A Luxembourg business permit or business licence, the autorisation d'établissement, costs €50 in chancellery duty. The Ministry of the Economy acknowledges the file within 15 days and then has 3 months to decide, and silence beyond that window counts as tacit authorisation.
The law of 2 September 2011 on the right of establishment grants the permit against five conditions: professional integrity, professional qualification in line with the planned activity, establishment in Luxembourg, effective and permanent management of the business by the permit holder, and compliance with tax and business obligations. Files usually fail on three of them: integrity, qualification, and a manager who is actually in Luxembourg.
Whether the company is about to be incorporated or already exists, the work is preparing the permit file and the RCS registration together, starting with the integrity and qualification evidence.
See how the business permit application worksHow much does it cost and how long does it take?
The only official charge is the €50 chancellery duty, while translations and any notarial declaration sit outside it and depend on the file. The decision runs on a statutory clock:
| Stage | Timing | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Acknowledgement of receipt | 15 days | the Ministry confirms the file arrived |
| Ministry decision | 3 months | the window in which a reply is owed |
| Where a foreign professional qualification has to be recognised | + 1 month | the window can be extended in that case |
| No reply at all | tacit authorisation | the permit is treated as granted |
A granted file produces the permit number that the barcode display duty depends on. Running out the clock produces no number, so tacit authorisation is a fallback rather than a plan. A refusal is an administrative decision against which the usual means of appeal can be used, provided the legal deadlines are complied with.
What are the five conditions?
The five conditions are integrity, qualification, establishment, effective and permanent management, and tax compliance. Tax compliance means the manager must not have evaded business and tax obligations, including withholding tax, in previous or current business activities. Integrity, qualification and management are where files stall, because each needs evidence that cannot be produced overnight.
Who has to prove integrity, and with which documents?
Integrity binds the manager of the business in whose name the permit will be issued; and, where the business is operated as a company, also the person holding the majority of the shares and anyone who can exert a significant influence on the management or administration of the business. A founder who appoints a qualified manager but keeps the majority stake adds a person to scrutinise rather than removing one.
Permit check
Not sure what the Ministry will ask for?
Tell us the activity. We tell you which authorisation it needs, what qualification it takes and what goes in the file.
The integrity bar is any conduct or act contrary to a law, regulation or administrative measure that affects professional integrity so seriously that the person cannot be tolerated in the authorised activity. Guichet.lu lists the acts that reach it:
| Disqualifying act | What triggers it |
|---|---|
| Unfiled tax returns | 2 financial years |
| No registration in the Register of Beneficial Owners | 6 months |
| RCS filing breaches | failing, on at least two occasions during the last three financial years, to meet the filing and publication obligations under the Trade and Companies Register law |
| Bankruptcy debts | accumulating substantial debts to public creditors as a result of bankruptcy or compulsory liquidation |
| Criminal conviction | a final criminal or correctional sentence for an offence related to the activity carried out or to be carried out |
| False documents | making false statements or using forged documents to apply for a business permit |
The documents depend on residence history. Non-residents and recent arrivals need criminal-record extracts from every State of residence over the preceding 10 years, plus a declaration of non-bankruptcy, recent and unlimited in time and space, made before a notary in Luxembourgish, French, German or English — required of non-residents as well as of anyone resident in Luxembourg for less than 10 years; it must state that the applicant has not been involved in the bankruptcy of a business in their own name or in the bankruptcy of a company.
Anyone resident in Luxembourg for longer files a declaration of honour on management positions held in the previous 3 years, plus an extract no. 3 from the Luxembourg criminal record.
Which qualification does your activity need?
For commercial activities, the answer is none — no professional qualification is required for commercial activities that are not otherwise regulated. Craft activities sit on lists, and the list decides the route:
| Route into a list A craft | Qualification held | Experience on top |
|---|---|---|
| Master craftsman | a master craftsman's certificate (brevet de maîtrise) covering the craft activity in question or its essential parts | none |
| Degree partially covering the essential parts | a bachelor's degree | 1 year |
| Degree not covering the activity | a bachelor's degree | 2 years |
| Vocational diploma | a DAP | 6 years |
| Related trade already authorised | a list A permit | 3 years |
List B accepts 3 years of experience in place of a DAP. One adjacency rule saves a second application: a craftsman already authorised for a list A activity may also carry out a list B activity belonging to the same technical group. List C is the outlier: none — carrying on a list C craft activity requires no professional qualification.
The liberal professions that need a permit are named individually: architect, interior architect, landscape architect or landscape engineer, construction engineer, independent engineer in a discipline other than construction, surveyor, town and country planner, chartered accountant, accountant and patent attorney. For advisory work, business permits are no longer issued for economic advice and advisory activities; the persons concerned must instead apply for a permit for commercial activities and services. Which evidence satisfies each route is covered in the guide to business permit qualifications.
What counts as an establishment and an effective manager?
The law asks for an appropriate physical installation, adapted to the nature and the scale of the activities carried on. The wording scales, so a consultancy and a bodyshop are not held to the same fit-out, but neither clears it with a mailbox.
Management comes in two parts. First, the manager must ensure day-to-day management of the business effectively and permanently, through a physical presence at the establishment. Second, the manager must be the owner of the business where the activity is carried on in a personal name, or entered in the Trade and Companies Register as the company's mandataire where it is a company.
Why is the permit filed alongside the RCS registration?
On the Ministry's side, the articles of association must be registered with the Trade and Companies Register before the permit is definitively granted. On the register's side, an Sàrl-S filing must carry the identity of the partners, their precise private or professional address, the number of shares held by each, and the business permit number. Because each file needs the other, both are prepared in parallel rather than queued one after the other.
Once granted, the permit carries a publication duty: the 2D barcode assigned to each business permit must appear on letters, emails, websites, quotations, invoices and the shop front of every point of sale, as well as on the signs that must be installed at all construction sites.
Who does not need a permit?
The exemptions are specific rather than general. Outside the regime are journalistic or book authoring activities that do not involve self-publishing. So is an educational entrepreneurial school project below €35,000 of annual turnover excluding tax.
Self-employed advisers are not exempt. They apply for the permit for commercial activities and services, which requires no professional qualification.
Can a non-resident or non-EU founder hold the permit?
Residence is not one of the five conditions, so a non-resident can hold the permit in principle, and what changes is the evidence: the notarised non-bankruptcy declaration and the foreign criminal records. The manager's physical presence at the establishment is still required.
A third-country national's residence file then runs in the other direction: where the self-employed activity requires a business permit, the application must include the outline consent from the Ministry of the Economy.
What goes in the file, and where does it stall?
The pack has five items, listed in the order they should be started rather than the order they are filed:
- Integrity documents matching the applicant's residence history.
- Qualification evidence for the exact activity category: diploma, brevet de maîtrise, DAP or employer attestations.
- The lease or property deed for premises matching the nature and scale of the activity.
- The articles of association, because definitive grant waits on the RCS registration.
- Payment of the €50 chancellery duty.
Two gaps stall files again and again. The first is evidence never collected, because years of relevant work count for nothing without employment certificates, diplomas or employer attestations in hand.
The second is the wrong activity category. The category decides which qualification rule applies, so a loose choice turns a no-qualification commercial permit into a list A craft file.
Start with the integrity documents. Criminal-record extracts covering 10 years come from each State of residence on its own timetable, and none can be back-dated. The file reaches the Ministry, and its 3-month window opens, only once they are in hand. That is why checking the activity category and the integrity evidence before the file goes to the Ministry is where a cross-border application saves its time.