Foreign National as a Director of Indian Company

I am a director and 50% owner of an Indian registered company. The company was set up under current Indian laws at the time in 2002. Foreign national directorship laws were changed as of July 1st 2007. Under this new law all foreign nationals need a Notary from their country of origin which then has to be filed with the RBI and the Revenue department. To obtain a Notary in England you must be able to prove current English address and proof of your identity. Documents used for example, current passport, UK driving licence and for purpose of address proof utility bills no older than 3 months. As I have lived in India since 2004 and have nothing in the UK I obviously cannot obtain a Notary certificate from country of origin. As anybody come across this problem as the powers to be in India seem to say no Notary no continuation of life in India for foreign national directors.

A "Notary" is a person, not a document, at least as far as British English goes.

In the scale of things, a solicitor who is also a " Commissioner for Oaths" Can help you make an Affidavit, a sworn, written statement.

Further up the legal food chain, a solicitor who is a "Notary Public" can help you make a Statutory Declaration. This is a more impressive-looking document with a red seal on the bottom.

My experience of this is that I made a Statutory Declaration stating that I had never before been married, and was free to marry, in preparation for getting married in India.

As far as I can remember I did not have to give any proof of address or residence in UK, although I did have to furnish three proofs of my identity. Probably this would have been passport, bank cards, driving licence (British driving licence does have address on it, the other items do not).

My opinion is that it does not make sense that a non-resident, or foreign visitor even, would not be qualified to make an affidavit or statutory declaration. Not living in a country is not guarantee that one may not ever be involved in any legal process there!

It would, of course, require your physical presence in the UK solicitor's office.

Cross-posted with Nick-

Unless the terminology used in the UK and India is different from the terminology used in the U.S., a "notary" is a person, not a type of document (and my Goggling suggests the term "notary" also refers to a person in the UK) so it's not clear what you mean when you say you have to "obtain a Notary". I don't know what the Indian law says, but I assume it specifies the content of some document that must then be notarized and submitted to the RBI - possibly some sort of authentication or certification of your identity from your home country??? What's the function or purpose of the document you have to have notarized for submission to the RBI? In the U.S., the function of a notary is typically to authenticate the signature of a person signing a document. Since you have a British passport, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to establish your identity, because the passport is evidence of that. As for a current English address, you might inquire of the notary (person) whether you can use the address of a family member if you haven't actually been residing in England for several years - ? The examples you gave of the other types of documentation that can be used to establish your identity or address (driving license, utility bills) are just that -- examples. They can't possibly be the exclusive means of establishing these things, since not everyone living in the UK has a driving license or utility bills in his or her own name.

Maybe these links will help you find someone with the technical expertise you need:
http://www.thenotariessociety.org.uk/
http://www.notary.co.uk/legalservices.htm
http://www.notarypublicinlondon.com/
http://www.notarypublic-uk.info/

A notary is a person in India too. Also called notary public

A document is notarised.

Give us a few years and it will be notarized here, too

And you'll stop spelling it "colour". "Notary public" in the U.S., too.

No, there would be a furore about that

Continuing OT:
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.bl...07/furore.html

(Note the "Anglici{s/z}ed" bit at the end. )

(America has been keeping our British Zs safe for us. It was English that changed from 's' to 'z'. Now it's changing back again, and 'traditionalists' are 'blaming' America. The words "can't" and "win" come to mind!)

Continuing OT (which is more fun than the original question): America and India have both been keeping all sorts of archaic former British usages safe, and at least in parts of America we've been preserving some old British accents, too - from Cockney-sounding vowels and L's that sound like W's in Philadelphia to people on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia who sound like they come from "Zomerzet" (where their ancestors probably did come from!)

would one have to be invited to be a director of an indian company or could one set up a company with indian nationals and make oneself a director, just out of interest.