The Fast Start: How Global Companies Begin Hiring Without Waiting on Work Permits in India

If you and your company are thinking about expanding into a quick-developing country like India, the traditional playbook, “relocate first, hire later,” can delay your plans for months. From seeking a work permit in India to FRRO registrations and entity setup, there are a lot of formalities to fill in. However, all these requirements do not mean you have to hold on to your desires and wait for everything to get in order. There is always a shorter and a smarter way to deal with these issues.

At Kaamwork, we believe you should not have to wait for your ideas to turn into reality. Thanks to our technology-driven Employer of Record (EOR) platform, along with dedicated local HR support, we offer you the ability to start interviews in days, make offers quickly, and onboard the best employees without ever having to relocate talent.

Our platform covers all of the compliance and payroll complexities, while our HR local specialists ensure your employees feel empowered and supported from day zero. You get the best of both worlds: technology to scale quickly, and human experience to develop an effective engaged team. Interested in knowing more? You have come to the right place.

Why waiting for work permits slows the business?

If you wait for work permits and relocation before hiring, your expansion into India can slow down right from the start. Instead of building your team, you may find yourselves stuck in a maze of paperwork where legal, HR, and finance teams spend months on entity setup, compliance, and regulatory filings. When in reality, that’s time and bandwidth you and your team should be investing in growth, not bureaucracy.

The bigger challenge is what you lose along the way. Every month of waiting means delays to your product roadmap, losing hiring momentum, and missing out on valuable market windows. While you’re waiting, competitors are already interviewing, securing top talent, and strengthening their local presence. At Kaamwork, we believe you shouldn’t have to choose between compliance and speed. We help you start hiring right away, so you keep your business moving forward while others are still waiting on approvals.

What “start now, stay compliant” actually looks like: The EOR model (Build-Direct, not outsourcing)

With Kaamwork’s EOR model you get to hire talent from across the globe under your own brand name and begin from day one. However, you must know that this is not outsourcing, and we do not include a third party between you and your employees.

Instead, you can build strong relationships directly with your team while we manage local compliance, payroll, and HR support. You maintain ownership and control of your culture and daily work while we manage related activities in the background.

Our EOR model also offers a very different experience from contractors. With contractors, you often have risks related to control, protection of your IP, with local considerations about long-term engagement. With our model, your employees are dedicated solely to you and are connected to you brand. They are legally employed in a compliant manner.

Hence, you get the stability of having a true team, the security of protecting your intellectual property, and the speed to scale without waiting for a work permit in India or entity setup.

Work Permit India: When you truly need it—and when you don’t

Not every role demands a work permit in India or requires employees to relocate. In fact, most of the time, you can begin hiring local talent right away without waiting for visas or FRRO approvals.

At Kaamwork, we help you think of it as a simple decision tree: if the role can be filled by local talent, you hire first under your own brand through our compliant EOR model. If only a role requires someone from outside India, it is then a work permit comes into the picture.

So, when do you actually need a visa? The requirement comes for specialist leadership positions, highly niche technical expertise, or client-facing roles where global experience is very important.

But for the majority of operational, engineering, product, and support roles, you don’t need to wait. By hiring locally first, you get momentum, build your presence in India, and keep projects moving forward while handling the occasional relocation only when it really adds value.

Your 90-day Kaamwork plan: From first interview to first sprint

With Kaamwork by our side, you do not have to wait months for entity setup, work permit in India, or endless approvals. You can start hiring on day zero. In fact, we often say you can start hiring overnight, because that’s how quickly we help you get moving.

Start fast (Day Zero / “overnight”)

With our help, you don’t need to wait months for entity setup or immigration approvals. In fact, many of our clients are interviewing candidates overnight, instead of watching opportunities pass them by.

EOR scope

We take full responsibility for managing employment in India, including compliant onboarding, payroll processing, statutory compliance, and employee benefits. You don’t need to worry about complex labor laws or tax filings; we cover it all, while you focus on more important matters like selecting and growing your team.

The labor laws in India cover wages, conditions of work, rights of employees, social security, and compliance. Formal employment is generally permitted from 18 years of age. When it comes to tax filings, employers must deduct income tax at source (TDS) and file statutory returns on time. Companies also need to comply with corporate taxes, GST (goods and services tax), and labor-related contributions. (GST is a unified indirect tax in India that replaces multiple taxes by levying a single tax on the supply of goods and services.)

