OPC Registration Documents: The Complete Checklist

For a one person company you need the PAN, Aadhaar and a recent address proof of the sole member, who is usually the director too, and the PAN and Aadhaar of the nominee. Add the registered office proof: a utility bill not older than two months with ownership papers, or a rent agreement and the owner's NOC. Both people need a digital signature.

What does the member-director need?

In most OPCs one person is both the member (the sole shareholder) and the only director. One set of papers covers both roles.

If you appoint a second director who is not the member, that person gives the same papers.

What does the nominee need?

You are probably asking: the nominee owns nothing today, so why the paperwork? Because the Registrar records this person as your successor from day one, and wants to know who it is and that they agreed.

Who should it be? Someone who knows the business exists and could run it or close it. The rules and the reasons are in our guide to the one person company.

What proves the registered office?

The registered office is the address where official letters reach the company. It can be your home. You show that the place exists and that you have the right to use it.

The NOC is a short letter from the owner saying the company may use the address. It should carry the proposed company name exactly as applied for. The bill can be in the owner's name, but the address on it must match the address typed in the form. The same points, in more detail, are in our private limited documents checklist.

Do you need photographs?

No. MCA says the incorporation form does not need the subscribers' photographs, and the AprilTax form does not ask for them. A photograph enters later: Form INC-20A, filed after incorporation, asks for a picture of the registered office with a director in it.

What the AprilTax form asks for

When you pick "One Person Company (OPC)" on our form, it asks for these details:

• Proposed company names and what the business will do.
• Authorised capital and the shareholding.
• The director's name and the nominee's name.
• The full registered office address, and whether it is owned or rented.
• Whether the director already holds a DSC.
• Your name, PAN, mobile number and email.

And these uploads: PAN, Aadhaar and address proof of the director and shareholder, PAN and Aadhaar of the nominee, and the office papers for owned or rented premises. A DSC is a USB token, so the form asks about it and takes no file.

The order to collect things in

1. Ask the nominee. Get a yes, then the PAN and Aadhaar.
2. Check both names. PAN and Aadhaar should agree letter for letter, for you and for the nominee.
3. Arrange the digital signatures. The issuing agency verifies each person in its own process, so start early.
4. Download this month's bills. One for your address proof, one for the office.
5. Get the NOC signed if the office is rented or belongs to family.
6. Reserve the name last. Once approved, the clock runs.

A worked example: the nominee who was not ready

Sana plans an OPC with Rs 1 lakh authorised capital. The office is a room in her father's flat, so she needs his NOC, his sale deed and the electricity bill. She pays Rs 1,000 and the name is approved on 2 November. MCA's help page says an approved name is held for 20 days, which takes her to 22 November.

Her nominee is her brother in Pune. He agrees, but he has no digital signature, and his Aadhaar spells the surname differently from his PAN. Fixing both takes three weeks. The name lapses. Sana pays another Rs 1,000 and applies again. The whole delay came from the second person on the form, not from her own papers.

The usual reasons for rejection

MCA allows only two resubmissions of the incorporation form. Its help page lists reasons specific to an OPC and reasons common to every company:

• The articles provide for issuing shares and debentures, or the objects clause mentions issuing shares, debentures or making investments. An OPC cannot run an investment business.
• The nominee's identity or residence proof is missing.
• The office address in the form differs from the address on the bill.
• The NOC or rent agreement is missing, unsigned by the owner, or names the company wrongly.
• Scans cannot be read, or the address proof is old.
• A signature is pasted into a document as an image. MCA treats that as possible fraud.

The mistake people usually make is treating the nominee as a name to type in. The nominee is the second person on the application, with documents, a consent and a signature of their own. Prepare that person as carefully as you prepare yourself.

Frequently asked questions

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