Can a foreigner set up a company in Germany?

As a general rule, not only EU-residents but also a non-EU-residents can set up a company in Germany.

The easiest and most common company type to set up is a GmbH (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung), which is the German version of a Ltd.

A GmbH can be optained in two different ways:

• Establishment of a new company;
• Purchasing of a shelf-company.

The advantage of buying a shelf-company is that such a company would already have a bank account, which avoids the problems many EU-foreigners are facing when setting up a fresh bank account for their GmbH. Furthermore, it is also usually faster for a non-EU-resident to purchase a shelf-company than to establish a new one.