We test your activity against the FDI policy, settle founder-owned vs US-parent subsidiary, and answer the resident-director question before anything is signed.
India entry · United States
Start a Company in India as an American
An American citizen can own 100% of an Indian private limited company in most sectors, with no prior Indian government approval — the investment is reported to the Reserve Bank of India after the shares are allotted, not cleared before it. ComplyKart is the Delhi team that runs the Indian side for US founders: the incorporation, the resident-director question, your state apostille and the FEMA reporting that follows.
The short answer: you do not need to fly to India, you do not need an Indian co-owner, and in most sectors you do not need permission first. You need two directors, one of whom must meet India's resident-director rule — and a document trail that starts with an apostille in your home state.
100% remote — no India trip to incorporate
Fixed written quote before you pay anything
Evening IST calls that land in your morning
CAs, CSs and advocates on one team
Your FDI route
Do US citizens need approval to invest in India?
No, in most sectors. US investors use India's automatic route: you incorporate first, bring capital in through proper banking channels, and report the allotment to the Reserve Bank by filing Form FC-GPR within 30 days. Prior approval is needed only in the handful of sectors India keeps on its approval list.
The approval list is short and specific — defence beyond the automatic cap, certain media, private security agencies, brownfield pharmaceuticals and a few others carry caps or approval conditions for every foreign investor, whatever their passport. Print media sits at 26%. Satellites and telecom have their own conditions. If your activity is software, services, trading or most manufacturing, the automatic route is almost certainly yours.
One distinction trips up Americans with Indian roots. If you hold an OCI card or an Indian passport, parts of this get easier — documents, banking, the director question. If you are a US citizen with no Indian connection, nothing about the route changes; only the paperwork does. Either way, we check the sector entry in the Consolidated FDI Policy against your exact activity before you move a dollar, because "most sectors" is a sentence that deserves a verification step.
The structure question
Which structure do US founders actually pick?
Three patterns cover nearly every US case we see.
You, personally, as founder. A private limited company owned by you and perhaps a co-founder. Right for a new venture that happens to be built from Austin or Brooklyn but sells into India, hires in India, or both. Clean, quick, and the equity stays personal.
Your US company as parent. A wholly owned subsidiary: the US entity subscribes to the Indian company's shares, capital comes in as FDI, and the Indian company files FC-GPR. Right when the India operation is genuinely an arm of the US business — same brand, intercompany invoices, transfer pricing to document from day one.
The Delaware flip, run backwards. A typical Delaware parent asks us the reverse question: the US company was incorporated first for fundraising, the founders are Indian, and now the money needs to come back into an Indian operating company. That is still foreign investment into India, and it drags the founders' earlier ODI position into the frame. It works — plenty of startups run exactly this — but it is not the same filing as a fresh foreign founder's, and pretending otherwise is how groups end up with a FEMA tangle two fundraise rounds later. Tell us about the Delaware entity on the first call, not the fifth.
US tech firms opening an India capability centre — the GCC pattern — sit in the second bucket with a bigger payroll attached. The incorporation is identical; the planning after it (transfer pricing, PF and payroll registrations, state incentives) is where the real work sits.
How it works
The US-to-India setup, step by step
Four stages. Your part is documents and decisions; ours is everything filed in India. Most US cases run three to five weeks end to end, and the apostille stage decides where in that range you land.
Your passport and address proof are notarised, then apostilled by your Secretary of State. We send the exact checklist first, so documents are legalised once, correctly.
Digital signatures for the directors, name reservation, then SPICe+ with e-MoA and e-AoA. PAN and TAN come out of the same filing — there is no separate EIN-style application to make.
Subscription money arrives through the company's bank as FDI, shares are allotted, and FC-GPR is filed within 30 days of allotment. The FIRC and KYC trail from the bank completes the record.
Not sure whether the founder or the US parent should own it?That single choice drives your tax and reporting for years. Ask before you incorporate, not after.
Your documents
What documents does an American need?
Short list, one slow step. The documents themselves are ordinary; the notarisation and apostille chain is where US founders lose days, usually by legalising the wrong version of a document.
Two sets: yours, and your company's if a US parent invests. Personal — passport and a US address proof, apostilled by your Secretary of State. Corporate — certificate of incorporation or good standing, operating agreement or bylaws, and a board resolution naming the signatory. Everything reaches India as scans first; originals follow only if the Registrar asks.
For each US director and shareholder
US documents are legalised at state level. A document issued in California is apostilled in California; a federal document goes to the US Department of State. We tell you which of yours is which before you book a notary.
✓Passport copy — notarised and apostilled
✓US address proof — a recent utility bill or bank statement, notarised and apostilled
✓Passport-size photograph
✓Digital signature application records
✓If a US company is the shareholder: certificate of incorporation, board resolution and authorised signatory ID, apostilled
✓No SSN is needed anywhere in the Indian filing
The EIN question, answered early: Americans instinctively ask where the Indian EIN application is. There isn't one. Your Indian company's PAN — its tax identity — is allotted as part of the incorporation filing itself.
