Professional Services in India
India's professional services split in two: gated professions (law, accounting, audit) where foreign entry is restricted, and open services at 100% FDI.
"Professional services" in India is not one regime. Some professions - law, accounting, architecture, medicine - are gated by their own regulators and largely closed to a foreign-owned company; most business and advisory services are open to 100% foreign ownership. Which one you are decides everything.
A foreign firm planning to set up a professional-services business in India is really making one of two very different entries, and the law treats them as opposites. A regulated profession - practising law, signing an audit, registering as an architect or a doctor - is gated by a statutory body (the Bar Council, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and others) that restricts foreign entry, requires Indian-qualified membership, and reserves the regulated act to qualified individuals or registered firms rather than an ordinary company: you cannot simply incorporate a private limited company and "do audit" or "practise Indian law." A business or advisory service - management and strategy consulting, market research, advertising, public relations, design, recruitment, engineering-services consultancy, or a back-office operation - is, by contrast, open to 100% foreign ownership on the automatic route, and is set up like any ordinary company. This page sets out which side of that line each activity falls on, and what the entry looks like on each.
So the first question is not "how do I register" but "is my profession gated or open?" - because the answer changes the vehicle, the ownership, and whether a foreign firm can hold the right to practise at all.
At a glance
- Professional services split in two: gated professions (law, accounting and audit, architecture, medicine, valuation) where foreign entry is restricted and the regulated act cannot be performed through an ordinary company; and open business services (consulting, market research, advertising, PR, design, recruitment, engineering services, business-process work) that take 100% FDI on the automatic route.
- Foreign law firms can now register with the Bar Council of India and open offices - but only to advise on foreign and international law and arbitration, on a reciprocity basis; practising Indian law and appearing in Indian courts remain barred, and as of mid-2026 uptake appears limited and the regime is still settling, with the rules under challenge.
- A foreign accounting firm cannot directly perform or sign an Indian statutory audit; the international networks operate through Indian member firms, and the much-discussed reforms (multidisciplinary partnerships, an "Indian Big Four") are mostly proposals, not yet law.
- Consulting, advertising, market research, recruitment, design and engineering-services firms are straightforward - 100% foreign ownership, ordinary company - with the friction only at the media-content edge, where news and content businesses are capped.
- The entity is a private limited company or an LLP for the open services; the gated professions are reserved to qualified individuals in partnership, LLP or registered-firm form, not an ordinary company.
- Software, IT and SaaS, and captive Global Capability Centres, are separate businesses covered on their own pages.
Why India - and why the structure matters more than the size
Business and professional services are among the largest categories of foreign greenfield projects into India by number, second only to software and IT - because most of the sector is open and inexpensive to own, and India is a deep market for advisory, research, agency and back-office work. But the headline that "professional services are open to 100% FDI" is only half true, and the missing half is where foreign firms most often go wrong. The open half - consulting, advertising, research, recruitment, design, engineering services, business-process work - is genuinely 100%-automatic and simple. The gated half - law, accountancy and audit, architecture, medicine and a few others - is reserved by statute to Indian-qualified professionals and is not open to an ordinary foreign-owned company at all. The value of advice here is in placing your activity on the right side of that line before you incorporate.
Choose the entry lane before you incorporate
The entry depends entirely on whether the activity is a gated profession or an open service.
The open rows are market-entry structuring: company or LLP, GST and invoicing model, India contracts, hiring, cross-border service fees, and where profits are taxed. The gated rows turn on a professional regulator, and the rest of this page is mostly about those.
One boundary to keep clear: regulated financial advice (SEBI) and insurance distribution (IRDAI) are financial-sector activities, not professional services in this sense. They follow their own licensing - and insurance is now open to 100% foreign ownership under the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Act 2025 - so they sit on the India fintech and financial-services pages, not here.
