Employer Of Records
Your complete guide to expanding globally without the complexity of setting up legal entities. Learn how EOR services can help you hire internationally, save up to 90% on expansion costs, and access global talent in weeks, not months.
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Everything you need to know about Employer of Records
Why Companies Look Beyond Setting Up an Entity
Select a step to see what the traditional route asks of you, before a single employee starts work
Incorporate the entity
Nothing else can begin until the company legally exists. In India that means name approval, directors, a registered office address and incorporation filings.
- At least one director who is resident in India
- A registered office address before you have any operations
- Documents notarised and apostilled in the home country
Register with the authorities
A new company is not ready to employ anyone. Each registration is a separate application with its own timeline.
- PAN and TAN for tax, and GST where the activity requires it
- Provident fund and, in some states, professional tax
- Shops and establishments registration for the office
Open a bank account and fund it
Salaries cannot be paid from overseas indefinitely, so the entity needs a funded local account.
- Account opening, with directors often required in person
- Capital brought in from the parent company
- Reporting of the inbound funds under exchange control rules
Build the payroll and HR base
Someone has to run the employment side every month, and it has to follow Indian law rather than the parent company's practice.
- Employment contracts drafted to Indian law
- Payroll processing, withholding tax and provident fund deposits
- Statutory registers, returns and record keeping
Maintain it, then close it
The obligations continue whether or not the project is still active, and ending them is its own process.
- Annual accounts, audit and company filings every year
- Board meetings and director obligations maintained
- Winding up the entity takes months and its own approvals
Engage an Employer of Record
None of the five steps applies. The employee is hired through an entity that already exists and is already registered for all of the above.
- Contracts, visas, payroll and filings run through our Indian entity
- Your team is on site in weeks rather than months
- When the project ends there is nothing to wind up
Setting up an entity is the right answer for a long-term commitment to a market. It is a heavy first move when you are testing demand, staffing a fixed-term project, or placing a handful of people.
How EOR Arrangement Works
Three parties, two contracts, and a clear line between employment and direction
Your Company
Chooses who to hire and where. Directs the work day to day.
Issues the contract, sponsors the visa, runs payroll and carries the statutory obligations.
The Employee
Works on your project under your direction, paid through compliant local payroll.
Employment runs through Expat Orbit. Direction of the work runs directly from you to the employee, as it would with your own staff.
What stays with you
The decisions that determine whether the project succeeds.
- Choosing the people and the location
- Day-to-day direction, targets and priorities
- Performance management and project outcomes
- The commercial decision on salary and budget
What we take on
The obligations that carry legal and financial exposure.
- Employment contracts drafted to local law
- Visa sponsorship and immigration registration
- Payroll, withholding tax and social security
- Statutory filings, renewals and exit formalities
What is Employer of Records?
The same assignment, seen two ways
An EOR employs your staff on your behalf in a country where you do not have an entity of your own.
Every document an Indian authority would ask for names Expat Orbit as the employer.
Day to day, the employee works exactly as a member of your own team would.
Employer of record is a legal responsibility, not an operational one. It allows you to place someone on the ground within weeks, without setting up an entity in India and without an entity to close when the project ends.
An example from a recent deployment
Seven engineers from Japan and Taiwan, deployed to a project site in Gujarat, with no Indian entity in place.
What Does an EOR Service Provider Do?
An EOR essentially becomes the legal employer of the employees that your company intends to deploy
Employee Onboarding
Onboards employees on your behalf, issues employment contracts and offer letters in compliance with local laws.
Visa Sponsorship
Unless restricted by local regulations, sponsors visas and handles immigration, work permits, and registrations.
Payroll Management
Runs country-compliant payrolls and manages required social security contributions and statutory benefits.
Settling Support
Some EOR providers also help with settling-in support like cultural training, language classes, and housing assistance.
Areas of Support Under EOR Partner
Select an area to see what sits with us
Immigration and mobility
Because we are the legal employer, the visa is sponsored in our name and the immigration file stays with us for the whole assignment.
