You don't need to move to Germany to build a German company. From India, we set up your GmbH, give you a real business address at an office that exists, and become your presence on the ground, with a team that understands both India and Germany. start local. THINK GLOBAL.
Ten questions, one clear breakdown — statutory fees, our fee, and what runs monthly. No email required to see the price.
Open the quote calculatorEverything a real German business needs to operate, handed to you as one package.
Your company entered in the Handelsregister (commercial register) with its official registration number.
A real, ladungsfähige Geschäftsadresse in Reutlingen, an address at which documents can actually be served, in a building you can walk into.
Guided setup, including options that work for Indian, non-resident founders.
Registration with the Finanzamt plus a USt-IdNr. for trading across the EU.
For import & export between India and the EU, essential for trade and e-commerce.
Hold stock in Germany, ship across the EU within days and handle returns locally, through our vetted warehousing & fulfillment partners.
A real person on the ground in Germany for your sales, meetings and authorities.
These are the points where founders from India get stuck, and exactly where we help.
Sign a power of attorney and have it legalised at the German embassy/consulate in India, we then attend the notary and handle the steps for you. Where the notary or the bank insists on meeting you in person, that is decided case by case.
Two routes that work: a remote online business bank, or an Indian bank with a branch in Germany for familiar KYC.
Moving capital from India means FEMA / LRS rules and bank paperwork. We coordinate the timing so it arrives exactly when the notary and bank need it.
The Finanzamt can stall without proof of real activity. We help you prepare contracts, invoices and a business plan so the numbers are issued the first time.
We work in Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and English, and bridge the India–Germany time difference for you.
A genuine, accessible office with signage and mail handling. Banks and authorities look closely at where a company is actually based, and a cheap virtual address is where that can go wrong.
German founders on the ground, real Indian cultural understanding, a physical German office and a German professional network, a combination a virtual-office provider or a tax advisor simply can't offer.
Four to eight weeks in a normal case. Most of the delay is avoidable, and almost all of it sits in two places: the documents leaving India, and the bank. Both can be started before anything else.
Passport certification, state attestation, then the apostille from the Ministry of External Affairs. This chain runs on its own schedule, so it starts on day one, not after the company name is decided. Certified German translations follow.
Before the notary, not after. A direct bank that works with Indian passports without requiring the managing director to hold a residence permit, a local branch bank in person, or an Indian bank with a Frankfurt branch. Which one fits depends on your shareholders. We prepare and coordinate the application; approval remains the bank’s own KYC decision.
The chamber of commerce gives an opinion on whether the company name can be registered at all, worth having before the notary drafts anything, because a rejected name means doing it twice.
Our notary usually holds the appointment in English and draws the documents in German and English, so in most cases no interpreter and no sworn translation of the deed are needed. Whether that works is the notary’s decision in each case. Where a power of attorney is accepted, you do not need to fly in for this.
The share capital goes into the company's account, the notary files, the court registers, and the tax office issues the tax number and VAT ID. The EORI number follows if goods will cross a border.
Address, post, someone reachable in German office hours, and a person who goes to the authorities with you when something needs to happen in person.
German notary fees are set by law, so this can be calculated rather than argued about. Holding the appointment in a foreign language carries a statutory surcharge of 30 % on the notarisation fee, on a standard formation that is €37.50, on individually drafted articles €75.
The alternative, if the notary works only in German, is a sworn interpreter at the appointment and a sworn translation of the deed. Together that runs into several hundred euros, and it adds a scheduling problem on top.
We compared two real invoices for forming a GmbH with €25,000 of share capital. The German-only route came to €740.61 plus interpreter and translation. The bilingual route, surcharge included, came to €585.31 and that figure was final. The calculator shows the working.
Registering a GmbH gives you no right to live in Germany. A residence permit for self-employment under § 21 AufenthG is a separate test, an economic interest or regional need, expected positive effects on the economy, secured financing, and the immigration office must obtain opinions from the chamber of commerce and the trade authority. What decides it is a business plan that survives that review, and better still real revenue or a signed customer contract. We say this early because founders are sometimes sold the opposite.
The tax office can refuse or park your tax number if the address is one that a large number of companies use for post alone, or if the company cannot show any actual trade. Some tax offices go further and hand the file to a central office because they doubt the company is really managed in Germany. Demonstrable German substance is worth more than it looks, an address you genuinely use, someone on the ground, decisions that actually happen here.
We say elsewhere on this page that forming a company does not get you a visa, and that is true. It is also only half an answer. This is the other half, and it is the same advice we give everyone who asks. The commercial side of it — which route into the market fits, and when the company is actually the right next step — is set out on Germany market entry for Indian companies.
§ 21(1) AufenthG asks three things: that there is an economic interest or a regional need, that the activity is expected to have positive effects on the economy, and that the financing is secured by equity or a committed loan. The immigration authority has to obtain opinions from the competent expert bodies, in practice the chamber of commerce, and from the trade authority.
Read that list for what it is. It is not a description of a legal structure or a form of words. It is a description of a business that works. Which is why the advice that follows is not about the application at all.
