Setting up a company in Bangladesh: a realistic timeline

Company formation in Bangladesh is not difficult. It is sequential, and almost every delay comes from starting a stage before the one it depends on has finished.

Here is the order, with the realistic elapsed time for a foreign parent opening a subsidiary. A locally owned company is faster at nearly every stage.

Name clearance

Two to five working days. Submit three name options in order of preference, because the first is frequently unavailable and resubmitting costs another cycle. Clearance is time limited, so do not clear a name months before you are ready to file.

Documents from the parent company

This is where the weeks go. The parent's incorporation certificate, memorandum, board resolution and the directors' passports all need notarisation and then legalisation, and for many jurisdictions that means an apostille and then attestation at the Bangladesh mission.

Two to six weeks, entirely dependent on the parent's own jurisdiction and how quickly their company secretary moves. Start this on day one, in parallel with everything else, because nothing downstream can begin without it.

Remitting the paid up capital

For a foreign shareholder the capital has to arrive through the banking channel before incorporation, and the bank issues an encashment certificate that the filing requires. Opening the account, remitting, and getting the certificate issued takes one to three weeks, and it cannot start until the parent documents above are attested.

Incorporation

Five to ten working days once the file is complete. This is the fast part, and it is the part everybody thinks is the whole process.

The registrations that follow

None of these can begin before incorporation, and all of them are needed before you can operate or invoice.

A realistic total

For a foreign parent, eight to fourteen weeks from decision to operational, and the spread is almost entirely the attestation stage. For a locally owned company, three to five weeks.

The single biggest thing you can do to compress it: start the parent company attestation before you have decided anything else. It is the longest pole and it has no dependencies.

The three places weeks disappear

Attestation started late. Covered above. It is the whole game.

Registered office not settled. The address on the filing must be one you can receive correspondence at and, later, be inspected at. A temporary address that changes means amending filings.

Signatory list not agreed. Bank accounts stall while a parent board decides who can sign for what. Agree it before the account application, not during.

If you want this mapped against your own structure and jurisdiction, we will give you the sequence with dates on it, and tell you which stage to start this week.