Company Incorporation in Cayman Islands
Formation of a Cayman vehicle at the General Registry through a licensed corporate services provider (CSP) — mandatory, because the CSP provides the registered office, runs the AML/KYC due diligence and makes the filing. The flagship Exempted Company needs one shareholder and one director, both of whom may be non-resident, and may not carry on business with the public in the Islands except in furtherance of its offshore business; its registration fee is banded on authorised share capital, from KYD 700 where that capital does not exceed KYD 42,000 — which is why market practice caps authorised capital at about USD 50,000 to stay in the lowest band. A Cayman LLC is member-managed with no mandatory board and pays flat fees (KYD 900 to register, KYD 1,100 a year), an Exempted Limited Partnership is the standard private-equity and closed-ended fund vehicle (KYD 1,000 to register, with at least one Cayman-connected general partner), and a Foundation Company pays a KYD 500 declaration fee on top of the underlying company fees to become an ownerless vehicle for DAO, philanthropic and private-wealth structures. There is no Cayman corporate income tax, capital gains tax, withholding tax or payroll income tax — the obligations that follow incorporation are the annual return and government fee, economic substance and beneficial ownership. English throughout.
5–15 business days
KYD
Compare the structures
Every column is a vehicle you can actually incorporate here, and each is bought on its own terms. Every fact carries where it was read: on the authority’s own page, or — marked Indicative — on a filing platform or publication we name and link. Anything we could not read anywhere is marked Pending verification and confirmed with the authority before you pay.
| Exempted Company (limited by shares)The flagship offshore vehicle — holding companies, investment funds, SPVs, joint ventures and international structuring that does not trade domestically in the Islands. One shareholder and one director suffice and both may be non-resident; the registration and annual fees are banded on authorised share capital | Cayman LLC (Limited Liability Company)US-style membership vehicles — fund general partners and managers, carried-interest vehicles and joint ventures wanting a body corporate with Delaware-LLC-style member governance. Member-managed with no mandatory board, governance set by the LLC agreement, and flat fees that are not banded by capital | Exempted Limited Partnership (ELP)The standard fund vehicle — private-equity, venture and closed-ended funds. At least one general partner, which must be Cayman-connected (a Cayman company or ELP, a foreign company registered in Cayman, or a Cayman-resident individual) and carries UNLIMITED liability, plus limited partners whose exposure is capped at their commitment; classified unlimited here because the GP's is | Foundation CompanyOwnerless / orphan structures — DAO and crypto-protocol foundations, philanthropic vehicles and private-wealth holding structures. A company under the Foundation Companies Act that, once the Act's conditions are met, may cease to have members and operate for its objects; it must have a licensed CSP as secretary. Carried at zero owners because being ownerless is the point | Segregated Portfolio Company (SPC)Multi-cell structures — umbrella funds and captive or reinsurance cells needing assets and liabilities legally ring-fenced between portfolios. One exempted company registered as an SPC, with an additional annual fee per segregated portfolio that the Registry publishes but which was not confirmed from an official page (carried Not published below) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum owners | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Maximum owners | Pending verification | Pending verification | Pending verification | Pending verification | Pending verification |
| Minimum directors | 1 | Pending verification | Pending verification | 1 | 1 |
| Liability | limited | limited | unlimitedmixed | limited | limited |
| Foreign ownership | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Tax treatment | No Cayman corporate income tax, capital gains tax, withholding tax or payroll income tax. An exempted company may apply … | Same zero-tax environment as the exempted company: no income, capital gains or withholding tax. Managed by its members o… | Tax-transparent partnership in a zero-tax jurisdiction: no Cayman income, gains or withholding tax at the partnership le… | Same zero-tax environment. A foundation company is a company (a type of exempted/ordinary company under the Foundation C… | Same zero-tax environment as an exempted company. An SPC is a single legal person with statutorily segregated portfolios… |
| Audit required | No | No | No | No | No |
| Audit threshold | No general statutory audit for an ordinary exempted holding company. Audit is triggered by regulated status instead of s… | No general statutory audit unless regulated (e.g. registered as a fund with CIMA). | No partnership-level audit by default; audit arises from CIMA fund registration, not partnership size. | No general statutory audit unless it undertakes a regulated activity. | Audit driven by regulated status (e.g. SPC used as a CIMA-registered fund or an insurance SPC), not by size. |
| Annual compliance | Low | Low | Low | Low | Medium |
| Typical use | The company Comriq would actually sell here: a foreign-owned exempted company used as a holding/SPV/fund vehicle, admini… | Frequently used as a fund GP or manager vehicle and in US-facing structures because its member-driven governance mirrors… | The dominant Cayman fund structure — one exempted/foreign company as general partner, investors as limited partners. | Widely used for DAO/crypto-protocol foundations and for private-wealth and philanthropic structures because it can opera… | Umbrella funds and captive/reinsurance structures needing legally separated cells inside one company. |
What we will need from you
Upload these once. They are stored encrypted and reused across every service you buy from us.
