Documents required for company registration

What is the complete document list?

For a Private Limited Company or OPC filed through SPICe+, and for an LLP filed through FiLLiP, the documents fall into three groups.

For each director, partner and shareholder

• PAN card (mandatory for Indian nationals).
• Aadhaar card, voter ID, passport or driving licence as identity proof.
• Bank statement, electricity bill, telephone bill or mobile bill as address proof, not older than two months.
• A passport-size photograph in JPEG.
• Email address and mobile number linked to Aadhaar for OTP verification.

For the registered office

• Electricity, gas, telephone or water bill not older than two months, in the owner's name.
• A no-objection certificate from the owner allowing the company to use the premises.
• Rent or lease agreement if the premises are rented.

Declarations and forms

• DIR-2 consent to act as director, INC-9 declaration, and the subscriber sheet, all generated from the filing and signed digitally.
• Specimen signature and the signed MoA and AoA where physical signing is required for foreign subscribers.

Everything is uploaded as PDF, self-attested by the person concerned.

Which identity and address proofs does the MCA accept?

PAN is compulsory for every Indian director and shareholder and is the anchor document: the name and date of birth on PAN must match every other proof. For identity, any one of Aadhaar, passport, voter ID or driving licence works. For address, the MCA wants a document that proves where the person lives today, which is why the two-month age limit applies to bank statements and utility bills. Aadhaar is accepted as a permanent address proof but a separate current address proof is still expected if the two differ.

Small details cause most rejections:

• A bank statement must show the bank's name, the account holder's name and address, and recent transactions. A screenshot of net banking is not accepted.
• A mobile bill must be postpaid and in the director's own name.
• The photograph should be recent, against a plain background, not cropped from a group photo.
• Married women whose surname differs across documents should attach the marriage certificate or a gazette notification.

For a person who already holds a DIN, the MCA pulls the details from the DIN record, so the KYC in the DIN must be current. If a director's DIR-3 KYC is pending, update that before starting the incorporation.

What proves the registered office?

The registered office is where the registrar sends notices, so the MCA wants proof that the company has a right to use the premises. Three documents cover it:

• A utility bill (electricity, gas, water or landline) for the premises, dated within the last two months, in the name of the owner.
• A no-objection certificate (NOC) signed by that owner, stating the company may use the address as its registered office.
• A rent agreement or lease deed if the company is a tenant, or the sale deed or property tax receipt if a director owns the premises.

A home address works as long as these three exist; the owner can be a parent or spouse. A co-working space works too, and most operators provide the bill copy and NOC as a standard service. A virtual office is accepted by the MCA when the operator gives the same documents, though banks and the GST department may inspect the premises before granting registration.

If you cannot arrange the address before filing, SPICe+ lets you use a correspondence address and file INC-22 with the registered office within 30 days of incorporation. In practice this only delays the same paperwork, so we recommend fixing the address first.

What extra documents do foreign nationals and NRIs need?

A foreign national who will be a director or shareholder provides a passport as identity proof and a bank statement, utility bill or driving licence as address proof. Each document must be notarised and then either apostilled (for countries in the Hague Convention) or attested by the Indian embassy or consulate (for others). If the person is in India on a business visa at the time, the documents can instead be attested by the Indian notary with a copy of the visa and immigration stamp.

NRIs holding an Indian passport can use Aadhaar and PAN like residents; if they have no Aadhaar, the passport and an overseas address proof with notarisation are used.

A foreign company subscribing to shares provides its certificate of incorporation, a board resolution authorising the investment and naming an authorised signatory, and the signatory's passport, all apostilled. After incorporation the Indian company must report the foreign investment to the RBI in Form FC-GPR within 30 days of allotting shares, so keep the FIRC from the bank.

Attestation typically adds 5 to 10 working days to the timeline and is the one step we cannot compress from India.

How do LLP documents differ?

An LLP needs the same partner KYC (PAN, identity proof, two-month-old address proof, photograph) and the same registered office proof (utility bill, NOC, rent agreement). The differences are in the forms.

• The incorporation form is FiLLiP, and the name is reserved through RUN-LLP or within FiLLiP itself.
• Designated partners need a DSC and a DPIN, which FiLLiP allots to up to two people.
• Each partner signs a subscriber sheet and consent to act as designated partner (Form 9).
• The LLP agreement is not filed at incorporation. It is executed on stamp paper after the certificate arrives and filed in Form 3 within 30 days; state stamp duty on the agreement depends on the capital contribution.

Because the LLP agreement is signed after incorporation, you need the partners' physical or digital signatures a second time. Draft the profit-sharing ratio, capital contribution and exit terms before you file so this step does not slip. Our Limited Liability Partnership service includes the agreement and the Form 3 filing. To decide between the two structures, read Private Limited vs LLP.

What documents come out of the incorporation?

Knowing what you will receive helps you check that the filing was complete. After approval the MCA issues:

• The certificate of incorporation with the CIN (or LLPIN for an LLP) and the date of incorporation.
• PAN and TAN allotment letters for the company.
• The stamped memorandum and articles of association (or, for an LLP, the acknowledgment of Form 3 after the agreement is filed).
• EPFO and ESIC registration numbers through AGILE-PRO-S.
• Profession tax enrolment where the state levies it, and GSTIN if you opted in.

Within the next weeks you should add to this file: the bank's account opening letter, the first board minutes, ADT-1 acknowledgment for the auditor, share certificates and the INC-20A acknowledgment. Investors, banks and government portals ask for this bundle repeatedly, so keep both PDFs and a physical set.

Which document errors cause rejection?

The registrar raises a resubmission notice rather than a rejection on the first error, but every resubmission costs 3 to 5 working days. The errors we see most often:

• Expired address proof. The two-month rule applies on the date of filing, not the date you collected the document.
• Name mismatch. Rahul Kumar Verma on PAN and Rahul Verma on the bank statement will be queried; use the PAN spelling everywhere.
• Owner mismatch on the office bill. The NOC must be signed by the person named on the utility bill.
• Unsigned or partially signed forms. Every subscriber must sign the MoA and AoA, and every director must sign DIR-2.
• Blurred scans. Upload clear colour PDFs under the size limit rather than phone photographs.

We verify every document against these rules before filing, which is why our resubmission rate is low. If you would rather check first, the Private Limited Company page lists the documents by group and lets you upload them for a free pre-check.