareholders, 2 directors, 1 of them resident in India
- Financial year
- 1 April to 31 March
What structure should a foreign company use?
Almost always a wholly owned subsidiary, incorporated as a private limited company. The other two structures each give up something the subsidiary keeps.
| Structure | What it can do | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Wholly owned subsidiary | Hire, lease, invoice domestic customers, take investment, hold IP. A separate legal person with the full rights of an Indian company. | Almost always. This is the default and the rest of this guide assumes it. |
| Liaison office | Market research and brand promotion. Legally barred from any commercial, trading or revenue-generating activity. | You want to look at the market before committing, and you will not earn a rupee while you do. |
| Branch office | Import, consult, execute turnkey projects. Not a separate legal person, so the parent carries Indian liabilities directly. | A specific, limited mandate. Expect tighter RBI scrutiny and higher tax complexity than a subsidiary. |
There is also the LLP, which has partners and capital accounts in place of shares. If anyone needs to hold equity, or you ever intend to raise, an LLP is the wrong shape. Its one advantage is speed: the MCA approves an LLP in roughly 4 to 6 working days against 7 to 10 for a private limited company.
What this guide covers
The path for a company expanding into India to operate and to raise. That means incorporating the entity, funding it, reporting the investment to the Reserve Bank of India, and meeting the obligations that follow. It is the route we have mapped from one end to the other.
Four other reasons to enter India share most of this path and branch at the end. Manufacturing brings in labour, import-export and sector registrations. Warehousing and state-level GST come with selling physical goods. Selling software is closest to what is here. Hiring on its own may not need an entity at all.
Should you even set up an entity
If the plan is one or two engineers, an employer of record is the honest answer and an entity is premature. An entity earns itself once you need to invoice Indian customers, hold IP in India, take local investment, or grow past the point where an EOR's per-head fee stops making sense.
Our entity vs EOR calculator puts numbers on that comparison.
Where to put the company
The registered office decides which registrar handles your filings, which state GST you register for, and which city your resident director needs to live in. Give it five minutes before you default to wherever your first hire happens to be.
- Bengaluru is the default for engineering. It has the deepest talent pool in the country, and the highest salaries and attrition to match.
- Hyderabad and Pune are the other two serious technology hubs. Both are cheaper than Bengaluru and both hold people longer.
- Mumbai is finance, and it is where your bankers and auditors already are.
- Delhi NCR is policy. Worth it if your business touches regulation.
