Visas, FRRO Registration and Living in India for Foreign Staff

Most problems here are timing problems, not eligibility problems. The visa has to be sorted before travel, since the category chosen abroad fixes what the person can legally do once they land, including whether they can draw a salary. Where the visa requires it, registration with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office then runs on its own clock from arrival, and it does not pause for accommodation, onboarding or paperwork to catch up. Dependents, exit clearance, housing, schooling and healthcare each follow their own separate process alongside the employee's.

None of this is tax or payroll, which start the moment a person is actually paid from an Indian entity. Once an employee moves onto that payroll, their residence status and the structure of their pay create obligations of their own, covered on our tax and payroll pages. Start with whichever page below is closest to your question, then use the sections further down for everything else on the topic.

Foreign staff posted to India to work for the parent can create a permanent establishment for it under the relevant tax treaty, and our permanent establishment risk review assesses that exposure, ideally before the posting begins. Once a foreign employee moves onto your Indian entity's payroll, split-payroll tax on their India and home-paid pay and the international worker provident fund rules both apply, and that is where our expatriate payroll service takes over.