<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n1. What is Form FC-1 and when must it be filed?<\/strong>
Form FC-1 is the registration form for a foreign company that establishes a place of business in India. It must be filed with the Registrar of Companies within 30 days of establishing that place of business, along with authenticated documents and details of the authorised representative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. What are FC-3 and FC-4?<\/strong>
FC-3 is the annual filing of financial accounts of the foreign company\u2019s Indian business. FC-4 is the annual return containing particulars such as directors and other corporate details. Both are due every financial year after FC-1 registration, so they should be diarised from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n3. When should Form FC-2 be used?<\/strong>
Form FC-2 reports changes in the Indian operations of a foreign company. According to the MCA\u2019s FAQs, new projects and other changes should ordinarily be reported through it. It is also the form used for extensions of existing RBI approvals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n4. Is a foreign company the same as an Indian subsidiary?<\/strong>
No. A foreign company is incorporated abroad and operates through a place of business in India. An Indian subsidiary is incorporated in India under the Companies Act, 2013. They follow different registration routes, so the choice affects filings, liability and scalability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n5. Do CSR rules apply to foreign companies in India?<\/strong>
Yes, where the thresholds under Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 are met. The MCA\u2019s FAQs confirm that a foreign company crossing those thresholds is subject to CSR provisions, so it should assess eligibility each year as part of its compliance planning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FC-1 FC-3 FC-4 compliance is now easier to understand for overseas businesses, following the FAQs the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) published in August 2026 on foreign company registration. A foreign company that opens a branch, liaison or project office in India often assumes that registering once is enough. In practice, registration is only the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[812],"tags":[4895,4894,4892,4888,745,801,4885,3006,2534,4887,4891,4889,4890,4896,1661,4886,1663,4893],"class_list":["post-9789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-apostille-documents-mca","tag-authorised-representative-india","tag-branch-office-registration-india","tag-companies-act-2013-section-380","tag-company-formation-in-india","tag-company-setup-in-india","tag-fc-1-fc-3-fc-4-compliance","tag-foreign-company-compliance-india","tag-foreign-company-registration-india","tag-form-fc-1-filing","tag-form-fc-2-changes","tag-form-fc-3-annual-accounts","tag-form-fc-4-annual-return","tag-indian-subsidiary-vs-foreign-company","tag-liaison-office-india","tag-mca-faqs-foreign-companies","tag-project-office-india","tag-rbi-fema-approval-foreign-company"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9791,"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9789\/revisions\/9791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/startupsolicitors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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