Registering a company in Nepal as a foreigner: the actual timeline

Foreign direct investment into Nepal is more accessible than its reputation suggests, but the sequence matters and doing the stages out of order costs weeks. Here is what the process looks like from the inside.

Stage one is FDI approval from the Department of Industry, or the Investment Board for larger projects. Minimum foreign investment is NPR 20 million. Expect four to six weeks with a complete file, longer if your sector needs additional ministry clearance.

Stage two is company registration at the Office of the Company Registrar. With approval in hand this is comparatively fast — usually one to two weeks. Name reservation happens first and is worth doing early, because the obvious names are taken.

Stage three is tax registration for PAN and, if applicable, VAT. Same-week turnaround in most cases. This is also where you register with the local ward office, which people forget until a bank asks for it.

Stage four is the corporate bank account, and this is where timelines break. Banks apply their own compliance review on top of everything above, and for foreign shareholders it can take three to six weeks with several rounds of document requests. Start the conversation with your bank during stage two rather than after stage three.

Total, realistically: three to four months from first filing to a funded operating account. Anyone quoting six weeks is quoting the registration step alone and leaving out the two stages that actually take time.