HomeIncorporation for Foreigners
For founders outside Singapore. Registering the company is the quick part. The resident director requirement and the bank account are what decide how long the whole thing takes.
Neither route needs a trip to Singapore. Online suits founders with documents in hand. Guided suits anyone who still needs a local director or a Singapore address.
Upload passports and address proof, choose whether you need a nominee director or our registered address, and sign electronically from wherever you are.
Have a passport copy and a recent proof of address for every director and shareholder.
Start online incorporation
Hover or tap a step to see that screen.
Your chartered secretary maps the structure, arranges the resident director and registered office if you need them, and tells you which documents need certifying in your country.
Worth it if you
On both routes every director and shareholder passes identity checks before we file with ACRA.
Registration itself is a form. The parts that hold people up are the resident director seat, the Singapore address, and the identity documents a bank will ask to see.
Signatures are collected electronically, so you never board a plane to register. Passport details, proof of your overseas address and the consent to act as director come from you by email and go straight into the ACRA filing.
Every Singapore company needs at least one director ordinarily resident here. If nobody on your team qualifies yet, a nominee director holds the seat until someone does, and that is quoted separately from the incorporation fee.
Verification takes longer when directors and shareholders sit in different countries. Certified passport copies, address proof and, where a company owns your company, documents for the people behind it are collected first, because a half-complete file stalls at the bank.
ACRA and IRAS write to the registered office, and it must be open to the public at least three hours on each business day. A PO box is refused. Address and mail scanning sit inside the Comply package.
Slowness comes from the bank, not from ACRA. Your board resolution, business profile, constitution and a written description of what the company sells are prepared the way banks ask for them, and the bank still makes the decision.
Local deadlines are easy to lose track of from another time zone. You get your AGM month, the seven month annual return deadline, the three month ECI date and 30 November for the tax return, against your own year end.
Two of these steps depend on you finding documents. The other two are ours. Waiting on the bank is the step with no promised date, and we explain why.
We test the name against ACRA's register and trade mark records, then map out who holds shares, who sits as director, and whether you need a nominee for the resident seat. That last answer changes the cost, so it comes early.
About 30 minutesCertified passport copies and address proof come in for every director and shareholder. A corporate shareholder brings its own registration documents and details of the individuals above it. Overseas files usually sit waiting at this step, so start it the day you decide.
Depends on your paperworkThe submission goes in under our filing agent account. Once the company is registered you have a UEN, a business profile, statutory registers including the RORC, and a set of first board resolutions ready for the bank.
Once documents are completeWe prepare the pack and introduce you to banks that take on companies with overseas directors. Some want a video call, some want a director in the room. Approval is the bank's to give, and remote directors are reviewed more closely than local ones.
The longest stageIncorporation is one fixed fee with the ACRA fee inside it. The registration work for a foreign founder is priced the same as for a local one, and the fee is fixed in the engagement letter before we start.
A nominee director and a registered office are quoted on top, because not every overseas founder needs both. If you already have a resident director and a Singapore address of your own, you pay for neither, and the incorporation fee is the whole of it.
Quoted for your company
Agreed in writing before we start
Get a quotePrices exclude GST. Nominee director and registered office are quoted separately. Notary, embassy or courier charges for certifying documents overseas are yours and are passed on at cost.
No. The incorporation is filed electronically and signatures are collected remotely. A bank is a different matter. Some banks accept a video interview, others want a director to appear in person, and that condition belongs to the bank rather than to ACRA. We tell you which banks ask for what before you apply.
Yes. A Singapore private limited company is allowed to be owned entirely by foreign individuals or by a foreign parent company. The resident director requirement is separate from ownership, so you keep all the shares and still need at least one director ordinarily resident in Singapore.
Only if nobody involved in the company is ordinarily resident in Singapore. The rule asks for one resident director, so a single qualifying person covers it. Founders relocating on an Employment Pass often need a nominee for the gap between incorporation and the pass being approved, then drop the arrangement.
Longer than the incorporation, and no honest provider gives you a fixed date. Applications with overseas directors go through deeper checks. Two things hold them up most: a vague description of what the business does, and gaps in the ownership chain above a corporate shareholder. Fix both before applying.
Corporate income tax is 17% of chargeable income. A new company usually qualifies for the Start-up Tax Exemption, worth 75% relief on the first S$100,000 and 50% on the next S$100,000 for the first three years of assessment. GST registration becomes compulsory once taxable turnover passes S$1 million over 12 months.
Tell us where the directors live and what the company will sell. That is usually enough to say whether you need a nominee and which banks are worth approaching. No charge for the conversation.
Tell us what you need and we will point you to the right answer, or bring in one of our chartered professionals. Out of hours you get a reply first thing the next working day.