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Can you sit on a board there?
Pick a market. You get the residency test, the nationality test, the work-authorisation position, the appointment steps in order, and the frictions that actually delay appointments — each cited to the instrument that creates it.
Choose a market
SingaporeHong Kong SARJapanMalaysiaAustraliaIndiaSouth KoreaTaiwanThailandIndonesiaPhilippinesVietnamNew ZealandUnited KingdomGermanyNetherlandsIrelandSwitzerlandFranceItalySpainBelgiumAustriaPolandSwedenNorwayDenmarkFinlandUnited StatesCanadaBrazilUnited Arab EmiratesSaudi ArabiaSouth AfricaIsraelQatarKuwaitBahrainOmanNigeriaKenyaMoroccoEgyptLuxembourgJerseyGuernseyCayman IslandsMauritius
The short version
Most of the time, the answer is yes — and the rule people worry about is not about them.
The single most common misunderstanding in cross-border board work is treating a residency requirement on the COMPANY as a bar on the INDIVIDUAL. Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and federal Canada all have one, and in each case a listed issuer satisfies it long before it approaches an outside candidate.
| Market | Position | The one-line answer |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | Board-level residency test | No nationality or residency test applies to you as an appointee. The company must have one Singapore-resident director; every other seat is open to a non-resident. |
| Hong Kong SAR | Open to foreign directors | Hong Kong applies no residency or nationality test to directors. It is, on paper, the most open board market in Asia. |
| Japan | Open to foreign directors | Japan applies no nationality or residency test to directors. The genuine barriers are language and board custom, not law. |
| Malaysia | Board-level residency test | No nationality test applies to you. A public company must have two directors ordinarily resident in Malaysia; beyond that, seats are open to non-residents. |
| Australia | Board-level residency test | No nationality test applies to you. The board must keep two Australian-resident directors, so a foreign appointment is a decision about the board's whole composition rather than about you alone. |
| India | Approval or registration required | A foreign national may be an independent director in India, but must first obtain a DIN and register in the IICA databank — and the board must have at least one director resident in India. |
| South Korea | Open to foreign directors | The Commercial Act imposes no nationality or residency test on a director. Language and board custom are the real barriers, and at the largest globally exposed issuers both are easing. |
| Taiwan | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency test applies to a director. Language and the pace of technology-sector board work are the practical constraints. |
| Thailand | Open to foreign directors | No nationality test applies to a director of a Thai public limited company. Sector-specific foreign-ownership rules affect the company, not your eligibility to sit on its board. |
| Indonesia | Approval or registration required | Foreign nationals serve as commissioners on Indonesian public companies. The gate is sectoral: some licensed activities restrict foreign participation in management, and a resident role requires a work permit. |
| Philippines | Approval or registration required | Since 2019 there is no requirement that a majority of directors be residents. Nationality limits remain in constitutionally restricted sectors, where foreign board participation is capped in proportion to permitted foreign equity. |
| Vietnam | Approval or registration required | No general nationality bar on board membership, but foreign-ownership limits and sectoral conditions bear on the company, and a resident role requires a work permit. |
| New Zealand | Board-level residency test | No nationality test, and — uniquely on this Exchange — Australian residence can satisfy the statutory resident-director requirement. NZX listing rules separately require two New Zealand-resident directors. |
| United Kingdom | Open to foreign directors | Neither the Companies Act 2006 nor the Code imposes any residency or nationality test on a director. A foreign national can be appointed to a UK board without a permit, a filing exemption or a local counterpart. |
| Germany | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency test applies to a supervisory board member. The barriers are structural — co-determination, the mandate cap and German-language board process — not legal. |
| Netherlands | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency test applies to a supervisory or non-executive director. In practice this is the most accessible continental board market for an English-speaking candidate. |
| Ireland | Approval or registration required | No nationality test applies. An EEA residency test applies to the company, which can be satisfied by a bond — but for a regulated firm the real gate is Central Bank pre-approval of you personally. |
| Switzerland | Board-level residency test | No nationality test applies to a director. The company must be capable of being represented by someone domiciled in Switzerland, which an officer can satisfy — it does not have to be you or any other director. |
| France | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency test applies to a director of a French société anonyme. The constraint on a French board is its composition arithmetic, not your passport. |
| Italy | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency test applies to an Italian director. The route in that matters is procedural rather than legal: a place on a slate. |
| Spain | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency test applies to a Spanish director. What constrains the board is the statutory 40% requirement, the twelve-year independence limit and the classification the company must publish. |
| Belgium | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency requirement applies to a Belgian director, and Brussels boards are among the most internationally composed in Europe. |