Treaty and tax
How does the India–US tax treaty affect your Indian company?
India and the United States have a double taxation treaty (signed in 1989) that decides which country taxes dividends, royalties, fees for technical services and business profits, and gives credit for tax paid in the other. Claiming treaty relief in India generally needs a US tax residency certificate and Form 10F filed with the Indian payer.
For most US founders the treaty stays in the background until money moves: a dividend repatriated to the US, a royalty for IP the Indian company uses, or fees the Indian company pays the US parent for services. Each flow has its own withholding position, and the treaty rate is claimed through paperwork, not assumed at the bank. Get the flow mapped before the first invoice crosses, because fixing withholding after the money has moved is slower and uglier than planning it.
Two US-side realities to hold alongside the Indian filing. Your Indian company is a controlled foreign corporation for US tax purposes if you own it personally — your US CPA will want the incorporation documents, share register and FC-GPR acknowledgement for the Form 5471 file. And if the US parent owns the Indian company, the intercompany pricing between them needs to be arm's length under both countries' rules; we coordinate the Indian side of that file with your US advisers rather than leaving you to translate between two firms.
Keep reading
Guides US founders use
Written by the same team that will handle your filing.
How a foreign company sets up a wholly owned subsidiary in IndiaThe subsidiary route in full — ownership, capital, and what the parent must pass at board level.Read →
FC-GPR filing in India: the foreign founder's guideWhat FC-GPR is, when the 30-day clock starts, and the documents the bank and the RBI expect.Read →
What company registration in India costs a foreignerGovernment fees, professional fees and the outside costs, separated honestly.Read →
Going the other way? Company formation in the USA for IndiansOur outbound page for Indian founders forming a US company — the other direction of this corridor.Read →
Other corridors
Entering India from a different country?
The route into India changes with the investor's country — the FDI route, the treaty position and the document chain are all different. Pick the corridor that matches where you are investing from.
United StatesFull ownership in most sectors, the Delaware-parent question, and FC-GPR once shares are allotted. You are on this page.
United KingdomCETA has been in force since July 2026. What it changes for a UK firm setting up — and what it leaves alone.
SingaporeHoldco-over-opco structuring, the ACRA-side paperwork, and the treaty position after 2017.
United Arab EmiratesFree-zone and mainland founders, CEPA, and the MOFA-plus-embassy document chain the UAE requires.
Hong KongDoes Press Note 3 catch a Hong Kong holding company? Yes — here is how the approval route works.
ChinaThe government approval route under Press Note 3: the application, the document pack, the realistic timeline.
All foreign foundersThe main India-entry page: entity choices, costs, the full process and answers for every other country.
Straight answers
FAQs: starting a company in India as an American
Yes, in most sectors. India's FDI policy allows up to 100% foreign ownership under the automatic route — no prior government approval — in sectors like software, services, trading and most manufacturing. A short list of sectors carries caps or approval conditions for all foreign investors. We confirm your sector before you move money.
No. Incorporation runs on apostilled documents, digital signatures and electronic MCA filings, so a US founder can complete the whole setup from home. A bank may ask for extra KYC steps when the account opens, and some founders visit later for operations — but the registration itself never needs a flight.
Section 149(3) of the Companies Act, 2013 requires every Indian company to have at least one director who stayed in India for 182 days or more in the financial year. A private limited company needs two directors minimum. US founders usually pair themselves with an India-based co-director, an employee director, or a professional resident director arrangement.
Your passport and address proof are first notarised, then apostilled by the Secretary of State of the state that issued or notarised them — California documents in California, New York documents in New York. Federal documents go to the US Department of State. We send you the exact checklist for your documents before you book anything, so nothing is legalised twice.
Yes. When a Delaware company subscribes to shares in an Indian company, that is foreign direct investment into India, reported through FC-GPR like any other FDI. If the Delaware parent is itself owned by Indian founders, their earlier ODI position also comes into the analysis. It is a common, workable structure — it just needs the two sides read together before funds move.
Form FC-GPR is the report an Indian company files on the RBI's FIRMS portal when it allots shares to a foreign investor. It is due within 30 days of the share allotment. The filing rests on the bank's FIRC and KYC report for the inward remittance, so the remittance, the allotment and the report have to be sequenced in that order.
The MCA filing itself usually takes 7 to 15 working days once documents are filing-ready. From the US, plan on three to five weeks end to end: state apostille turnaround and the bank's FEMA desk are the two stages that stretch. Founders who start the apostille in week one rarely wait on it.
Ready when you are
Ready to set up in India? Talk to us — it's free.
Share your business activity, who will own the company and where you are based. We will map the entity, the document route from the United States, the filing sequence and the compliance that follows. You receive the scope and costs in writing before you pay.
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Talk to ComplyKart in India
602, 6th Floor, Kirti Shikhar, District Centre, Janakpuri, New Delhi – 110058, India