Company formation in Seychelles

Important: a non-resident's right to own the company does not automatically grant a right to live, work or manage it from that country. Immigration, work permits, substance, effective management and tax residence are assessed separately.

• —International holding or special-purpose ownership with clear assets, counterparties and source of funds.
• —Cross-border consulting, trade or intellectual-property structures after tax, substance and banking feasibility review.
• —A Limited Partnership or Foundation for a suitable investment, succession or asset-holding objective after separate legal review.

• —An International Business Company (IBC), the principal international limited-liability form incorporated and maintained through an FSA-licensed International Corporate Service Provider.
• —A domestic company under the domestic Companies Act for a local operating presence; its requirements should not be conflated with IBC rules.
• —A Limited Partnership, a contractual partnership form for qualifying investment or joint structures with separate liability and tax analysis.
• —A Foundation, a separate legal-personality structure for permitted wealth, succession or purpose arrangements, not a substitute company for ordinary trading.
• —A foreign-company registration or another specialised structure, only after confirming the FSA or registry route and activity perimeter.

• —An IBC must have a Seychelles registered agent holding a current FSA licence and a registered office provided through that service relationship.
• —An ordinary IBC has at least one shareholder and one director; foreign individual or corporate participation is possible and no general resident-director rule is stated for an ordinary IBC.
• —A company secretary may be appointed for an ordinary IBC but is not presented as a universal statutory requirement; regulated or special vehicles may differ.
• —No mandatory high minimum-capital promise is used for an ordinary IBC; authorised capital, share issue and payment terms must match the constitution and actual ownership.
• —UBO information, registers and accounting records are mandatory; nominee or bearer-style marketing does not remove disclosure and control checks.
• —Incorporation does not license securities, fiduciary, fund, insurance, virtual-asset or other regulated business; FSA permission is a separate eligibility process.

• —A certified passport, residential address, tax residence, occupation or business profile and source-of-wealth or funds evidence for each shareholder, director and UBO.
• —Name choices, detailed activity and markets, ownership chart, share and capital terms, director appointment and constitutional instructions.
• —For corporate participants, a certified registry extract, charter, directors register, shareholders register, good-standing evidence and authorising resolution.
• —A business plan, website or contracts, expected flows, counterparties and licence analysis requested by the registered agent's risk assessment.
• —Certification, apostille or legalisation and translation in the form accepted by the licensed provider and relevant authority.

1. 01Assess whether an IBC, domestic company, Limited Partnership or Foundation fits and separate incorporation from licensing and tax-residence questions.
2. 02Select a provider only from FSA-licensed International Corporate Service Providers and complete its independent customer acceptance.
3. 03Prepare KYC, UBO and source-of-funds material, the business profile, constitutional instructions and corporate approvals.
4. 04The registered agent reserves the name and files the incorporation; the applicant responds to provider, Registrar or FSA clarification.
5. 05After incorporation, establish registers, an accounting-record workflow, BO controls, a tax memo and any separate licence application.
6. 06Bank or payment-provider selection begins only after mapping activity, countries, currencies, counterparties and evidence.

• —Seychelles incorporation does not mean an automatic zero-tax result. Tax residence, source of income, local nexus, economic substance and owners' home-country rules require current advice.
• —Before launch, analyse corporate tax, business-tax registration, withholding, permanent establishments, transfer pricing and any substance obligations for the actual activity.
• —Founders independently assess personal tax, reporting and controlled-foreign-company rules in each country of residence.

General overview, not personal tax or legal advice. Rules are rechecked before filing.

• —Company registration neither includes nor guarantees a bank or payment account.
• —The bank independently reviews UBOs, source of wealth/funds, activity, markets, counterparties, address, licences and the economic link to the jurisdiction.
• —A financial institution may request originals, video verification or personal attendance and may decline; approval and timing remain entirely at its discretion.
• —An IBC certificate is insufficient for KYB: providers expect a coherent operating model, contracts, website, invoices, counterparties, source of funds and often substance outside or inside Seychelles.
• —Offshore-company risk appetite is narrow and changes; we pre-screen institutions but never promise availability, currency rails or timing.

• —Renew the registered-agent and office engagement and government fees, and keep director, shareholder, UBO and address registers current.
• —Keep underlying accounting records for the statutory retention period and ensure prescribed records are available through the registered office or agent arrangement.
• —Provide periodic accounting-record copies and an annual financial summary or financial statements where the company's size or category and current rules require them.
• —Maintain beneficial-owner filings and notify changes promptly; regulated entities separately file licence returns, audits and fees.

• —Using a provider that is not on the FSA licensed list exposes founders to fraud, invalid filings and loss of records.
• —FSA repeatedly warns about entities falsely claiming Seychelles regulation; every licence claim must be verified directly.
• —Failure to deliver accounting or UBO records to the registered agent can trigger penalties, strike-off and provider resignation.
• —Virtual-asset activity has a distinct VASP perimeter; an IBC alone must never be marketed as crypto authorisation.

• —A structure and licence-perimeter memo covering an IBC, domestic company, partnership or foundation.
• —Licensed-provider verification, onboarding pack, incorporation coordination and registers and accounting setup.
• —Annual records, BO, renewal, tax and banking-readiness support without anonymity, tax or account guarantees.

The exact Basic scope and all exclusions are listed in the pricing section above. Non-standard structures and external costs are agreed before payment.

Requirements checked on August 9, 2026. Before filing, we recheck rules, forms, fees and restrictions with the registration authority.