Seychelles company search: what the Registrar will tell anyone for US$25

Which one you need depends on the kind of company. Most foreign-owned Seychelles companies are IBCs, so most searches go to the FSA.

The Act lets any person ask for a search. The FSA's own answer is to write to it, and it replies with the fee and how to pay.

1. Collect the exact name or IBC number

   From the contract, invoice or certificate of incorporation. The number is the cleaner key.

2. Write to the FSA

   At [email protected], asking for a certificate of official search, or good standing if that's what you need.

3. Pay the fee

   US$25 a certificate under the Second Schedule. The FSA tells you how.

   US$25
4. Receive the certificate

   Straight from the Registrar, so you're not relying on a copy the counterparty sent.

Only checking whether a company has been struck off or dissolved? That part is online and free: the FSA struck-off and dissolved IBC search takes a name or number and returns the status with its effective date. A company missing from it isn't proven live; it just hasn't been struck off.

Section 352 of the Act lists what the certificate carries. Switch the year to see what changes in 2027.

Notice what's missing even after 2027: shareholders, owners, addresses and accounts. The certificate tells you the company is real and who looks after it, and from 2027 who runs it. Ownership needs another route, set out in chapter 6.

Banks usually want this one, and anyone can request it. Section 351 decides what you get back:

So a counterparty who sends you an official search when you asked for good standing may be telling you something. Banks generally accept a certificate up to about six months old.

Until then, the filed register of directors is shown only to a court, to law enforcement, to the registered agent, or to someone the agent or a director authorises.

Ownership sits with the company's registered agent, not the Registrar. Three records matter:

• Register of members. Kept by the agent. Filing a copy with the Registrar is optional, and few do.
• Register of beneficial owners. Kept by the agent and uploaded to a database open only to listed authorities, under the Beneficial Ownership Act.
• Accounts. Not filed at all by an IBC with no Seychelles income.

To learn who owns a counterparty, ask it for a certificate of incumbency. That's issued by the agent, not the Registrar, at the agent's own price, and normally lists directors and shareholders.

1. Run the free struck-off check

   Rules out the obvious in a minute.

2. Order your own certificate from the FSA

   Good standing if the deal is large; official search if you only need the facts.

3. Ask for an incumbency certificate

   From the counterparty's agent, under three months old, to see who's behind it.

4. Ask for a board resolution

   Naming the person who'll sign with you.

5. Ask for the apostille if it's going abroad

   Seychelles is in the Apostille Convention, so one stamp is enough.

Agents sell the same certificates for well over the government fee, often with an apostille bundled in. That can be worth it if you need speed, but the fee itself is US$25.

If you form an IBC, here's what someone who asks the FSA about it will learn, before and after the 2027 change.

Rather not be the named director from 2027? A company can hold the role, or a nominee director can, for US$480 a year; you stay the owner, and banks still know it's you. Our Seychelles IBC is US$570 to start and US$580 a year, the government fee inside. The yearly dates are in Seychelles annual fees and filings.