Keep the company legal and functional
Corporate services are tasks and activities that you need to carry out in order to keep your company legal and operational, to prevent any violations from govenment ministries.
For example: submitting VAT filings, conducing proper accounting, paying government fees, renewing employee work visas, etc.
Other costs may apply depending on circumstances*
Reach out to our agent and we’ll help you figure our the exact maintenance cost for your busienss
If you want to change any aspect of the company, you will need to make an amendment to the company’s MOA original document.
An MOA (memorandum of association) is a core document in Bahrain. It outlines all core company details and stores the history of all changes in the comapny: the company name, address, share capital, shareholders, directors, etc.
Making a new MOA amendment would legally change something in your company, which is why, for most MOA amendments, it is required for the owner to first obtain an approval from either MOIC or LMRA, depending on the change at qusetion.
The proper workflow should look like this:
1) Company generates a decleration to make some change
2) Decleration is being provided to LMRA or MOIC for approval
3) MOA is drafted and signed by authorized signatory in a private notary
4) The MOA is uploaded to Sijilat to take official effect
If you want to change any aspect of your company, BCF agents would be happy to help you determine whether you should request approval from MOIC or LMRA, would help you select the best notary with the lowest fees and fastest draftng time and would upload all the documents to Sijilat on your behalf.
When you want to expand your business to carry out operations in a new field, you would be required to get a busienss license.
BCF will help you select the exact license for your needs and would handle all notary arrangement and MOIC application in order to get your new licensed approved and issued.
Each license first needs to be approved by MOIC and only then can be added to the company. Depending on the desired license, you may need to have a Bahraini co-owner, for at least 1% of the company, however this only applies to 'restricted activities'.
We have a list of all possible business activities in our knowledge base, which you can navigate to by clicking on the 'Articles' button in the website header and then searching for an articles named 'List of all activities'. This page will show you all possible activities which you can select, as well as the license code and whether this activity is restricted or not.
Every single company in Bahrain needs to renew each of their licenses on the yearly basis.
The process of license renewal is extremely straightforward and only requirers any authorized person to login into the shareholder's e-key and select 'License renewal'. The payment can only be complete using a debit or a credit card, no cash payments or bank transfers are accepted.
Depending on the exact license that you have, you may need to pay anywhere from 150 to 500 BD, but in most cases it would be 150 BD per license.
Once the payment is complete, the license would be renewed instanteniously.
Any company is free to add, remove, change shareholders at any time without any restrictions.
Unfortunately, the process for a change in shareholders is not the easiest, as it requires the LMRA to conduct a background check on the new shareholder. This involvement of the government ministry does introduce longer processing time, compared to license renewal, for example.
The process for a shareholder change would first require MOIC and LMRA approvals, after which are granted, the company would need to select a private law firm in order to modify the shareholders in the government registry.
BCF would be happy to help any company with this entire process. From handling the initial request to MOIC & LMRA to selecting the best law firm, one with a proven track record of completed projects with us!
Changing the name of the company is a standard procedure in Bahrain.
Firstly, the company would need to make a name change request to MOIC, in order to get the initial approval for a name change. This is done because there are ministry guidelines and rules about company names: the name cannot be the same or too similar to another company's name and the name has to be appropriate for the company. This is precisely why each company is requested to select 3 names, so that MOIC would have backup options, in case some of the options do not meet these requirements.
After the approval is granted, the company has to make an MOA amendment, which after being processed, would change the company's name in the government registry.
BCF have done this process tens of times and would be happy to guide you through it as well.
Hiring employees is an essential part of any business all across the world. However, because the process involves either giving a foreign citizen a residency in Bahrain or taking care of the national's social insurance - there are some complexities with this process. Nonetheless, BCF would handle the entire process for you, so that as the owner of the business, you don't have to stress about complying with new regulations and rules. BCF will ensure that you receive your new, legal employee as cheap and as fast as possible.
Firstly, we need to determine if the employee is foreign or local. The difference is that if the employee is local, then all the processing would be done through SIO. Else, if the employee is foreign, BCF would be working with LMRA (Labor Market Regulatory Authority) in order to obtain their work visa.
The process of hiring a national employee is much easier, as Bahrain would not have to do any background checks on the person at question, as they are already a citizen. Additionally, a foreign employee would also have to complete a mandatory medical test in order to prove that they are fit and well. Once the medial test is complete and all the documents are gathered, it would take an average of 4-6 weeks in order to obtain a work visa for a foreing employee.
On the other hand, hiring a national employee is much simpler. However, there are also downsides to this option, as the employer would be required to pay additional 14% of the salary amount as social insurance.
Hiring any employee, regardless of them being local or foreign, is a complex process, which requires planning, decision making and specific procedures. We recommend you to consult with BCF, as we would be able to give you all the pros and cons of each option, outline you the exact pricing, government fees and would overall help you make a calculated decision.
In order to register a new branch, the company is required to have at least 1 national employee and an operations account in SIO (GOSI). The process of opening a new branch is straightforward and only requires an authorized person to enter the new branch details & upload photo evidence.