- Employment Visa applications, filed from the home country
- FRRO registration within 14 days of arrival
- Visa extensions and exit permits during the assignment
- Documentation prepared accurately, which is where most delays begin
Contracts and compliance
The agreements between you, the employee and us decide how the arrangement is viewed by Indian authorities, so they are drafted with that in mind.
- Employment contracts drafted to Indian employment law
- Working hours, leave and holiday entitlements
- Notice periods and termination rules applied correctly
- Statutory registers, returns and record keeping
Office and infrastructure
Where a project needs a physical base, we can arrange it rather than leaving you to negotiate a local lease from abroad.
- Office or coworking space search and negotiation
- Desks, IT equipment and connectivity
- Local vendor selection and coordination
- Guidance on normal commercial terms in that market
Settling-in support
Assignments are more often cut short by domestic difficulties than by professional ones. Early support for the employee and the family protects the investment.
- Housing search and lease negotiation
- Pre-arrival counselling for the employee and family
- Language and cultural orientation
- Banking, schooling and day-to-day set-up
Mobility advisory
Beyond running the assignment, our team advises on how it should be structured in the first place.
- Advice on the assignment structure that fits the business objective
- Global mobility policy design, benchmarked against market practice
- Tax treaty analysis between the two countries and what it means for hiring
- Compensation structuring to attract and retain the right people
Why the drafting matters
A poorly worded agreement can expose you to permanent establishment risk, employment disputes or unexpected tax liability, often years after the assignment has ended. Getting the documentation right at the outset is far cheaper than correcting it later.
Case Study: Japanese and Taiwanese Engineers Deployed to Gujarat
How a Japanese semiconductor equipment manufacturer deployed a project team to India under the EOR model
A Project Team in India, Without an Indian Entity
The client needed to place a team of six to seven engineers at a project site in Gujarat. The team combined Japanese and Taiwanese nationals, several of them senior specialists, including one aged over 70. The engineers were required on site within two months, and the client intended to retain day-to-day direction of the work.
The complications:
- No Indian entity to issue employment contracts or sponsor Employment Visas
- Two nationalities with very different social security positions in India
- A fixed project start date, set against embassy processing times outside either party's control
- No internal India payroll, tax or immigration capability to fall back on
Expat Orbit as Legal Employer, Client in Operational Control
Expat Orbit acted as the legal employer of the deployed engineers and assumed every employer obligation in India. The client continued to direct the engineers on site, as it would its own project team.
Scope handled end to end:
- Employment contracts drafted to support Employment Visa applications filed from Japan and Taiwan
- FRRO registration completed within the 14-day window after each arrival
- Monthly India payroll, withholding tax deposits and annual return filings
- Certificate of Coverage route mapped for the Japanese assignees under the India-Japan Social Security Agreement
- Visa extensions, exit formalities and final filings on departure
The social security decision that mattered most:
The same salary carries a very different cost depending on the nationality of the assignee. Select each to compare.
The Certificate of Coverage keeps the assignee within the Japanese system, so no contribution is made in India and nothing needs to be recovered later.
The contribution is recoverable only once the assignee reaches 58. For a younger engineer this represents a long deferral and a real cash flow cost to the project.
Identifying this difference before contracts were signed allowed the client to budget the two groups separately, rather than discover the gap after deployment.
Deployed on Time, Fully Compliant, Zero Entity Setup
Engineers deployed
Japanese and Taiwanese nationals, engaged under a single EOR agreement with one point of contact.
Contract to first arrival
Within the two-month target, with visa applications filed from the home countries and arrivals staggered to suit the site.
Of gross saved on the Japanese assignees
The Certificate of Coverage removed the provident fund contribution in full for that part of the team.
Entities, penalties, late filings
No Indian entity was incorporated, and every registration and statutory filing was completed on time.
