Company Formation in Uzbekistan
A foreign national can own 100% of an Uzbek LLC, and the state fees are modest. The two things that decide your real cost are whether you register in the local or the foreign company form, and whether your director is a foreign citizen — because the work permit costs more than everything else put together.
What IS Group handles
We prepare the founding documents, obtain the identification numbers, register the company, open the bank account and deal with the work permit if your director is foreign.
We tell you the state duties up front, because the difference between the cheapest and dearest way of doing the same thing is more than USD 1,300 — and it is decided before anything is filed.
We do not promise a residence permit on an investment below the published threshold. The numbers below are the numbers.
Planning a company in Uzbekistan?
Tell us who will be the director and whether they are an Uzbek or a foreign citizen. That single answer changes your cost by about USD 1,000.
Apply for business formation Ask us a questionSomeone has to be in Uzbekistan
The founders can stay abroad and act through notarised, apostilled powers of attorney. The appointed director cannot. Their physical presence in Uzbekistan is required to complete registration.
That choice also sets the timetable: if the foreign founder attends in person, registration takes 3–4 working days from signing and submission. If the founders act from abroad and only the director attends, allow 8–10 working days.
State duties, in full
These are government charges, not our fees. They are the same whoever files them, and knowing them is what lets you judge any quotation you are given.
What that adds up to
Converted at 1 USD = 12,600 UZS. The rate moves, so treat the dollar figures as indicative and the soum figures as the real ones.
Two decisions, most of the cost
Registering in the foreign company form costs about USD 293 more than the local form — 4,120,000 soum against 412,000. Appointing a foreign director adds about USD 1,015 for the work permit.
Neither is automatically wrong. The foreign form carries the FE or JV prefix and the standing that goes with it; a foreign director may be the entire point of the exercise. But both should be chosen deliberately, not discovered on the invoice.
Setting up the company, step by step
- Clear the company name — it must be unique on the register.
- Decide the director, and secure a registered address in Uzbekistan. The address must be a real Uzbek one.
- Obtain a PINFL — the personal identification number — for each foreign founder and for the director. State fee about USD 2. Nothing proceeds without it.
- Prepare the founding documents: charter, founders' decision, and notarised, apostilled powers of attorney for anyone signing from abroad.
- File the registration. 3–4 working days with the founder present, 8–10 if acting from abroad.
- Open the bank account and obtain the electronic key.
- Obtain the company seal.
- Apply for the work permit if the director is a foreign citizen — see the exemption below before you pay for one.
- Contribute the charter capital — you have twelve months from registration.
The facts
Employing foreign staff
An Uzbek employer may only take on foreign staff after obtaining a Confirmation of the right to work from the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction. Doing it without one is an offence, not an oversight.
The exemption worth checking before you pay USD 1,015
No employer confirmation is required at all when the person you are hiring is a qualified or highly qualified specialist.
Highly qualified — a graduate of a university in the recognised top 1,000 international ranking, with at least five years' experience in that field, on a salary equivalent to USD 60,000 a year or more.
Qualified — higher education, at least five years' experience in that field, on a salary equivalent to USD 30,000 a year or more.
If your director or key hire meets either test, the permit and its fee fall away. It is the first thing we check, because it is the single largest saving available in an Uzbek setup.
Visa and registration costs for staff
State fees only, current as of September 2025. Useful if you are bringing people in as well as forming the company.
Residence permits through investment
Uzbekistan has the clearest investor residence rules of the six countries we work in, and the highest thresholds. Registering a company does not by itself give you the right to live there.
Residence and the right to work are separate
An investor residence permit and an employer's Confirmation are different instruments obtained from different bodies. Holding one does not give you the other, and owning the company gives you neither automatically.
The practical consequence: settle the director's right to work in parallel with registration. Leaving it to the end is what leaves people with a registered company they are not permitted to run.
Rules change. Ask us before you assume.
State duties are set in BRV and soum and are revised regularly; the dollar equivalents move with the exchange rate. Investment thresholds and permit categories are set by government and can change at any time.
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