Foreign branch office registration in India.

A place of business in India belonging to the foreign company itself — not a separate Indian entity. It is approved under FEMA and registered with the Registrar of Companies as a foreign company having a place of business in India.

Because it is not a separate legal person, there is no liability wall: claims arising from the branch's operations run against the foreign parent directly, reaching its assets wherever they are held.

Two tests, both applying to the foreign parent rather than to the Indian operation:

• A profit-making track record during the immediately preceding five financial years in the home country
• Net worth of not less than USD 100,000 or its equivalent, certified by the parent's auditor

A newly formed or loss-making foreign company generally cannot open a branch. Where the parent does not qualify, the practical alternatives are a subsidiary — which has no such test — or, in limited circumstances, an application supported by a letter of comfort from a qualifying group company.

Realistically 6 to 10 weeks end to end. Very little of that is filing time.

Attestation of the parent's corporate and financial documents abroad accounts for the first stretch. Processing by the AD Category-I bank accounts for most of the rest, and any query raised adds to it. Applications routed to the RBI or to the government rather than being handled under the bank's delegated authority take longer again.

No. Manufacturing and processing activities cannot be carried on directly by a branch office and must be conducted through an Indian company — with a specific exception for operations in a special economic zone where the prescribed conditions are met.

Retail trading is likewise not permitted in any form. Any foreign group whose India plan involves making or selling goods at retail should be looking at a subsidiary from the outset.

Yes — this is the central difference from a liaison office. A branch may invoice and earn income in India from its permitted activities.

Profits are remittable to the parent subject to applicable taxes, submission of the required certification through the AD bank, and the branch having carried on only permitted activities. There is no dividend mechanism because there are no shares — the remittance is of the branch's own profit after tax.

A certificate issued each year by an Indian Chartered Accountant confirming that the branch has carried on only the activities that were approved. It is submitted to the AD bank and to the Director General of Income Tax (International Taxation).

It has no equivalent in the compliance cycle of an Indian company, and it is the mechanism by which activity drift gets caught. A branch that has quietly begun doing something outside its approval will find that out at certificate time — which is considerably better than finding out during an enforcement action.

A branch is taxed as a foreign company on its Indian income, at the rate applicable to foreign companies. An Indian subsidiary is taxed as a domestic company, at the domestic corporate rate.

The rate applicable to foreign companies has generally been higher than the domestic rate, which is one of the strongest practical arguments for a subsidiary where the India operation is expected to be profitable. Rates and any treaty relief change, so the position should be confirmed with a Chartered Accountant against your specific circumstances before the structure is chosen.

Additional offices can be opened, but each additional location generally requires fresh approval, with justification for the need and the same activity restrictions applying to each.

Every place of business must also be disclosed to the Registrar of Companies, and the annual FC-3 filing includes the full list of places of business in India. Opening an office quietly and not reporting it is a common and easily discovered default.

Through a defined closure procedure, not by simply ceasing to operate. The application goes through the AD bank and typically requires the branch's audited accounts up to closure, tax clearance confirming no outstanding liability, confirmation that no legal proceedings are pending, and a report on the remittance of the surplus.

Intimation to the Registrar of Companies follows. Groups that abandon a branch without closing it properly find the obligation still sitting there years later, usually when they want to do something else in India.

A subsidiary for almost any genuine operating business. It gives limited liability, needs no prior approval in most sectors, is established in days rather than weeks, carries no activity restrictions beyond the sectoral policy, can manufacture and trade, and is taxed at domestic rates.

A branch where the activity clearly sits inside the permitted list, the group specifically does not want an Indian company, and the directness of operating as the parent outweighs both the liability exposure and the higher tax rate. That is a narrower set of circumstances than most groups assume when they first ask about it.