| Activity | Foreign entry | What it turns on |
|---|---|---|
| Law firm | Register with the Bar Council of India; foreign and international law and arbitration only | Reciprocity, the 2025 BCI amendment; no Indian-law practice or court appearance |
| Accounting / audit | No direct foreign audit; enter via an Indian member firm, or for advisory and tax only | The Chartered Accountants Act - only Indian CAs / CA firms can sign audits |
| Management / strategy consulting | 100% FDI, automatic route; ordinary company | Nothing sector-specific - set up like any company |
| Advertising, PR, market research, design | 100% FDI, automatic route | The media-content carve-outs (news and content businesses are capped) |
| Recruitment, BPO / KPO, engineering-services consultancy | 100% FDI, automatic route | Ordinary company; a regulator only if the work touches a reserved field |
| Architecture, medicine, valuation, company secretary, cost accountant | Individual registration with the profession's regulator | Citizenship or residency bars; Indian qualification or exams |
Foreign law firms: open in principle, barely open in practice
The position changed on paper and is still settling. Following the Bar Council of India's 2022 rules (notified in 2023) and a substantial amendment in May 2025, foreign lawyers and foreign law firms may register with the BCI and open offices in India - but the permission is narrow. They may advise on foreign law, their own home-country law and international law, and act in international commercial arbitration, on a reciprocity basis; they may not practise Indian law or appear before Indian courts, tribunals or authorities. A foreign lawyer who has not registered may still "fly in and fly out" to advise on foreign law, but the 2025 rules cap that at 60 days in any twelve-month period and require a declaration of the work. The amendment also recognised an Indian-Foreign Law Firm category - treat it as a regulated BCI registration category, not a joint-venture or ownership shortcut: any pairing of foreign and Indian lawyers is tested against the BCI rules, reciprocity, the professional-conduct restrictions, and the continued bar on foreign lawyers practising Indian law or appearing before Indian courts. The practical reality, as of mid-2026, is that uptake appears limited, the framework is under challenge in the Delhi High Court (both Dentons Link Legal and CMS IndusLaw have filed, and the court has called the rules "a mess"), and the BCI warned in October 2025 that Indian-foreign tie-ups, joint branding or integrated practice presented as a unified global platform breach the rules unless the foreign entity is formally registered - so the door is, for now, ajar rather than open. Any plan here should be dated and taken on current advice, because the regime is still moving.
Accounting and audit: the network model, and reforms still on the drawing board
A foreign accounting firm cannot directly perform or sign a statutory audit in India. Under the Companies Act and the Chartered Accountants Act, only a practising Indian chartered accountant, or a firm or LLP whose partners are mostly Indian CAs, may be appointed statutory auditor and sign. This is why the international networks operate in India through Indian member firms that carry the global brand under licence: the Indian firm, staffed by Indian CAs, does the audit; the global entity does not. Advisory, tax and consulting work is freely open - it sits in the open half of the sector - but the attest function is reserved. The reforms that get discussed - multidisciplinary partnerships that let chartered accountants practise alongside lawyers and other professionals, and a government push to build home-grown audit firms of global scale - are still proposals rather than current law: a Corporate Affairs Ministry committee is due to finalise its "Big Four" roadmap around the end of FY2025-26, and a September 2025 consultation floated multidisciplinary firms. What is in force is a 2024 framework allowing Indian CA-firm LLPs to aggregate, and a December 2025 relaxation of the profession's advertising restrictions. A foreign accounting group's route in is therefore the Indian member firm, not a directly-owned audit practice.
The open half: consulting, advertising, research and the rest
Most of the sector is straightforward. Management and strategy consulting, market research, advertising and marketing services, public relations, design, recruitment and staffing, engineering-services consultancy, and business-process and knowledge-process operations are all open to 100% foreign ownership on the automatic route, set up as an ordinary private limited company or LLP, with no profession-specific regulator and no Indian-qualification gate. The one place to watch is the media-content edge: advertising and agency services are open, but owning a news or content business is capped - foreign investment in digital news media is limited to 26% with government approval, and broadcasting and print carry their own restrictions. A creative or media-buying agency is fine; acquiring a news-content business is a different, capped, decision.
When does a foreign professional-services firm actually need an Indian entity?
Many foreign firms test India, or serve a few Indian clients, before they incorporate. The trigger to set up an Indian entity is usually one of these:
- a revenue-generating Indian entity is needed once you sign Indian clients, invoice in rupees, employ local staff, bid for Indian work, lease office space, or build a delivery centre;
- a full entity may not be needed for short-term market testing, non-revenue liaison or client visits - but a liaison office cannot earn revenue;
- a regulated, member-firm or registered-individual structure is needed where the work product is reserved: legal practice, statutory audit, the architect title, medical practice, valuation or regulated financial advice; and
- the structure should be settled before brand launch, because professional-name restrictions, client contracting and GST registration are harder to unwind once the first invoices are issued.