| Austria | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency test applies to a supervisory board member. Language and the works-council relationship are the practical constraints, not the law. |
| Poland | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency test applies to a Polish supervisory board member. Language is the practical constraint. |
| Sweden | Board-level residency test | No nationality test applies to you. The board as a whole must keep half its members EEA-resident unless Bolagsverket has granted an exemption — a company-level test that a listed issuer normally satisfies well before it reaches an outside candidate. |
| Norway | Board-level residency test | No nationality bar, but Norway's residency rule is stricter than most: half the board must be resident in Norway or be EEA nationals resident in the EEA. |
| Denmark | Open to foreign directors | Denmark imposes no residency or nationality requirement on a director. On administration alone it is the most open board market in the Nordics. |
| Finland | Board-level residency test | No nationality test. One board member must be EEA-resident unless the registry grants an exemption — a far lighter constraint than Norway's or Sweden's half-the-board rule. |
| United States | Open to foreign directors | Neither federal securities law, the listing standards nor Delaware corporation law imposes any citizenship or residency test on a director of a US public company. |
| Canada | Board-level residency test | No nationality test applies to you. Whether residency matters depends entirely on where the company is incorporated — federal CBCA companies have a 25% resident-Canadian rule, Ontario and BC companies do not. |
| Brazil | Board-level residency test | Since Law 14.195/2021 a non-resident may serve on the board of directors. The requirement is a Brazilian-resident attorney-in-fact to receive service of process, not residence by the director. |
| United Arab Emirates | Approval or registration required | Foreign nationals sit on UAE boards routinely, and the 2021 companies law removed the general Emirati-ownership requirement — but sector rules, Emiratisation expectations and the free-zone regulators' approval processes still shape who can be appointed where. |
| Saudi Arabia | Approval or registration required | Foreign nationals serve on Saudi boards, and the framework does not bar it — but sector licensing, the four-year election cycle and, for regulated firms, SAMA or CMA approval shape the route in. |
| South Africa | Open to foreign directors | The Companies Act imposes no residency or nationality requirement on directors. The real question a board will consider is how a foreign appointment sits alongside its transformation commitments. |
| Israel | Approval or registration required | There is no nationality bar, and foreign directors serve on Israeli boards — but the external-director office carries residency conditions with relief for companies also listed abroad, so the answer depends on the specific issuer. |
| Qatar | Approval or registration required | Foreign nationals serve on Qatari boards, and foreign-ownership reform has widened participation — but sector conditions and the QSE election cycle shape the route in. |
| Kuwait | Approval or registration required | Foreign nationals serve on Kuwaiti boards, and foreign ownership of listed shares has been liberalised — but sector conditions and CMA and Central Bank approval processes shape the route in. |
| Bahrain | Approval or registration required | Bahrain permits full foreign ownership across a wide range of activities and foreign directors are common — the gate for a regulated firm is CBB approval of the individual. |
| Oman | Approval or registration required | Foreign nationals serve on Omani boards, and the foreign capital investment law has widened participation — but sector conditions and Omanisation policy shape senior appointments. |
| Nigeria | Open to foreign directors | No residency or nationality requirement applies to a director of a Nigerian company, and foreign directors are common on listed and multinational-subsidiary boards. |
| Kenya | Open to foreign directors | No residency or nationality requirement applies to a director of a Kenyan company. Work authorisation is required only for executive and resident roles. |
| Morocco | Open to foreign directors | No nationality or residency requirement applies to a director of a Moroccan société anonyme. Language and the francophone legal tradition are the practical considerations. |
| Egypt | Approval or registration required | Foreign nationals serve on Egyptian boards and investment law encourages it, but sectoral conditions apply and a resident role requires a work permit. |
| Luxembourg | Approval or registration required | Company law imposes no residency or nationality test. What gates a Luxembourg board seat is CSSF approval of you personally, and the substance expectation that decisions are genuinely taken in Luxembourg. |
| Jersey | Approval or registration required | No residency or nationality requirement in company law — but if you intend to act as a director by way of business, you need to be regulated or to act through a regulated provider. |
| Guernsey | Approval or registration required | No residency or nationality requirement in company law — but acting as a director by way of business requires a fiduciary licence, which Guernsey uniquely allows an individual to hold personally. |
| Cayman Islands | Approval or registration required | No residency or nationality requirement — but you must be registered with CIMA to sit on a covered entity's board, and licensed if you hold twenty or more such seats. |
| Mauritius | Board-level residency test | No nationality test applies to you. A Global Business Company must have two Mauritius-resident directors — which is precisely why a professional-director market exists here. |
Eligibility is only the first question
Being allowed to sit on a board there is not the same as being read for one.
The mobility index answers the second question: whether your record is legible to a board in that market, whether you hold what it is currently short of, and whether you can do the job in the language its board works in.