How to Hire in India Without Setting Up an Entity
You don't need an Indian subsidiary to hire in India. Here's how an Employer of Record lets you onboard compliant, full-time talent in days — not months.
Expanding into India usually starts with the same question: do we need to set up a company here first? The short answer is no. An Employer of Record (EOR) already holds a legal entity in India and can employ people on your behalf — so you can hire full-time talent without registering a subsidiary, opening local bank accounts, or waiting months for approvals.
What an Employer of Record actually does
An EOR becomes the legal employer of your India team. You still choose who to hire, what they work on, and what they're paid. The EOR holds the compliant employment contract, runs payroll, deposits statutory contributions, and handles the paperwork Indian law requires. Your relationship with the employee is day-to-day; the EOR's relationship is legal and administrative.
What you get to skip
- Company incorporation and its multi-week timeline
- A registered office, local directors and statutory audits
- Separate registrations for PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS
- Ongoing ROC and compliance filings for an entity you may not need yet
When an EOR is the right call
An EOR fits best when you're hiring your first few people in India, testing a new market, or want to move quickly without committing to a permanent structure. It's also a clean way to employ a specific hire — an engineer, a country lead, a support pod — while you decide whether a full subsidiary makes sense later.
If your India headcount grows into the dozens and stays there, a subsidiary can become more economical over time. Good EOR partners plan for that transition rather than locking you in.
How fast can you actually hire?
With documents ready, a compliant offer and onboarding can happen in about five working days. The EOR issues the employment contract, collects statutory details, sets up payroll, and your new hire is employed, insured and ready to be paid — without you ever registering a company.
