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Setting Up a Company in India

Setting up in India means choosing a legal entity, registering it with the right authorities, and putting a bank account, a real office address and an India-based director in place before the company can actually function. For a foreign company or an NRI, each of those steps carries rules a resident founder never has to think about, from which structures are open only to Indian citizens to which documents need legalising before an Indian authority will accept them.

The entity choice matters most because it decides almost everything that follows. A private limited company is the default for anyone who wants to trade, raise money or hire directly and is willing to run a full Indian company. A branch or liaison office keeps you inside your existing foreign legal entity, but the Reserve Bank of India decides what it may do, and a liaison office cannot earn a rupee in India. An LLP suits smaller, services-led setups but is closed to portfolio and venture investors, and a one person company is open only to Indian citizens, NRIs included.

Incorporation itself is one filing in a longer sequence: legalising documents, opening a bank account, appointing a qualifying director, and only afterwards the sector licences and registrations your business actually needs. What follows here is where to start reading, what each part of setup actually involves, and, once you know which country you are coming from, where to find the exact route and paperwork for it.

Start here

  1. India Entry Strategy: Choosing the Right Entity Structure

    Compares six ways into India side by side, from a private limited company to an employer of record, before you commit.

  2. Wholly Owned Subsidiary vs LLP for Foreign Investors in India

    The two structures most foreign investors actually choose between, set against each other.

  3. Private Limited Company

    Plain definition of the default entity, worth reading before the service pages.

  4. LLP Registration in India: Are FPIs and FVCIs Eligible to Invest?

    Explains who can and cannot invest through an LLP, not just how to file one.

  5. Documents Required to Register a Company in India as a Foreigner

    The document and legalisation checklist you need ready before any filing starts.

  6. Apostille vs Embassy Attestation for India Company Registration

    Which legalisation route applies depends on your country, not your entity choice.

  7. Register in India From Anywhere

    Pick your own country to see the registration route and paperwork that applies from there.

A wholly owned Indian subsidiary means legalising your parent company's documents, appointing a qualifying director, opening a bank account and only then allotting shares, and the subsidiary registration sequence is what we run end to end. A foreign subsidiary is itself built as a private limited company, and it is also the structure most NRI founders choose when there is no foreign parent involved, so private limited incorporation is where the SPICe+ filing, the PAN and TAN, and the first set of director and shareholder paperwork actually get done. Every private limited company and LLP needs at least one director or designated partner who meets India's residency test, and when none of your own people qualify, appointing a qualifying director is done as a documented, indemnified board seat, not an informal favour from a friend.

entity type choice

Choosing a structure comes down to how much revenue-generating activity you plan, how much control you want, and whether you are a foreign company or an NRI, since some structures are open only to Indian citizens. People often pick whatever is fastest to set up, then discover months later that a liaison office cannot invoice a single rupee.

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private limited incorporation

This is the default structure for a foreign parent or an NRI who wants a company that can trade, raise capital, hire directly and own assets in its own name. Incorporation bundles several registrations into one filing, but it goes more smoothly when the resident director and the registered address are lined up before you file, not after.

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LLP setup

An LLP suits smaller, services-led operations where partners want limited liability without the fuller company-law compliance load. It is not open to every foreign investor: portfolio and venture capital funds cannot use it, and it only qualifies for automatic-route investment in sectors that already allow full foreign ownership with no performance conditions attached.

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branch and liaison offices

A branch or liaison office lets a foreign company operate in India under its own name without a separate entity, but FEMA rules fix what each may do, and a liaison office's approval runs for a set period before renewal or conversion. The two are not interchangeable: a branch can invoice for permitted activities, a liaison office cannot earn income.