After the request is processed by SIO, the ministry would either send one of their employees to an entered address or would set up a video call with the authorized person in order to prove that the office space matches the attached images.
Once the confirmation is issued, the branch would be officially registered and would be required to follow the standard office operational rules. Lack of compliance with operational rules would result in the company getting a corporate violation.
Agents at BCF would help from the start to the end of this process - from selecting an optimal location for your branch to complying with the operational rules, all in order to ensure a smooth and fast process.
Reach out to us and we will calculate the exact price and timeline for any of your required service!
According to LMRA, every business is required to have an office. If the business wants to qualify for 0% corporate tax, it should "show operational activity". The cheapest way to satisfy this requirement would be to have an office admin.
The cost of the admin would depend on your requirements for their years of experience and level of education. However the minimum monthly wage for a full time worker is around 400 BD.
BCF would help you select the right employee, handle the whole hiring process and would ensure that the employee does their job properly.
Bahrains' regulations require all company's above 30,000 BD annual turnover to file and submit financials on quarterly basis. However, we understand that not all of our clients have a high volume of transactions in order to hire a full-time accountant into their company. This is why BCF offers to handle your accounting for you.
Throughout the years, we have developed a network of trusted accountants, who handle our clients. They're able to charge lower prices compared to the market, as each accountant work with 5-7 of BCFs' clients at the same time.
Some of our clients want their Bahrain company completely separate from their other businesses, having different shareholders, UBOs and directors.
Over the years, we have developed a network of trusted individuals, for whom we could vouch for in making them your nominal shareholders / directors. These are individuals, who have been in connection with BCF for many years and have stellar reputations. These people are either Bahraini nationals or long-term full-time residents, which allows them to resolve any unexpected issues either same-day or next-day from the occurance.
Important to note: the 'nominal' shareholder/director would never have access to the clients' online banking.
Reach out to us and we will calculate the exact price and timeline for any of your required service!
A power of attorney is a document which allows somebody to carry out actions on your behalf. One of the uses cases of POA is when a shareholder encounters some sort of problem with their company, while being outside of the country. However, if BCF has POA of the shareholder, this would allow BCF to act on the issue on behalf of the owner, resolving the issue without requiring the shareholders presence.
A power of attorney can be issued from any notary in Bahrain. All that is required is to book an appointment with the notary, come in person and sign the POA from the sides of the giver and receiver.
The costs can vary depending on the exact power the client is issuing and the selected notary, but normally it would be under 200 BD. The timeline is 2-3 working days.
BCF will assist you in selecting the best notary, arranging the appointment, drafting the exact POA and would accompany you to the notary office.
Notarization is a type of document certification, which certifies that the document is legitimate, inside the country of issue. This is the key difference between an apostille and a notarization, that the notarization is only valid inside the country of issue.
Normally, the notarization can only notarize documents in Arabic, however there are notarizes which are able to certify documents in English.
The notary can notarize both the validity of the document, as well as the only validity of the signature on the document.
The costs vary depending on the document which needs to be notarized, the language of the document and the selected notary. However, clients can generally expect to pay under 250 BD for any document notarization. The timeline is 3-5 working days.
An apostille is a type of document certification which is used to certify documents internationally. This certification must be produced by a government ministry. Apostille can be done for both personal and company related documets.
In order to produce an apostille, you must first make a booking in MOFO. After your booking is confirmed, you would visit MOFO and get the apostille. Normally the entire process takes 3-4 working days.
There is a fast-track option, which allows you to get the certification done the same day, however it does cost extra.
The cost of the apostille depends on the type of document you are certifying, but you can expect to pay 10-20 BD per page.
If you proceed with the normal booking, the payment has to be done at the booking stage, only debit card & credit card payments are accepted.
If you are using the fast track option, the payment has to be done in MOFO, only debit card, credit card & cash payments are accepted.
BCF would help you prepare the documents that need to be certified, would handle the MOFO booking / fast-track option and would accompany you to MOFO.
BCF will assist you in obtaining any requested company related document, for example:
1) IBAN certificate
2) Share capital certificate
3) Balance certificate
4) Certificate of well-standing
5) Address certificate
6) Branch registration certificate
7) Company registration certificate
8) Company registration extract certificate
9) Certificate of incubancy
or any other requested certificate
The cost and timeline would entirely depend on the exact certificate you are requsted to provide.
BCF will find out the ministry to issue such certificate, would make an official request and would accompany you to the ministry in order to collect the document.
BCF will help you to renew your investor visa.
The process of visa renewal is very straighforward and only requires the authorized person to login into shareholders' e-key and pay the government fee.
BCF will help you to renew your employees' visa.
The process of visa renewal is very straighforward and only requires the authorized person to login into shareholders' e-key and pay the government fee.
This list includes only our most commonly provided services, but is not the full list. If your require any other type of service, BCF would be happy to assist you with your request.
The exact timeline and cost would be calculated as per your particular situation.
