What Is Form LLP(I)?
Form LLP(I) is the reporting return an Indian Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) must file with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) whenever it receives money from a person resident outside India as capital contribution or as consideration for acquiring a profit share. The filing is due within 30 days from the date the LLP receives the money — not from the date the investor is admitted as a partner or the LLP agreement is amended. Form LLP(I) is filed electronically on the FIRMS (Foreign Investment Reporting and Management System) portal and routed through the LLP's Authorised Dealer (AD) bank, the same portal used for the Single Master Form (SMF) family of foreign-investment reports.
Form LLP(I) exists because, unlike a company issuing shares, an LLP does not "allot" equity instruments that can be tracked through a share register. The receipt of capital is itself the reportable event, and Form LLP(I) is how the RBI's Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) reporting framework captures foreign money entering an LLP's capital account.
Legal Basis
Regulation 4(6), FEMA (Mode of Payment and Reporting of Non-Debt Instruments) Regulations, 2019
The obligation is set out in Notification No. FEMA. 395/2019-RB dated 17 October 2019 (as amended, most recently by Notification No. FEMA 395(4)/2026-RB dated 13 June 2026), issued by the RBI's Foreign Exchange Department under section 47 of FEMA, 1999. Regulation 4 has not been amended in relation to LLP reporting. Regulation 4(6) states it in a single sentence: "A Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP) receiving amount of consideration for capital contribution and acquisition of profit shares shall file Form LLP (I), within 30 days from the date of receipt of the amount of consideration." The same regulation, at 4(7), creates the companion return, Form LLP(II), for disinvestment or transfer of capital contribution or profit share between a resident and a non-resident, with a longer, 60-day window and the reporting onus placed on the resident transferor or transferee rather than on the LLP itself.
Automatic-Route Eligibility — Only Certain LLPs May Receive This Money at All
Form LLP(I) only becomes relevant if the foreign capital contribution was permitted in the first place. The RBI's Master Direction – Foreign Investment in India restates the underlying Non-Debt Instruments (NDI) Rules position at Annex 5, paragraph 1.2: a person resident outside India (other than a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh), not being a Foreign Portfolio Investor or a Foreign Venture Capital Investor, "is permitted to contribute to the capital of an LLP operating in sectors/ activities where foreign investment up to 100 percent is permitted under automatic route and there are no FDI linked performance conditions." The same Master Direction repeats this test for indirect investment at paragraph 9.3.3: "Indirect foreign Investment is permitted in an LLP in sectors where foreign investment is allowed 100% under automatic route and there are no FDI linked performance conditions." There is no partial or approval-route pathway for foreign capital into an LLP — the sector must clear both bars, 100% automatic route and no attached performance conditions, or the contribution cannot be received (and Form LLP(I) cannot be used to legitimise it after the fact).
How Form LLP(I) Works
Who Files, and When the Clock Starts
The filing duty sits with the LLP, not with the foreign investor. The 30-day period runs from the date the consideration is actually received into the LLP's account — the receipt of funds, not any later formality such as recording the contribution in the LLP agreement or updating the Registrar of Companies, is what starts the clock. An LLP that receives contributions from more than one non-resident partner in separate tranches files a separate Form LLP(I) for each tranche, each with its own 30-day deadline running from that tranche's receipt date.
Mode of Payment
The Master Direction's Annex 5, paragraph 2.1, requires that payment towards capital contribution of an LLP "be made by way of an inward remittance through banking channels or out of funds held in any repatriable foreign currency or Rupee account maintained in accordance with the Foreign Exchange Management (Deposit) Regulations, 2016." A contribution paid in cash, or routed through a non-repatriable (NRO-type) account, does not meet this test and cannot be reported through the ordinary Form LLP(I) route.
Valuation
Paragraph 8.8 of the Master Direction requires that capital contributed to (or a profit share acquired in) an LLP not be priced below "the fair price of capital contribution/ profit share of an LLP," certified by a Chartered Accountant, a practicing Cost Accountant, or a valuer empanelled with the Central Government, using an internationally accepted valuation method. Paragraph 8.11 caps the certificate's shelf life: it "must not be more than ninety days old as on the date of the investment." Form LLP(I) filings are checked against this valuation certificate, along with the Foreign Inward Remittance Certificate and KYC details of the contributing partner, when the AD bank reviews the filing before forwarding it to the RBI.
