How to start a business in Jordan as a foreigner (2026)

Jordan's Companies Control Department announced that electronic company registrations grew 18.7% in 2025 compared to 2024, confirming that the majority of new incorporations now happen digitally via the CCD portal. The figure signals broad adoption of e-services and a structural shift away from in-person filing.

Jordan's Income and Sales Tax Department (ISTD) required all GST-registered businesses to issue invoices exclusively through the JoFatora e-invoicing platform from 1 April 2025, adding a digital compliance obligation for newly registered companies from day one. The measure is the second phase of Jordan's national tax-digitalisation programme.

Issued pursuant to the new Investment Environment Law, Regulation No. 7 of 2023 consolidated 18 previously separate investment regulations into a single legal instrument covering registration, licensing, and incentives. The consolidation dramatically cut paperwork and harmonised procedures for both domestic and foreign business founders.

Ninety days after gazette publication, Law No. 21 of 2022 took legal effect, replacing the 2014 Investment Law and mandating a single Comprehensive Investment Service through the Ministry of Investment's electronic platform for all registration and licensing steps. Foreign investors were explicitly granted equal treatment with Jordanian nationals, and the Ministry of Investment became the sole government reference authority for all investment matters.

Jordan's Economic Modernization Vision was officially launched at the Dead Sea, targeting GDP doubling, one million new jobs, and JD 41 billion in investment by 2033. Regulatory simplification, including one-stop licensing, digitalised government services, and the removal of sector-level restrictions on foreign founders, was designated a core pillar of the business-environment agenda.

Jordan created a standalone Ministry of Investment by merging the Jordan Investment Commission (JIC) and the Public-Private Partnership Unit, giving investors a single senior government interlocutor for the first time. The Ministry was charged with designing the electronic investment window that later underpinned the 2022 Investment Environment Law.

With Jordan under pandemic lockdown, the CCD accelerated its digitalisation agenda and launched an end-to-end online company registration portal, eliminating mandatory in-person attendance for most filing steps. Electronic links were simultaneously established with the Ministry of Labour, the Greater Amman Municipality (vocational licences), and operating banks to enable remote account opening and capital deposit.

The World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report ranked Jordan 75th out of 190 economies, a 29-place jump, and designated it one of the world's three biggest reformers, its highest ranking in over a decade. The recognition validated a multi-year regulatory overhaul spanning construction permits, credit access, property registration, and company formation procedures.

Parliament enacted Amendment No. 34 of 2017 to the Companies Law, most notably reducing the minimum share capital for limited liability companies to a nominal one Jordanian Dinar, removing a key financial barrier for startups and small enterprises. The amendment also updated corporate governance provisions and aligned the law more closely with OECD standards.

Jordan enacted Investment Law No. 30 of 2014, merging three separate bodies, the Jordan Investment Board, the Development Zones Commission, and the Free Zones Corporation, into the unified Jordan Investment Commission (JIC). The JIC was granted exclusive authority to license investment projects, cutting inter-agency coordination overhead for new businesses and establishing the first national investment one-stop framework.

Jordan's landmark Companies Law No. 22 of 1997 codified six company forms (general partnership, limited partnership, LLC, limited partnership in shares, private shareholding, and public shareholding), abolished the 15% capitalisation surcharge that had long deterred investment, and introduced civil and not-for-profit company forms for professionals. The law, still the backbone of Jordanian corporate law today, with successive amendments, established the Companies Control Department as the central registration authority.