Foreign Director of an Armenian Company: Which Digital Signature Works Where, and What You Can Run From Abroad

Under the procedures EKENG publishes, a foreign director can get only one Armenian electronic signature without travelling: the TIN-based CoSign, which works exclusively in the personal tax portal for individuals. Mobile ID needs identification at the Migration and Citizenship Service in Yerevan and a visit to a mobile operator, and the PSN-based CoSign that EKENG lists for company tax reporting is not issued to anyone outside Armenia. Company filings can still be run from abroad, through an accountant or representative acting under documented authority.

Why the portals ask for a signature you cannot produce

An Armenian electronic digital signature belongs to a person. The company has none of its own, so every filing is signed by an individual whose identity was checked when the certificate was issued. Accredited certification centres must identify the applicant from identity documents, and the service procedures that implement this put the check in a named office in Yerevan.

Under Article 4 of the Law on Electronic Document and Electronic Digital Signature (HO-40-N of 14 December 2004), an electronically signed document carries the same legal significance as one signed by hand, provided the signature’s authenticity is established and there is no sufficient evidence that the document was altered. The same article excuses a recipient that lacks the technical means to accept it, and the Government sets the rules for each state system. A certificate valid in one portal is therefore not automatically accepted in another.

EKENG’s published position is that one person may use a single signature for several companies, once the relevant agreements with the tax authority and other services are signed. Holding the signature gives no authority to act for a company. That authority comes from the director’s appointment or from a power of attorney.

The four credentials and what each requires

Mobile ID

Mobile ID is the mobile electronic digital signature regulated by Government Decision 572-N of 25 May 2017. EKENG’s instructions for foreign nationals list four requirements:

• one document establishing residence status or lawful residence: a temporary residence card, a permanent residence card, a special passport, or a certificate confirming the legality of residence;
• a Public Services Number (PSN, shown as “SSN” on EKENG’s English pages);
• a personal phone number registered in your own name;
• identification at the Migration and Citizenship Service, 3 Vazgen Sargsyan Street, Yerevan, followed by activation at your mobile operator and a payment of AMD 3,000 to EKENG (about USD 8 at the house rate of AMD 361.36 per USD, CBA rate of 19 October 2026).

The operator also asks for your passport and a smartphone. A foreign passport, visa-free entry or a directorship on its own is not on the document list. EKENG’s foreign-national page states the AMD 3,000 without saying whether it recurs each year, and the operator’s own SIM and tariff charges are separate.

PSN-based CoSign

CoSign is EKENG’s signature service for foreign citizens, run on ARX CoSign software and regulated by Government Decision 285-N of 1 March 2018. For the PSN route you submit your residence card or passport and a PSN reference in advance, pay, and then attend personal identification at EKENG, 4 Tigran Mets Avenue, 5th floor, Yerevan, with your passport. EKENG says it invites applicants within two working days at most. After identification it emails the software link, certificate, username and initial password.

EKENG’s wording on presence is direct: the PSN-based signature is not provided if the foreign citizen is not in the Republic of Armenia. The listed uses are self-portal.taxservice.am, file-online.taxservice.am (tax reporting), e-request.am (applications to public bodies) and signing Word, Excel and PDF documents.

EKENG publishes a price of AMD 10,000 for one year from 1 February 2026. The National Services Gateway still shows AMD 30,000 for three years (about USD 28 and USD 83 at the house rate of AMD 361.36 per USD, CBA rate of 19 October 2026), and Decision 285-N still describes a three-year certificate; the official sources have not been reconciled. EKENG’s pages also differ on eligibility: its detailed procedure accepts a “residence card or passport”, while its general page and the Gateway refer to residence documents. Whether a visitor holding only a passport and a PSN qualifies is unsettled.

The PSN itself

Lacking residence status does not rule out a PSN. Government Decision 419-N of 5 April 2012 provides a PSN for a foreigner who is lawfully present in Armenia without residence status. The Migration and Citizenship Service issues it, so it is usually the first errand of a Yerevan visit.

TIN-based CoSign

This is the route that works without attending. The State Revenue Committee (SRC) sequence is:

1. Obtain a taxpayer identification number (TIN) from the SRC. A PSN is supplied if you have one; it is not required.
2. Apply through e-request.am for access to the individual electronic-services system, requesting the “CoSign TIN” signature type. The SRC emails a link to create your username and password.
3. Submit documents and payment to EKENG. Within one to two working days EKENG emails the software link, username and initial password to the address the SRC registered.

The Gateway allows the application to be made through an authorised representative. EKENG limits the result in capitals: the TIN-based signature is used EXCLUSIVELY in the unified portal of electronic services for natural persons. It cannot sign the company’s tax returns, State Register filings or e-request applications.