Form LLP(I) Compared with Form LLP(II)
The two forms cover opposite ends of the same capital-account transaction and should not be confused:
- Form LLP(I) — fresh capital contribution or acquisition of profit share by a non-resident. Filed by the LLP. 30-day deadline from receipt of funds.
- Form LLP(II) — disinvestment or transfer of an existing capital contribution or profit share between a resident and a non-resident, in either direction. Filed by the resident party to the transfer. 60-day deadline from receipt of funds.
An LLP that both admits a new foreign partner and later sees an existing partner exit will typically generate one filing of each type across the life of that investment, not one filing that covers both events.
Why It Matters for Foreign Investors
Three consequences follow directly from the regulation text and from the wider FIRMS/SMF reporting framework it belongs to:
- The capital contribution is not treated as regularised until Form LLP(I) is filed and accepted. Downstream actions on the same capital — a later transfer under Form LLP(II), a change of designated partner, or reliance on the contribution in a due-diligence exercise — can be held up if the underlying LLP(I) filing is missing or still pending with the AD bank.
- Filing late does not exempt the LLP from filing. A missed 30-day deadline moves the filing into the RBI's compounding or late-filing framework rather than removing the obligation — see FEMA Reporting: SMF and FIRMS for how that framework treats delay across all SMF sub-forms, LLP(I) included.
- Form LLP(I) is not the only annual obligation that follows a capital contribution. Regulation 4(2) of the same 2019 Regulations requires that "an LLP which has received investment by way of capital contribution in the previous year including the current year" also submit the Annual Return on Foreign Liabilities and Assets (FLA) to the RBI "on or before the 15th day of July of each year," for as long as the foreign capital contribution remains outstanding on the LLP's books.
Worked Example
An IT-services LLP registered in Bengaluru, operating in a sector with 100% automatic-route FDI and no performance conditions, admits a UK-resident individual as a designated partner. The partner remits USD 60,000 from a UK bank account on 4 March. The LLP obtains a valuation certificate from a Chartered Accountant (dated within the preceding 90 days) confirming the fair price of the capital contribution, then files Form LLP(I) on the FIRMS portal through its AD bank, reporting the remittance details, the FIRC reference, and the partner's KYC information. The filing must reach the AD bank in time for RBI acceptance within 30 days of 4 March — by 3 April. The following July, because the LLP still holds this foreign capital contribution, it also files its FLA return by 15 July.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Form LLP(I) apply to every foreign capital contribution into an Indian LLP?
No. It applies only where the contribution was permitted in the first place — the LLP must be operating in a sector where 100% FDI is allowed under the automatic route with no FDI-linked performance conditions, and the contributing person must not be an FPI, an FVCI, or a citizen/entity of Pakistan or Bangladesh. Outside those conditions, the LLP cannot receive the contribution under the automatic route at all, so there is no Form LLP(I) to file until that eligibility question is resolved.
When does the 30-day filing window for Form LLP(I) start?
From the date the LLP actually receives the amount of consideration, per Regulation 4(6) of the FEMA (Mode of Payment and Reporting of Non-Debt Instruments) Regulations, 2019. It does not start from when the LLP agreement is amended, when the new partner is admitted, or when the Registrar of Companies is notified — only from receipt of the funds.
Who is responsible for filing Form LLP(I) — the LLP or the foreign investor?
The LLP itself. Regulation 4(6) places the obligation on the LLP receiving the amount of consideration, in contrast with Form LLP(II), where Regulation 4(7) puts the reporting onus on the resident transferor or transferee.
What is the difference between Form LLP(I) and Form LLP(II)?
Form LLP(I) reports a fresh capital contribution or acquisition of profit share by a non-resident, within 30 days of receipt, filed by the LLP. Form LLP(II) reports the later disinvestment or transfer of an existing capital contribution or profit share between a resident and a non-resident, within 60 days, filed by the resident party to that transfer.
Does an LLP that files Form LLP(I) have any further FEMA reporting obligation for that same investment?
Yes. As long as the foreign capital contribution remains outstanding, the LLP must also file the Annual Return on Foreign Liabilities and Assets (FLA) with the RBI by 15 July each year, under Regulation 4(2) of the same 2019 Regulations, in addition to the one-time Form LLP(I) filed when the money was first received.
See also: Limited Liability Partnership, FC-GPR, and FEMA Reporting: SMF and FIRMS.