Engagement of a Cayman-licensed corporate services provider and its Cayman registered-office address
The CSP files with the General Registry and supplies the registered office (and, for a foundation company, the secretary). Stated from practice in the research, not from a fetched statute page — confirm against the Companies Management Act.
Constitutional document — Memorandum & Articles of Association, or the LLC registration statement / LLC agreement, or the ELP section-9 registration statement
The research reached no Registry-published document checklist, so this list is drawn from the CSP filing route described in it; confirm the exact contents against the Companies Act, the Limited Liability Companies Act or the Exempted Limited Partnership Act as applicable.
Per director, member and beneficial owner: certified passport copy, proof of residential address and source-of-funds / source-of-wealth information
Collected by the CSP under the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations and its own licence conditions — this is an AML/KYC pack, NOT a Registry document list. Not verified in detail from an official page; confirm against the CSP's onboarding pack.
For a foreign corporate shareholder, member or general partner: certified / apostilled constitutional documents and a certificate of good standing
Typical CSP onboarding practice per the research, not a Registry-published requirement — confirm apostille and certification rules with the CSP before relying on it.
Beneficial-ownership particulars for the register maintained by the CSP
Required under the Beneficial Ownership Transparency Act (2026 Revision, gov.ky) unless an alternative-route exemption applies. The required-particulars list itself is a moving target under the 2023 Act, the 2025 Amendment Act and the 2026 Revision — confirm on gov.ky.
Cost breakdown
Our fee and the government’s are always separate lines. Government fees are passed through at exactly what the authority charges — we add nothing to them.
| Exempted company — incorporation / registration fee, authorised share capital up to KYD 42,000one line of this schedule appliesVERIFIED on the official Companies fee schedule (effective 1 Jan 2025) shown.ciregistry.ky/fees/ — KYD 700, the schedule's own equivalent being about USD 853.66, where authorised share capital does not exceed KYD 42,000. This band is why market practice caps authorised capital at about USD 50,000 (roughly KYD 41,000). The schedule states this amount in KYD (it shows its own USD equivalent at the Registry's 0.82 rate); the client settles in the currency the Registry invoices — no conversion is applied here. | KYD 700Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Exempted company — incorporation / registration fee, authorised share capital KYD 42,001 to 820,000one line of this schedule appliesVERIFIED.ciregistry.ky/fees/ (the schedule's own equivalent is about USD 1,219.51). | KYD 1,000Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Exempted company — incorporation / registration fee, authorised share capital KYD 820,001 to 1,640,000one line of this schedule appliesVERIFIED.ciregistry.ky/fees/ (the schedule's own equivalent is about USD 2,419.51). | KYD 1,984Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Exempted company — incorporation / registration fee, authorised share capital over KYD 1,640,000one line of this schedule appliesVERIFIED.ciregistry.ky/fees/ (the schedule's own equivalent is about USD 3,131.71). | KYD 2,568Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Exempted company — annual government fee (banded on the same authorised-share-capital bands)Not published: NOT confirmed from an official page. A lowest-band figure circulates widely but is unconfirmed and is deliberately not carried here. The fee is payable in January each year; the annual return deadline (last business day of March) IS verified — see annual compliance. | Confirmed before payment |
| Cayman LLC — registration feeonly if it appliesVERIFIED on the official LLC fee schedule (effective 1 Jan 2025).ciregistry.ky/fees/limited-liability-companies-act-fee-schedule/ — KYD 900 (about USD 1,097.56 on the schedule) for initial registration, registration by way of continuation, or re-registration. The schedule states this amount in KYD (it shows its own USD equivalent at the Registry's 0.82 rate); the client settles in the currency the Registry invoices — no conversion is applied here. | KYD 900Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Cayman LLC — annual feeonly if it appliesVERIFIED.ciregistry.ky/fees/limited-liability-companies-act-fee-schedule/ — KYD 1,100 (about USD 1,341.46 on the schedule), flat: