Author name: Aditya Agrawal

For a US company hiring its first engineers in India, an employer of record and your own subsidiary compared on published fees at 5, 10, 20 and 50 people, code ownership, stock options, permanent establishment and the move between them.

The steps from the parent’s apostilled documents to the day its Indian company may trade, which of them run on an official clock, and where a set-up loses time.

What a foreign parent company provides to set up an Indian subsidiary, how each paper is legalised by the country where it is signed, and which dates and details make the Registrar send a file back.

For a US parent, setting up an Indian subsidiary means apostilles from the right US offices, the India-US treaty caps on payments home, an IRS Form 6166 for each calendar year and a check on the 2026 duty on goods.

What a foreign parent pays to set up an Indian subsidiary and run it through its first year: government fees by authorised capital, stamp duty by state, the costs a foreign parent adds and LegalJini’s fees.

Every Indian company, a foreign-owned subsidiary included, needs a director who stays in India for at least 182 days in total during the financial year, and the parent’s main risk is the time that seat stands empty.

A foreign company can enter India through a liaison office that represents it, a branch office that earns from the activities on RBI’s list, or a subsidiary that runs any business its sector allows, and the three differ in approval, tax, liability and exit.

A US company entering India chooses between investing in an Indian subsidiary, joint venture or LLP and opening a branch, liaison or project office, and each route has its own approver, limits and first-year filings.