Guide pratique sur investissement direct étranger sous la loi fippa pour les investisseurs étrangers : cadre, opportunités, chiffres et voies d'entrée.
Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act
The Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act (FIPPA) is the legal spine of every inbound investment into Iran. It converts a commercial decision into a state-recognised position with defined protections over capital, profits and dispute resolution.
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Screen the sector for restrictions, confirm the holding jurisdiction has a bilateral investment treaty with Iran and fix the capital-import route.
Technical and financial feasibility with employment, technology-transfer and export figures — the criteria the Board actually scores.
Application filed with the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran with investor corporate documents and source-of-funds evidence.
Board review and issuance of the investment licence naming the foreign shareholder and registered capital.
Inbound capital registered with the central bank so that later profit and capital transfers are covered by the licence.
| Item | Indicative cost (USD) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Feasibility study | 4,000 – 12,000 | Scales with project size |
| FIPPA application advisory | 5,000 – 15,000 | Filing and Board follow-up |
| Legalisation & translation | 1,200 – 3,000 | Per corporate investor |
| Entity registration (parallel) | 4,000 – 9,000 | PJSC or LLC |
| Annual FIPPA reporting | 1,500 – 3,500 | Capital and performance filings |
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The Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act (FIPPA) is the legal spine of every inbound investment into Iran. It converts a commercial decision into a state-recognised position with defined protections over capital, profits and dispute resolution.
A FIPPA licence is issued by the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran after review by the Foreign Investment Board. It is the single document that unlocks registered capital import, guaranteed profit transfer and compensation rights in the event of expropriation.
FIPPA guarantees three things ordinary company law cannot give a foreign investor: the right to transfer principal and profit out of Iran, equal treatment with domestic investors, and compensation at fair value if the investment is nationalised.
Protection attaches to registered capital only. Capital brought in outside the registered channel sits outside the guarantee and cannot be repatriated under the Act.
The Board weighs employment created, technology transferred, export potential and the share of the domestic market the project would take. Projects that displace an existing domestic producer without adding capability face the longest review.
A complete file — feasibility study, investor corporate documents, source-of-funds evidence and a capital import schedule — is the difference between a 45-day and a nine-month decision.
Most investors hold through a Private Joint Stock Company or a limited liability company, with the FIPPA licence naming the foreign shareholder directly. Free-zone entities are used where the operation is export-oriented or import-assembly based.
The holding jurisdiction matters: routing through a country with a bilateral investment treaty and a double-tax agreement with Iran improves both arbitration access and withholding treatment.
Yes. FIPPA permits up to 100% foreign ownership in most sectors. Restrictions apply mainly to upstream oil and gas ownership, defence, and some media and banking activities.
A complete application is typically decided in 45 to 90 days. Incomplete feasibility or source-of-funds documentation is the most common cause of delay.
FIPPA guarantees transfer of registered capital and profit. The practical constraint is FX availability and the settlement channel, so the capital import account should be structured before the first transfer.
No. FIPPA is domestic Iranian law and does not address third-country sanctions, which must be managed through counterparty screening and payment-channel design.
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