The other gated professions, in brief
Beyond law and accounting, several professions are reserved by their own statutes - worth knowing even where they are not your core activity:
Engineering practice, by contrast, is not statutorily licensed - engineering-services consultancy is an ordinary open business.
| Profession | Regulator | Foreign-entry position |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Council of Architecture | Registration generally requires Indian citizenship; the title "Architect" is protected |
| Medicine / clinical practice | National Medical Commission | Foreign-qualified doctors must clear Indian screening exams and register; foreigners otherwise get only temporary, institution-bound permission |
| Registered valuation | IBBI | A registered valuer must be resident in India, which effectively excludes direct foreign entry |
| Company secretaries; cost & management accountants | ICSI; ICMAI | Practice is membership-gated (the course is open to foreigners; the practising profession is not) |
Entity and structure
For the open services, the vehicle is a private limited company - the default, because it can take FDI on the automatic route, raise capital and grant employee equity - or an LLP, which works for a lean practice but, when FDI-funded, cannot issue ESOPs or priced equity and may make downstream investment only in sectors that are 100% automatic with no FDI-linked conditions. A branch, project or liaison office is available for narrow cases (a liaison office cannot earn revenue), but most entrants use a subsidiary. The gated professions are different in kind: a statutorily regulated profession generally cannot be carried on in an ordinary company - audit must be done by a CA firm or LLP, legal practice by advocates or registered firms (including the Indian-Foreign Law Firm category), architecture and medicine by registered individuals. The line is the reserved act: signing an audit or practising law is reserved to qualified individuals or registered firms, though the surrounding business can be company-run where that reserved act is performed by registered professionals. Firm names are controlled by the regulators - the ICAI over CA-firm names, the BCI over foreign-firm registration, the Council of Architecture over the title "Architect." The incorporation and FDI-reporting mechanics for the company itself are set out on our India business-setup and FEMA pages.
How a foreign firm enters
The entry follows the gated-or-open answer. An open-services firm incorporates a wholly-owned company (or an LLP), completes its FDI reporting, and operates - the work is choosing the activity, the entity and the tax position, not clearing a professional regulator. A gated profession enters through its own route: a law firm registers with the Bar Council for the permitted foreign-law and arbitration work, or registers through the Indian-Foreign Law Firm category; an accounting group enters through an Indian member firm; an architect or doctor registers individually. Many international firms run a hybrid - an open-services or advisory company under 100% foreign ownership, alongside the regulated practice held in the form the profession requires. The structure follows the activity, not a single template.
Legal workstreams for a professional-services entry
A professional-services entry usually brings these together:
- placing the activity on the right side of the line - gated profession or open service - before choosing a vehicle;
- for the open services, the company or LLP, the FDI route and reporting, and the activity classification, with the media-content carve-outs where relevant;
- for a law firm, the Bar Council registration for permitted foreign-law and arbitration work, the reciprocity and disclosure conditions, and any Indian-Foreign Law Firm registration;
- for an accounting group, the Indian member-firm arrangement and the separation of the reserved audit function from open advisory and tax work;
- for the other regulated professions, the individual registration and qualification-recognition route with the relevant regulator;
- the firm-name and professional-conduct constraints the regulator imposes;
- the entity and holding structure, plus the tax position - transfer pricing on cross-border service fees and the GST zero-rating of exported services - and the India-UAE corridor where the group operates across both; and
- the land-border investment screen - Press Note 3, eased by Press Note 2 of 2026 so a 10%-or-less non-controlling land-border owner uses the automatic route with DPIIT reporting - where the ownership chain touches a land-border country.
The India-UAE corridor
A professional-services firm based in the Gulf, or running both markets, treats them as independent decisions. The UAE is straightforward for most advisory and business services - full foreign ownership in a free zone or on the mainland - and is a common base for a consulting, agency or advisory firm serving the region; India adds the large domestic market and the talent, on the gated-or-open terms set out above. The UAE side is handled through its general business-setup and financial-centre routes rather than a dedicated professional-services regime; where a group runs both, the holding structure and the cross-border flows are designed together, and any regulated practice is held in each country in the form that country requires. Where a UAE entity contracts with clients and India performs the delivery, the pricing, the people functions and the substance must match the contract model.
