Plan your India entry timeline.
Pick a structure and see a realistic week-by-week setup estimate — incorporation or registration, GST across your states, and the bank account — with the levers that stretch or compress it.
Fastest realistic path if every step goes cleanly on the first attempt — a query, an incomplete document, or a registry backlog adds time on top. Sequential steps only; the bank account runs in parallel to incorporation but is a genuine bottleneck for foreign-owned entities (beneficial-ownership KYC on foreign directors/shareholders, apostilled documents, bank-internal AML review) and commonly gates when FDI can actually be remitted. Not legal advice.
What typically drives the number
Every Indian company needs at least one director who has been ordinarily resident in India — 182 days or more in the preceding calendar year — under Section 149(3) of the Companies Act. If the parent has no one on the ground, a nominee resident-director arrangement solves it, at the cost of about a week of paperwork. Apostille or consular legalisation of the parent's charter documents is the other common drag: done in advance it costs nothing; started late it adds around a week before filings can even begin — apostille/consularisation queues and the resubmission cycle on SPICe+ filings are the two most common reasons an entry runs past the estimate below, not the headline government fee timelines.
A branch office is the outlier: it needs RBI-route approval through an AD Category-I bank, which adds three to nine weeks, and the parent must show a net worth above USD 100,000 in its latest audited financials. A project office tied to a specific Indian contract generally proceeds under the general permission route without that wait.
The weeks above cover registration only — they stop once the company exists, a bank account is open and GST is registered. Once FDI actually arrives and shares are allotted, Form FC-GPR must be filed with the RBI (via your AD bank on the FIRMS portal) within 30 days of allotment, and share allotment itself must happen within 60 days of receiving the inward remittance. This is a separate, mandatory FEMA reporting step that follows funding rather than registration, so it isn't part of the headline timeline — but it's not optional, and missing it carries a compounding late-filing fee.
Indicative cost
Professional and government fees for a wholly-owned subsidiary typically land between ₹1.5 lakh and ₹4 lakh depending on scope — states, licences, nominee services and post-incorporation compliance. That figure is indicative only; we confirm fees solely in a written engagement letter, never on a web page. As an advisor-led firm, we manage the full stack while credentialed filings are executed through our empanelled professionals.
This estimator is general information, not legal or tax advice — sectoral caps, approval routes and state-level requirements need a structure memo before you commit.