Task by task: which credential works and what needs Yerevan

Banks are left open because each sets its own remote-signing and mandate rules, and no bank’s rule was sourced for this guide. Whether a director with no residence document can obtain any credential entirely from abroad that signs company returns personally is being confirmed against the official sources; none of the published procedures provides one.

Employment contracts: what changed on 19 September 2026

From 1 July 2027 employment relationships in Armenia are created, changed and ended through the SRC’s digital system, and contracts are signed in it with electronic digital signatures (Labor Code Articles 13(3) and 85(5)). Until then the system is optional. The implementing rules are Government Decision 410-N of 10 April 2025.

Decision 410-N originally allowed foreigners to sign with other solutions, including CoSign, and to enter the system with a TIN and an SRC username and password. Government Decision 1364-N of 17 September 2026, in force from 19 September 2026, deleted both provisions. The current text names an identity-card signature or a mobile signature under Decision 572-N. EKENG separately states that CoSign is not applicable for signing employment contracts. Which signature a foreign director or employee uses inside the system since the amendment is not settled by the amended text, so a director without Mobile ID should not plan to sign there with CoSign.

Three rules narrow the problem:

• Foreign employees (Article 95.1(1)). After 1 July 2027, contracts with foreigners are concluded on paper for the period of their stay or residence for work, and the foreigner must enter the contract into the system within three months of receiving the document confirming lawful residence.
• Work abroad (Article 13(5)). Where the employee is located outside Armenia and the work is performed outside Armenia, the relationship is not handled through the system. The test concerns the employee; a director signing from abroad does not bring a Yerevan-based employee within it.
• Older contracts. Law HO-40-N of 13 February 2026 gives continuing contracts concluded before the system a migration period running to 30 June 2028.

Outside the system, Article 85(2)(3) still recognises a contract exchanged by correspondence as a signed scan or an electronically signed file. Our guide to digital employment contracts from July 2027 covers the system itself, and the employment compliance and employer of record pages cover hiring without a local signatory.

One trip to Yerevan: what to arrange

EKENG’s two-working-day invitation window means the trip should run at least three working days. In order:

1. Before travelling, submit the PSN-based CoSign application to EKENG with your passport (or residence card), a PSN reference if you already hold one, and the payment, so the invitation falls inside your stay.
2. On arrival, obtain a PSN at the Migration and Citizenship Service if you have none.
3. If you hold a residence card, special passport or certificate of lawful residence: complete Mobile ID identification at 3 Vazgen Sargsyan Street, then activate it at your operator with your passport, PSN, residence document, smartphone and a number registered in your name, and pay EKENG AMD 3,000 (about USD 8 at the house rate of AMD 361.36 per USD, CBA rate of 19 October 2026).
4. Attend EKENG identification at 4 Tigran Mets Avenue with your passport and install the CoSign software from the emailed link.
5. Sign the powers of attorney your accountant and any representative will need for State Register and tax matters.
6. Sign the company’s agreements with the tax authority and appoint the accountant as a user of the company’s tax account.

If the company is not yet formed, the routes in registering an Armenian LLC without visiting and registering a company electronically with Mobile ID come first; see also our business registration service.

What an accountant or representative can do for you

The Tax Code (HO-165-N) lets a taxpayer act through a representative under a power of attorney and through authorised users of its electronic account. The SRC portal instructions let the company appoint users, usually its accountant, and admit a third party on a signed power of attorney. The accountant then files the company’s returns with their own signature, inside the scope the company granted.

For the State Register, the State Registration Law (HO-169 of 3 April 2001) accepts filings by a representative who presents a power of attorney and identification. A filing that changes the director, the shareholders or the charter still needs the underlying decision signed by whoever the charter requires.

Do not hand your Mobile ID phone or CoSign password to the accountant. A signature identifies its holder, so anything signed with it is recorded as the director’s own act, with no record of who actually pressed the button. Delegated user access and a power of attorney leave the accountant signing in their own name and can be withdrawn. Our notes on switching accountants in Armenia cover handing that access over, and tax services covers the filings themselves.

When the phone changes or the director leaves

Mobile ID depends on a number registered in your name, so a new SIM or a lapsed number means going back through the operator; EKENG’s re-issue procedure after a phone or SIM change was not sourced for this guide. A departing director keeps the personal credential and loses the authority. The company should withdraw that person’s user rights in the tax account and any powers of attorney they signed, register the new director, and have the new director arrange their own credential or delegate as above.

A director who cannot travel at all can appoint a local manager to sign day to day; our guide to an Armenian LLC manager for a founder abroad sets out that structure. The first step is to list the company’s recurring filings and mark which signer each one needs.

Frequently asked questions

Last updated: 23 October 2026