There is a reason in the statute to think in years rather than months. § 21(4) AufenthG limits the permit to at most three years. After three years a settlement permit may be granted where the applicant has been self-employed for three years and the activity, in the words of the provision, "in particular because of its success and its duration", gives reason to expect further sustainable development of the business, and where the livelihood of the applicant and of dependent family members is secured by sufficient income.
The law is built around the company succeeding. That is why our answer to "how do I get the permit" is build the company first, and why we would rather help you win a first German customer than help you polish an application.
We cannot promise an outcome. The immigration authority decides, and we do not give legal advice, for the application itself we put you in touch with a lawyer.
This is the pattern we see most often, and it has nothing to do with paperwork. We set it out plainly because nobody selling company formations has an interest in mentioning it.
The formation itself runs cleanly. Company registered, address in place, bank account open, tax number issued. Everything on the checklist is done.
Then nothing happens. There is no plan for how the company will actually sell in Germany beyond an expectation that a German company number will open German doors, and there is nobody here whose job it is to sell.
It does not fail quickly. In the cases we have seen it drags on for years, with the annual costs running, until the share capital has been used up. The company was correct in every formal respect and never had a route to a first customer.
We have had clients who had been trying for two years to get in front of German buyers and had not managed it. What changed the position was not the legal structure, that was already in place and correct. It was getting them the conversations, and the chance to show their samples in person.
A German buyer who will not answer an email from an unfamiliar foreign supplier will often take a meeting arranged by someone they can place. That is the whole mechanism, and it is unglamorous.
What local representation covers in practice, the phone in German business hours, attending appointments, post, dealing with authorities, the language: depends on what is agreed and which package is booked. We would rather set that out in a conversation than promise it on a web page.
These are observations from the formations we have handled, not measured findings, and we mark them as such.
Many German Mittelstand companies and established brands have no next-generation successor. For Indian and international companies that's a rare opportunity: acquire a running business, a brand and a customer base instead of starting from zero.
We identify German companies and brands open to a handover, including succession cases in the Mittelstand.
With our German legal, tax and M&A network we support due diligence, negotiation and closing, in your language.
After the deal we stay your local presence, management support, representation and integration in Germany.
Once your company exists, choose the level of local presence you need. We deliberately work with a limited number of companies, so support stays personal, pricing is tailored to your needs.
Your official German business base, court-valid address, mail scan & forwarding.
More than an address, local phone & fax, daily mail handling, meeting rooms.
Your people on the ground, a dedicated person for sales & representation.
Four to eight weeks in a normal case. The document chain in India, certification, state attestation, apostille from the Ministry of External Affairs, takes two to four weeks on a good run and should be started first. The bank is the other variable and is worth settling before the notary appointment rather than after. Everything else runs to a predictable schedule.
Not necessarily. Much can be handled by power of attorney, certified at a German embassy or consulate in India, and our notary normally holds the appointment in English, so in most cases no interpreter is needed, though that remains the notary’s decision. The bank is usually the step that decides: some routes are fully remote, one means a single appointment at a branch. We tell you in the first call which applies to you.
No. A residence permit for self-employment under § 21 AufenthG is a separate test with its own requirements, and the immigration office must obtain opinions from the chamber of commerce and the trade authority. A business plan that survives that review is what decides it. The commercial register entry matters, but it does not replace the assessment under § 21 AufenthG.
Yes. A GmbH or UG can be formed remotely: you sign a power of attorney and have your signature certified at the German embassy or consulate in India, and we attend the notary appointment in Germany on your behalf. The commercial-register application, the trade registration and the tax registration are handled the same way. The one step that is not remote is the bank — some banks still ask to see the managing director.
In most cases yes. With a power of attorney legalised at the German embassy or consulate in India, we handle the steps that require a presence in Germany, including the notary appointment, on your behalf. Many of our founders complete the whole formation without flying in.
Transferring capital from India follows Indian foreign-exchange rules (FEMA): individuals use the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS, up to USD 250,000 per year), routed through your Indian bank (the Authorised Dealer) with dedicated forms and reporting. The India-side paperwork often takes longer than the German formation, so we plan and coordinate the timing so the capital arrives exactly when the bank and notary need it.
Usually yes, though the decision is always the bank's. We prepare your documents and point you to the banks that work with non-resident founders, either a remote online business bank you can open without flying in, or an Indian bank with a branch in Germany for familiar KYC. A real business address at a real office strengthens the application, but opening an account always remains the bank's decision.
No, owning or being a director of a German GmbH does not by itself require you to live in Germany or hold a visa. If you later want to relocate, that is a separate step; we provide general information and refer you to an immigration lawyer for binding advice.
Typically about 4–8 weeks, depending on how quickly your documents and the share-capital transfer are ready and how responsive the authorities and bank are. We give you a realistic timeline in your free consultation.
Yes. If you move goods across the EU border, we apply for your EORI number as a €250 add-on so your company can import and export with countries outside the EU, and we can support your logistics and, if needed, a warehouse/storage address in Germany.
We work in Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil as well as English and German, so nothing gets lost between you and the German authorities.
Arrange a consultation and we'll map your exact steps, documents and timeline, in your language.