- Who this is for
- Founders resident outside the United States
- Usual entity
- Single member LLC
- Usual states
- Wyoming or New Mexico
- EIN timing
- Four to eight weeks without an SSN
No SSN required
Forming a US company when you live somewhere else
There is no citizenship requirement, no visa requirement and no US partner requirement. The real obstacles are the tax number, the bank account and an annual information return with a twenty five thousand dollar penalty that most filing services never mention.
- Written from
- Client files, not from a marketing brief
- Reviewed
- September 2026
The information available on this is unusually bad.
Search for how to open a US company from abroad and you will find two kinds of content. The first is written by formation services that want the sale and stop at the certificate. The second is written by people who did it once and are describing their own circumstances as though they were general rules. Neither is much use when your bank application is declined or when a letter arrives about a return you did not know existed.
What follows is what we tell clients, including the parts that are inconvenient. We form companies for founders in a great many countries and we also prepare the returns afterwards, which means we see what happens in year two. That is a different vantage point from a company whose relationship with you ends when the filing confirms.
Five things you have probably been told that are wrong.
No. There is no immigration requirement attached to owning a US company. Owning it and being permitted to work inside the United States are two completely separate questions. You can own and direct a US LLC from anywhere in the world without ever entering the country.
Not to form the company, and not to obtain the tax number. What is true is that without an SSN or ITIN you cannot use the IRS online application, which is why so many founders hit an error and conclude it is impossible. The paper route works. It just takes longer.
This is the belief that costs people the most money. Whether you owe US tax depends on whether your income is effectively connected to a US trade or business, which is a genuine analysis and not a slogan. Whether you have to file is a separate question with a much simpler answer: a foreign owned single member LLC files Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120 every year regardless of income, and the penalty for not doing so starts at twenty five thousand dollars.
Delaware is for companies raising institutional investment. For a founder abroad running an agency, a software product or an ecommerce store, Delaware usually means a higher annual cost for benefits that do not apply. Wyoming and New Mexico are more often the sensible answer.
It is not, and conflating them causes real problems. The registered agent is a legal appointment in the state of formation. You may also want a mailing address, and if you intend to open a bank account you will be asked about your business address separately.
- Total elapsed
- Company in days, banking usually six to ten weeks from start
How it actually runs.
Five stages. The company exists within days. The tax number is the long pole, and everything downstream of it waits.
Entity and state
Choose a state, for reasons that actually apply to you.
With no US physical presence, no state has a claim on you by default, so the choice is genuine. We weigh annual cost, reporting burden, privacy of the public record, and whether your payment processor or marketplace has preferences. For most founders abroad this lands on Wyoming or New Mexico.
Decided at intake and explained in writing.
Filing
Form the company with us as organizer.
Your name does not have to appear in the public filing in every state, and where it does not, we say so before you file rather than after. Registered agent appointed in the same step.
Turnaround same day to two weeks depending on the state.
EIN
Apply for the tax number by the route that is open to you.
Form SS-4 prepared with the responsible party correctly identified, submitted to the IRS by fax or mail, and then chased. This is where most self service attempts fail, either at reference number 101 in the online tool or on a form filled in with the wrong entity classification.
Realistic timing four to eight weeks. Anyone promising days is describing a process the IRS does not offer to you.
Banking
Open an account, with realistic expectations.
We prepare the document set banks ask for and tell you which institutions currently work for founders in your situation. We earn nothing from where you land, and we will tell you plainly when a particular passport or country of residence makes an application unlikely rather than letting you find out.
No commission, no referral fee, no card product.
Compliance
Set up the annual filings before you forget them.
Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 for a foreign owned single member LLC. The state annual report. Sales tax registration if you sell into states where you have economic nexus. A treaty position if one applies to you.
Written calendar with dates, in your file, at handover.
- Applies when
- 25% or more foreign ownership of a US entity
- Due
- Annually, income or not
- Penalty from
- $25,000 per return
The filing you must not miss.
If a foreign person owns twenty five percent or more of a US entity, that entity files Form 5472 together with a pro forma Form 1120 each year. It is an information return, not an income tax return, and it is due whether or not the company earned anything, whether or not it has a bank account, and whether or not it did any business at all.
The penalty for failing to file begins at twenty five thousand dollars per return, per year, and it is not discretionary in the way people hope. We regularly meet founders in year three who are hearing about it for the first time, usually because their formation provider had no reason to know and no obligation to say.
If you are already late, it is fixable more often than not, and the sooner it is addressed the better the position. We prepare these returns as ordinary work.
Common questions
It depends on whether the income is effectively connected with a US trade or business, and on any treaty between the US and where you live. A single member LLC owned by a non resident, with no US office, no US employees and no dependent agent in the US, often has no US income tax liability, but that is a conclusion to be reached on your facts, not assumed. The filing obligation exists either way.
It is an information return about transactions between a US entity and its foreign related parties. If at least a quarter of your US company is owned from outside the country, it applies, and it applies even if the company made nothing. It is filed with a pro forma Form 1120 and the penalty for failing to file starts at twenty five thousand dollars. Formation only providers do not mention it because they do not prepare returns.
Four to eight weeks is the honest range, sometimes faster and occasionally slower. The application goes in on paper and the IRS returns the number by fax or mail. What we control is that the form is right the first time and that it is followed up, because a rejected SS-4 restarts the clock.
Sometimes, and it has become harder rather than easier. Some institutions will onboard a foreign owner remotely with an EIN, formation documents and identity verification. Others require a US person or an in person visit. Your country of residence affects the answer more than anything else. We will tell you what we currently see working, and we take no fee from any of them.
New Mexico has no annual report for LLCs, which makes it the lowest ongoing burden in the country. Wyoming has a modest annual report tied to assets located in the state. Delaware charges an annual franchise tax that is higher than either and buys you nothing unless investors are involved. See where we file for the detail.
Only if you personally have a US filing obligation, for example because you must file a US individual return. Many owners of foreign owned LLCs never need one. Being told you must get an ITIN before you can do anything is usually a sign the adviser is applying US resident assumptions to your situation.
Forming from outside the United States?
We will tell you the realistic timeline, including the parts that take weeks, before you pay anything.