International company establishment
Incorporating abroad is heavier than it was. We coordinate it cleanly.
Beneficial-ownership disclosure. Economic substance. Local-content rules. Bank KYC running months behind incorporation. We coordinate entity formation and the surrounding compliance load through vetted in-country partners across 72 markets.
What's Changed Since 2021
Setting up a foreign entity is materially heavier than it was
What was once a filings exercise now sits inside a layered compliance environment: beneficial-ownership registers (UK PSC, EU UBO directives, the US Corporate Transparency Act), economic-substance requirements, sanctions screening on any new incorporation, and bank KYC that runs on its own slower clock. Local-content rules in sectors like energy, mining and telecoms add further structure, and tax residency, transfer pricing and domestic-tax exposure now have to be settled alongside entity choice, not after. None of this is a reason not to set up abroad, just a reason to coordinate it properly.
What We Coordinate
A Five-Step Coordination Service, End to End
We coordinate the incorporation and the surrounding compliance load through vetted in-country partners. One scope of work, one UK-based point of contact, one editorial standard across jurisdictions.
Jurisdiction comparison
A short comparative brief covering entity options, substance requirements, tax treatment, banking friction, and cost to establish and maintain. Built so the decision can be taken at board level, not buried in a legal memo.
Entity type advice
We work alongside your legal and tax advisors to turn the comparison into the right entity choice (subsidiary, branch, representative office, joint-venture vehicle or SPV) for your commercial and tax position. We coordinate those advisors, not replace them.
Incorporation coordination
Filings, apostille, notarisation, local-agent appointments and statutory registrations in the chosen jurisdiction. One project plan, one status report, one point of escalation if something stalls.
Registered office, nominee and substance
Registered office services, resident director or nominee arrangements where permitted, and evidence of local substance where the jurisdiction requires it. We will not act in a way that creates beneficial-ownership or sanctions risk.
Tax registration and banking introductions
Tax registrations (VAT, payroll, corporate income tax, sector-specific) and introductions to banks we have worked with in the market. Bank KYC runs on its own timeline, and we flag this at scoping.
5
Continents covered through a dedicated local network
1000+
Discrete engagements completed for global clients
72
International markets reached via in-country partners
What a Shortlist Profile Contains
Deliverables From a Typical Engagement
Every deliverable is built to be used: the plan is a working document, the compliance map a living reference, the pricing work a model your finance team can run themselves.
A typical Export Preparation engagement produces:
- Readiness memo with a green / amber / red assessment and the specific gaps, if any
- Prioritised market list with rationale: ranked by accessibility, opportunity and risk
- Compliance and regulatory map per priority market (controls, tariffs, sanctions, labelling, CBAM)
- Pricing and Incoterms recommendation, with landed-cost modelling on priority markets
- Payment terms, credit management and insurance recommendation
- Route-to-market recommendation, with triggers for moving to distributor work if relevant
- Sequenced execution plan with milestones, owners and a scoped first move
Jurisdictions We Work In
Where We Regularly Coordinate Entity Establishment
We regularly incorporate or coordinate entity establishment across the regions below. The list names the markets where we do this work most often, not the full 72-market footprint.
(1)
- UK & Ireland
United Kingdom · Ireland
(2)
- Major EU economies
Germany · France · Netherlands · Spain · Italy · Poland · others on request
(3)
- North America
United States (federal / state-selected) · Canada
(4)
- Middle East
United Arab Emirates · Saudi Arabia · Qatar · Oman (free-zones and mainland)
(5)
- Asia
Singapore · Hong Kong · Malaysia · Vietnam · India · Indonesia · Thailand · Philippines · China · Japan · South Korea
(6)
- Africa
South Africa · Kenya · Egypt · Morocco · Nigeria · others on request
(7)
- Latin America
Mexico · Brazil · Chile · Colombia · others on request
If your target jurisdiction is not listed, ask us, as our 72-market footprint extends further than the shortlist above.
How we work
Six-Step Process
STEP 1/6
Scoping
Jurisdiction brief
Entity type decision
Incorporation & registrations
Banking & substance
Post-incorporation handover
6-8 Weeks
Entity live and compliant.
Working with us
Typical engagement shapes
Single-market setup
Multi-market rollout
Exploratory scoping
Single-market setup
One jurisdiction. Full incorporation and compliance coordination through a single vetted local partner.
Multi-market rollout
Several jurisdictions run in parallel, with UK-led oversight keeping entity choice, banking and compliance consistent across markets.
Exploratory scoping
A comparative brief on entity options, tax exposure and banking friction, used to decide where and how to set up before committing.
Pricing Indicators
How Engagements Are Priced
At a glance:
- Fixed fee for incorporation coordination, scoped per jurisdiction.
- Annual fee for registered office, nominee and substance services where used.
- Bank introduction and KYC support: scoped separately. We cannot guarantee account opening; that is the bank's decision.
- Multi-jurisdiction engagements: programme-managed from the UK hub, with a single scope of work and a single invoice route.
We will quote fixed fees wherever the scope allows it. Where a jurisdiction has genuinely unpredictable elements (regulator queries, bank KYC loops, sector-specific licensing) we quote a base fee plus clearly-defined variable elements, and flag them at scoping, not at invoice stage.
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If you can’t find your answer, email us at enquiries@copernicus-consulting.com
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