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project office

A project office is the narrowest of the foreign-office options: it exists to execute a specific contract awarded to the foreign company in India and has to close once that contract is complete. It suits a one-off engineering or infrastructure project, not an ongoing India presence, and it cannot take on work outside that contract.

one person company

An OPC is a single-member company for one founder who is an Indian citizen, living in India or abroad, so NRIs qualify, but a foreign national who is not an Indian citizen cannot use it. Foreign parents sometimes shortlist it by mistake; without Indian citizenship, a private limited company is the route in front of you instead.

section 8 company

A section 8 company is India's non-profit vehicle, used for charitable, educational or CSR work; foreign nationals can be its directors and members, and an overseas company can be a member. Unlike the other entities on this page it cannot distribute dividends, and its profit and income have to go back into its stated objects.

registered office and address

Every Indian company needs a registered office capable of receiving and acknowledging official communication, confirmed to the Registrar shortly after incorporation and kept at all times after that, whether it is a leased office, a coworking desk or a compliant virtual address. Where you put it also fixes which Registrar of Companies has jurisdiction and which state's rules apply.

company name and SPICe+

SPICe+ is the single web form that reserves your company name and files the incorporation itself, alongside several other registrations, instead of making you file each one separately. A name can still be rejected for resembling an existing company, so check the trademark register as well as the company-name database before you commit to one.

director and DIN basics

Every director needs a Director Identification Number, which for a new company can be allotted through the incorporation filing rather than as a separate step. A DIN belongs to the person, not the company, and stays with them across every board they join; resigning does not retire it, though a missed KYC update can deactivate it.

post-incorporation steps

A certificate of incorporation is the start of the paperwork, not the end of it: the company still needs a working bank account, its first board meeting and auditor appointment, and a declaration that it has commenced business before it can operate normally. Parents who treat the certificate as the finish line usually miss what comes right after it.

licences and registrations

Incorporation gives you a legal entity, not a licence to operate. Depending on sector and state you may still need a shops and establishment registration, GST or an industry licence before you can legally trade, plus optional ones such as Udyam or Startup India recognition. Which apply depends on what the company does and where, not its entity type.

trademarks, patents and IP

Registering your company name with the Registrar of Companies does not register it as a trademark; the two run on entirely separate registers. A name that is free at the MCA can still clash with someone else's registered mark or with an earlier user's rights in India, so clearing it before you commit to branding avoids a costly dispute later.

virtual office

A virtual office can satisfy the registered-office requirement, but only if it is a real, verifiable address backed by an actual lease or licence agreement, not a mail-forwarding address or a PO box. Registrars have grown stricter about checking this, so treat a cheap virtual-office listing as a starting point to verify, not a guarantee it will be accepted.

India entry planning

Entry planning sits above the paperwork: deciding when to set up a formal entity versus testing the market first, how much runway to budget before the entity supports itself, and how the order of directors, banking and licences affects your go-live date. Parents who plan only for incorporation tend to underestimate everything that happens around it.

documents and apostille

Documents your parent company or its foreign directors sign abroad for an Indian filing, such as board resolutions, powers of attorney and identity proof, generally have to be notarised and legalised first. Whether that means an apostille or consular attestation depends on whether your country has joined the Hague Apostille Convention, not on your entity choice.

country entry guide

Which paperwork applies also depends on where you are coming from: whether your country has joined the Hague Apostille Convention, and whether it shares a land border with India and so faces an extra government-approval test. Rather than repeat those differences here, use the country pages to find the exact route and paperwork for your own country.

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More on company setup

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the resident director have to be an Indian citizen?

No. The requirement is a residency test, a director who stays in India for the qualifying period in the financial year, not a citizenship test, which is why foreign parents who have no such person available use a resident director service instead.

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Can an NRI register a one person company in India?

Yes. An OPC is open to any natural person who is an Indian citizen, whether resident in India or not, so an NRI can incorporate one; a foreign national who is not an Indian citizen cannot use this structure and needs a private limited company or another entity instead.

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Do my company's documents need an apostille or an embassy attestation?

It depends on whether your home country has joined the Hague Apostille Convention: if it has, an apostille certificate is enough, and if it has not, the documents go through consular or embassy attestation instead.

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Sources

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