LLC fees are NOT banded by capital. | KYD 1,100Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Cayman LLC — express (expedited) registration surchargeonly if it appliesVERIFIED.ciregistry.ky/fees/limited-liability-companies-act-fee-schedule/ — KYD 500 (about USD 609.76 on the schedule) for express processing. The Registry publishes no processing time either way, so this buys priority, not a stated SLA. | KYD 500Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Exempted Limited Partnership — initial registration feeonly if it appliesVERIFIED on the official ELP fee schedule (effective 1 Jan 2025).ciregistry.ky/fees/exempted-limited-partnership-act-fee-schedule/ — KYD 1,000 (about USD 1,219.51 on the schedule). The schedule states this amount in KYD (it shows its own USD equivalent at the Registry's 0.82 rate); the client settles in the currency the Registry invoices — no conversion is applied here. | KYD 1,000Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Foreign limited partnership — registration feeonly if it appliesVERIFIED.ciregistry.ky/fees/exempted-limited-partnership-act-fee-schedule/ — KYD 1,500 (about USD 1,829.27 on the schedule); the same schedule states a foreign-LP annual fee of KYD 1,650. | KYD 1,500Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Foundation company — declaration feeonly if it appliesVERIFIED on the official Foundation Companies fee schedule (effective 1 Jan 2025).ciregistry.ky/fees/foundation-companies-fee-schedule/ — KYD 500 (about USD 609.76 on the schedule) for the foundation-company declaration, and KYD 500 for re-registration. This is IN ADDITION to the Companies-Act incorporation fee (from KYD 700 above) and the banded annual government fee. | KYD 500Read at source on 2026-09-10 |
| Segregated Portfolio Company — additional annual fee per segregated portfolioonly if it appliesNot published: the Registry levies an additional annual fee for each segregated portfolio on top of the company's own banded annual fee, but the per-portfolio amount was not confirmed from an official page. | Confirmed before payment |
| Comriq professional fee | Fixed fee within 1 business day |
These are the authority’s published lines. Which of them apply depends on your filing — a schedule by headcount, capital or entity type is one line, not all of them — and the applicable line is confirmed before payment, at cost.
How it runs
You will see these exact stages update in your client portal as we progress.
Engage a Licensed Corporate Services Provider
A Cayman-licensed CSP is mandatory: it provides the registered office and files with the General Registry. Public direct filing is not the route.
KYC / AML Due Diligence
The CSP collects certified ID, proof of address and source-of-funds information for each director, member and beneficial owner before filing, under the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations.
Constitution Adopted
Memorandum and Articles of Association adopted (or the LLC registration statement and LLC agreement, or the ELP section-9 registration statement identifying the Cayman-connected general partner).
Filed with the General Registry
The CSP files the registration and pays the fee — banded on authorised share capital for a company (from KYD 700), flat KYD 900 for an LLC, KYD 1,000 for an ELP, plus the KYD 500 declaration fee for a foundation company. Express service is available for an LLC for a KYD 500 surcharge.
Certificate Issued
The Registry issues the certificate of incorporation or registration. No authority publishes a processing timeline for Cayman registrations, so the window shown is a conservative Comriq delivery estimate, not a statutory SLA.
Beneficial Ownership & Economic Substance Set-up
Beneficial-ownership particulars provided for the register kept by the CSP, and the entity's economic-substance status assessed so that the first Economic Substance Notification can be filed in the opening cycle.
Ready to start?
This one is priced to your situation — most of what we do needs a local filing agent, so we scope it rather than guess. Tell us the specifics and we come back with a fixed quote and a confirmed timeline, within one business day.
Not sure this is the right service? A paid expert call is credited against your order.
Verified September 2026
Requirements and statutory fees are set by Cayman Islands General Registry (Registrar of Companies / Registrar of Limited Liability Companies / Registrar of Exempted Limited Partnerships); filed through a Cayman-licensed corporate services provider and change without notice. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Your engagement letter and quote are the binding documents.