Where this goes wrong
- Assuming "100% FDI in professional services" means you can foreign-own any of it - when law, audit, architecture and medicine are gated and the regulated act is barred to an ordinary company.
- Reading the foreign-law-firm opening as a clear green light, when as of mid-2026 the permission is narrow (foreign law only), uptake is limited, and the regime is under challenge.
- Expecting to buy or build a directly-owned audit practice, rather than entering through an Indian member firm.
- Treating the "Indian Big Four" and multidisciplinary-partnership reforms as current law when they are still proposals.
- Setting up a creative agency and assuming the same 100% freedom extends to a news or content business, which is capped.
- Choosing an LLP for a practice that will later want to grant employee equity or raise capital.
How ATB Corporate helps
ATB advises foreign professional-services firms entering India, beginning with the question that decides the structure - whether the activity is a gated profession or an open service. For consulting, advertising, research, recruitment, design, engineering-services and business-process firms we work the company or LLP, the FDI route and the activity classification. For law firms we work the Bar Council registration for the permitted foreign-law and arbitration work and any Indian-Foreign Law Firm registration; for accounting groups, the Indian member-firm arrangement; for the other regulated professions, the registration route with the relevant regulator. For groups operating across the India-UAE corridor, the holding and cross-border structure is designed across both. The aim is to place the activity correctly the first time, so the firm is not built in a form the profession does not allow.
Professional Services — Answered
Yes, in principle - since the Bar Council's 2022 rules and the 2025 amendment, foreign lawyers and firms may register and open offices to advise on foreign and international law and arbitration, on a reciprocity basis. They cannot practise Indian law or appear in Indian courts, and as of mid-2026 uptake is limited and the rules are under challenge - so take current advice before relying on it.
No - only a practising Indian chartered accountant, or a firm or LLP with mostly Indian-CA partners, can sign an Indian statutory audit. The international networks operate through Indian member firms; advisory and tax work, by contrast, is freely open.
Yes - management and strategy consulting, market research, advertising, PR, design, recruitment and engineering-services consultancy take 100% FDI on the automatic route and are set up like any ordinary company.
Yes - for the open business services there is no local-partner requirement; a wholly-owned private limited company or LLP works, subject to the usual FDI reporting.
A foreign lawyer who has not registered with the Bar Council may visit to advise on foreign law, but the 2025 rules cap that at 60 days in any twelve-month period and require a declaration of the work; it does not extend to practising Indian law.
Mostly not - they are proposals. What is in force is a 2024 framework allowing Indian CA-firm LLPs to aggregate and a December 2025 relaxation of the profession's advertising rules; direct foreign audit practice is not opened.
Only through individual registration with the regulator: architecture generally requires Indian citizenship, and foreign-qualified doctors must clear Indian screening exams and register; foreign practitioners otherwise get only temporary, institution-bound permission.
Advertising and agency services are open to 100% FDI, but media content is capped - foreign investment in digital news media is limited to 26% with government approval, and broadcasting and print carry their own restrictions.
A private limited company for anything that will raise capital or grant employee equity; an LLP for a lean, self-funded practice - though an FDI-funded LLP cannot issue ESOPs or priced equity and can make downstream investment only in 100%-automatic, condition-free sectors. The gated professions are held in partnership, LLP or individual form, not an ordinary company.
No - business-process and knowledge-process operations are open business services at 100% FDI; they touch a regulated profession only if the work itself is reserved, such as signing audits.
Yes, where the ownership chain touches a country sharing a land border with India. Press Note 2 of 2026 (issued 15 March 2026) eased the rule: a land-border beneficial owner of 10% or less with no control now uses the automatic route with DPIIT reporting, while a larger or controlling land-border holding still needs prior government approval. The screen runs before the route is chosen, whatever the profession.
In professional services, whether the activity is a gated profession or an open service decides the structure: company, LLP, member-firm arrangement, regulator registration, or no entity at all.
Licensing, approvals and any tax treatment are decided by the authorities on the facts. Talk to our team when you are ready.
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