- The full team was on site within the two-month target, with staggered arrivals where the project schedule allowed
- Every immigration registration and statutory filing was completed on time, with no penalties
- The Japanese assignees paid nothing into Indian social security, a saving of 24% of gross for that part of the team
- The client's HR function carried no India administration and no compliance exposure at any stage
Cost Comparison: Entity Setup vs EOR
See how much you can save by choosing EOR over traditional entity setup
Cost Category
Entity Setup
EOR Solution
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about Employer of Records
Yes, EOR groups are legal unless there are local restrictions in the country of overseas employment.
Certain countries, such as Singapore, Nigeria, and Egypt, issue quotas on to employers when it comes to hiring foreigners. In such a situation, the EOR partner must possess the required quota in order to hire your home personnel.
Similarly, in the United Kingdom, EOR cannot sponsor work visas, therefore EOR's employment scope would be limited to local recruits.
Apart from such local constraints, engaging an EOR is completely legal. Being a core business function, EORs deploy dedicated legal, payroll, and compliance teams. Hence, hiring through an EOR eliminates a large amount of legal and regulatory concerns when compared to hiring independently.
A well-structured EOR arrangement, supported by robust documentation, may help in reducing the PE risk in the host country. However, there are other parameters that would need to be considered, and hence PE risk cannot be completely mitigated with just an EOR arrangement.
Working with an Employer of Record certainly offers a balanced solution to fulfil your global employment and expansion goals when establishing an entity in a foreign nation is time consuming and expensive.
To prevent co-employment concerns, an EOR steps in as a legal employer and assumes all employer related obligations in accordance with local regulations. By using this employment solution, you can expand into new geographies and hire foreign workers while lowering the chance of having problems with permanent establishment.
In addition to EOR, businesses can also explore smart outsourcing options by engaging an international team with global experience. Expat Orbit's Virtual Employee (VE) support caters to such an area.
Client entity outsources specific tasks, jobs, and functions to Expat Orbit (EO). Being a contract for service, EO handles the execution and recruits employees with the relevant competence, exposure, and experience in close collaboration with the client entity.
Operating remotely, Virtual Employees work exclusively for the client entity and support the execution of assigned activities.
A Professional Employer Organization, or PEO, is a service provider that handles payroll, tax withholding/PAYE, human resources, and other compliance for businesses who prefer to outsource these operations to an external organization.
PEO supports both employees and employers and ensures improved management and higher compliance quality. An Employer of Records (EOR) also provides the aforementioned services to organizations, but an EOR also serves as the legal employer of the employees in those geographies where the home company does not have a local entity or presence. Read our detailed breakdown of EOR and PEO in India.
Expat Orbit Advantage
Perfect balance between expertise, technology and extensive understanding of expatriate sensibilities
Dedicated Support
Dedicated relationship manager to address any queries
Expert Consultants
Highly competent consultants to deal with complex compliance challenges
Add-on Services
Host of add-on services to eliminate the need of multiple vendors
Assured Quality
Minimized internal team effort and assured quality
🌍 Global Presence
Presence across all major geographies in Asia, Africa, America, and Europe
Related Reading
Case studies, guidebooks and compliance explainers from our resource library
Indian Engineers Deployed in Nigeria Under the EOR Model
How a leading infrastructure company deployed Indian engineers in Nigeria without setting up a local entity.
Read the case study → Case StudySeamlessly Onboard Employees With EOR
How a European apparel MNC solved quality control challenges in Hong Kong through swift onboarding and reduced HR load.
Read the case study → GuidebookIndia-Africa EOR Guidebook 2026
Deployment, compliance and operational framework for Indian companies hiring across Africa.
Download the guidebook → ArticleDeploying Your First Team Without Setting Up an Entity
A practical playbook covering EOR, work permits, payroll compliance and on-ground execution.
Read the article → ArticleThe Hidden Costs of Getting Deployment Wrong
The compliance, tax and immigration risks companies run into, and how to structure assignments correctly from the outset.
Read the article → Tax UpdateDelhi ITAT Ruling on Salary Reimbursements in Secondments
Why salary reimbursements under a secondment cannot automatically be treated as Fees for Technical Services.
Read the update →Ready to Expand Globally?
Get in touch with our experts to discuss your EOR needs and start your international expansion journey today