With Kaamwork, this goes a step further. Our model keeps everything transparent — no hidden markups on salaries, just a simple flat fee so you know exactly where your money goes. Employees receive contracts and offer letters under your brand, with compliant clauses that protect your IP and confidentiality from day one. Beyond the paperwork, our local HR specialists stay involved with appraisals, promotions, and employee engagement, ensuring your hires feel part of your company and not just attached to a vendor.

Direct interviews & control

As it is your company, we help you stay in the driver’s seat. Your team directly interviews candidates, makes hiring decisions, and defines HR policies. We simply make sure everything is compliant in the background. This way, you retain 100% control over who joins and how they work, keeping your brand and working culture intact.

Scale pattern

Kaamwork understands growth starts small, especially in a foreign place. And therefore, we have seen many companies begin with one hire in India for a trial and, within six months, expand the team and workflows. Hence, our EOR mode, along with local HR support, is designed to scale with you, without forcing upfront commitments.

Cost model

Usually, entity setup and ongoing overhead can be expensive. With Kaamwork’s flat-fee model, you save up to 80% in operating costs compared to managing your own entity. You can also avoid hidden costs, reduce admin overhead, and scale your team at a fraction of the typical expense.

Sourcing speed/talent pool

There is no need to waste weeks on sourcing. Kaamwork can present you with qualified profiles within 24 hours, and we’ve consistently seen interview-to-offer conversion rates above 50%. This means faster hiring decisions, less drop-off, and more momentum in your hiring pipeline.

Automation & HR ops

We utilize the latest automation technologies throughout the entire employment lifecycle, beginning with digital onboarding, all the way to monthly payroll, compliance filing, and benefits administration. This eliminates manual errors, saves time, and provides a seamless experience for both you and your employees.

Outcome proof (retention)

We believe the real proof is always in the results. In the last two years, Kaamwork hires have had lower than 5% voluntary attrition. This means your hires are not only moving quickly, increasing engagement, and contributing to growth in your business, but also reducing your rehiring costs and creating long-term stability.

Why India is a magnet for top talent

India has emerged as one of the most attractive talent hubs in the world, providing companies with access to talent across industries. Here are a couple more concrete reasons why we believe in our cause.

• Employees have a strong English proficiency and communication skills that is ideal for global teams
• They have great adaptability to remote and global collaboration models
• There is a high density of extremely educated candidates in many niches
• Cost-effective talent compared to many other global markets
• Emerging culture of innovation, various startups, and ongoing digitalization

Pitfalls to avoid on the fast start

Expanding quickly into India is exciting, but if you cut corners, you risk legal trouble, financial losses, and damaged credibility. To stay compliant and build trust from day one, watch out for these common pitfalls:

• Misuse of business visas as a way to avoid using qualified labour creates compliance violations
• Misclassifying employees as contractors risks penalties and potential IP leakage
• Failing to maintain salary transparency and back-channeling will destroy employee trust and your brand credibility

Real examples: fast hires and quick wins

Our success stories are what keep us going. We have assisted global companies like Tripadvisor and Thrasio to scale their teams in India much quicker than they expected with our talent-centric model. They went from waiting months for entity setup to interviewing in days and onboarding talent in weeks -- and saved a lot of money with our flat fee.

At Tripadvisor, we helped accelerate hiring in India by building strong teams in data analytics, engineering, and software with top talent from firms like Amazon and Expedia.

As Lindsay Nelson noted, we delivered an impressive pool of candidates “almost overnight,” while Osi Peters praised how seamless we made the entire hiring lifecycle.

For Thrasio, we proved how fast you can scale without setup delays. When they struggled to fill a technical role, we sourced, interviewed, and onboarded the right candidate in just one week.

Within four months, they grew to nearly 20 hires through our flat-fee, compliant model. Jeremy Freeman emphasized how we let them focus on talent while we managed compliance, and Eric Lubow highlighted how our approach enables a high-quality, borderless workforce.

Hire now—handle work permits in parallel

Kaamwork is your one-stop destination if you desire to launch interviews and onboard talents this week. For the rare roles that truly need relocation, we manage Work Permit India in parallel so that you can focus on other crucial areas.

So, what are you waiting for? Build a strong and versatile team with compliance and 100% control, and turn your day one into a productive one. Consult us today if you need assistance with team building and hiring.