An Employer of Record (EOR) is the fastest legal way for a US company to put an Indian engineer on payroll without incorporating an Indian entity. The EOR — a licensed Indian company — becomes the legal employer on paper, hires the engineer, runs payroll under their PF/ESI/PT/TDS registrations, and bills your US parent monthly. For one to maybe twenty hires, this is the right answer. Past that, the maths starts to flip.
What an EOR actually does for you
An EOR carries the full statutory weight of being an Indian employer. The employee signs an offer letter with the EOR (not with you), gets paid in rupees from the EOR's Indian bank account, accrues PF and gratuity through the EOR's registrations, and receives a Form 16 issued by the EOR's TAN at year end. Your US entity has no formal Indian presence — you sign a service agreement with the EOR and pay a single monthly invoice in USD.
- Onboarding under the EOR's PF, ESI, PT and TAN — usually 7 to 10 working days for a clean record (PAN, Aadhaar, bank, prior UAN).
- Monthly payroll with PF, ESI (if applicable), PT and TDS withheld and remitted to the relevant authorities by the EOR.
- Statutory filings — PF ECR, ESIC, quarterly 24Q TDS — filed under the EOR's credentials and ID.
- Annual Form 16 issuance to your engineer, plus full document retention for inspection.
- Exit handling — full and final settlement, gratuity if eligible, UAN transfer to the next employer.
What it costs (realistically, in 2026)
Indian EORs typically price per employee per month. The honest 2026 market range, all-in for a salaried role:
| EOR vendor profile | Monthly fee per employee (USD) | Setup / deposit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global multi-country EOR (Deel, Remote, Rippling, Velocity) | $499 – $799 | $0 to ~$1,500 deposit | Slick dashboard, slower on India-specific edge cases |
| India-specialist EOR (FastLegal class) | $199 – $349 | Usually nil | Faster on PF/ESI quirks, dedicated consultant, same compliance stack |
| Local Indian payroll firm acting as EOR | $99 – $199 | 1-month deposit common | Cheaper but variable quality on cross-border invoicing and reporting |
On top of the per-employee fee, you pay the employee's gross salary and the employer's statutory contributions in full — PF 12%, ESI 3.25% (when applicable), gratuity provisioning, and any insurance the EOR bundles. The EOR fee is purely the service margin.
Get a same-day quote with your dedicated FastLegal consultant
Send us your role's CTC + state and we model the full landed cost — gross salary, employer PF, ESI eligibility, PT, your one-line EOR fee — usually inside the day. No commitment, no upsell.
EOR vs. wholly-owned subsidiary — when does the maths flip?
Once your India headcount is large enough that your monthly EOR fees exceed what a small finance + people-ops setup would cost, the subsidiary starts winning on cash. That breakeven sits around 15-20 employees for most US tech companies.
| India headcount | EOR cost / month | Own entity cost / month* | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-5 | $1,000 - $2,500 | $4,500 - $6,000 | EOR clearly cheaper + faster |
| 6-15 | $2,400 - $5,250 | $4,500 - $6,500 | EOR still wins on most months |
| 16-30 | $5,200 - $10,500 | $5,000 - $7,500 | Toss-up; subsidiary wins as you scale |
| 30+ | $10,000+ | $5,500 - $9,000 | Subsidiary materially cheaper + more control |
*Own-entity cost assumes a Pvt. Ltd. subsidiary running through a payroll platform (₹100-200 per employee per month), one part-time CA, one HR generalist, and reasonable annual ROC + statutory audit. Adjust upward for SEZ / STP / IFSC setups.
Five signals it's time to switch
- Your India team has crossed 15 engineers and you're planning to keep growing.
- You're issuing ESOPs and the cap-table mechanics for a foreign-parent-with-EOR-employees is starting to bite (the EOR can't grant your parent's stock; the workarounds are clunky).
- Your engineers want recognised Indian employment for visa and mortgage purposes — EOR Form 16 + offer letter is sometimes treated as second-class by banks.
- Your finance team wants on-shore expense, T&E and reimbursement infrastructure that an EOR doesn't really do.
- You're opening a physical office in Bengaluru / Hyderabad / Pune — Shops Act registration requires an Indian entity anyway.
How the switch actually works
Switching from EOR to your own subsidiary is well-trodden. The typical 60-90 day timeline:
- Incorporate the Pvt. Ltd. with one Indian-resident director (any of your hires, a co-founder, or a nominee for the interim).
- Apply for PAN, TAN, GSTIN, PF, ESI, PT and Shops Act registration. Done in parallel — typically 3-4 weeks end to end.
- Open the operating bank account and capitalise the entity from the US parent under FEMA (FC-GPR filing).
- Run final payroll month on the EOR, then transfer each employee to the new entity on the 1st of the next month. UAN moves automatically once the new employer files the ECR.
- Reissue offer letters under the new entity's letterhead. Most EORs let you do this with no notice cost as long as the employee's start date with the new entity is the day after the EOR exit.
We run EOR → subsidiary migrations end-to-end
FastLegal handles your incorporation, PF / ESI / PT / TAN / GSTIN registrations, FEMA filings, employee migration ECRs and the first three payroll cycles under the new entity. Your dedicated consultant owns the whole calendar so you sign three documents and the rest is done.
Frequently asked questions
Can my US C-Corp hire in India without an EOR or subsidiary?+
Only as contractors — and only if those contractors meet the genuine-independent-contractor test (multiple clients, their own work schedule, their own equipment). Hiring full-time-equivalent engineers and calling them contractors to skip the EOR is a misclassification risk that catches up at acquisition due diligence.
Does the EOR cost get cheaper at higher headcount?+
Yes — most EORs offer tiered pricing. India-specialist EORs typically tier breaks at 10, 25 and 50 employees. Negotiate this upfront if you expect to scale; you can save 25-40% on per-seat fees by committing to a multi-year agreement.
Can the EOR sponsor visas for our Indian employees to visit the US?+
Yes for B-1 business visas — the EOR can issue a letter confirming employment and purpose of travel. For H-1B / O-1 the petitioner must be the US sponsoring entity, not the EOR, so your US parent files the visa application directly.
What about ESOPs / RSUs from the US parent?+
The US parent grants directly to the Indian engineer; the EOR is not involved in the grant. The complication is FEMA: the Indian employee can hold up to USD 250,000 per year of foreign securities under LRS. Past that you need an ESOP plan filed with RBI. We handle that with our partnered legal team.
Stop reading circulars. Start running clean payroll.
Every FastLegal plan ships with a dedicated payroll consultant — a real human who runs your PF, ESI, PT, TDS and Form 16 issuance, configured to your salary structure, your state, and your hiring plan. You sign off. We do the rest.