How to start a US LLC as a non-resident (2026)

1. 1

   Choose the structure

   An LLC suits almost everyone: one owner or several, no board, and taxed once. Choose a C-Corporation only if you'll raise from US investors in the next two years, because their paperwork assumes one. The three-question tool walks you through it.

2. 2

   Choose the state

   For an LLC, Wyoming: $102.40 to file, $60 a year, no owners on the public record, and a state banks are used to seeing on a non-resident's application. For a corporation you'll raise money into, Delaware: investors want a Delaware corporation, and a Delaware LLC converts before a round just as a Wyoming one does. Choose another state only if the business will physically operate there. Wyoming or Delaware has the figures.

3. 3

   Choose a name and check it

   It has to include LLC or an accepted variant, differ from every name already on the state's register, and avoid restricted words such as bank or insurance unless a regulator approves. A name that clashes gets the filing rejected, so search the register first. Naming rules.

4. 4

   Appoint a registered agent

   Every LLC needs a registered agent: a person or company with a street address in the state who accepts legal papers during business hours. Your home address abroad can't be used, so it's a service you pay for, and every plan includes the first year. What an agent does.

5. 5

   File the articles

   Wyoming calls them Articles of Organization and Delaware a Certificate of Formation. They give the company's name, its agent and the person filing, and they're filed online with the state fee. A Wyoming filing is approved the same day it is filed. Delaware takes two to three weeks, or the next business day with its expedited service.

6. 6

   Get the EIN

   The IRS's online application needs an SSN or ITIN. Without one, Form SS-4 goes to the IRS by fax, or through its international phone line, with "Foreign" written where the number would go. The IRS says that under its Fax-TIN program an EIN by fax generally comes within 4 business days. For a company owned from abroad, our estimate is six to eight weeks. With the expedited EIN, our estimate is two to three weeks. Nothing after this step can start until the number arrives. The full guide.

7. 7

   Sign the operating agreement

   It's the private contract among the owners: who owns what, who manages, how profit is paid out and what happens when someone leaves. It isn't filed with the state, but banks ask to see it, and a company with one owner needs one too. What it covers.

8. 8

   Open the bank account

   Founders in most countries can apply to Mercury remotely, and Mercury decides each application. It doesn't accept founders living in about 48, including Nigeria, Pakistan and the Philippines. Payoneer is the usual alternative. Wise gives no USD account details in Nigeria or Pakistan, but it works in some of the others. You'll need the number, the stamped articles, the operating agreement, your passport and a clear description of the business. Who opens accounts for whom.

9. 9

   Put two dates on your calendar

   The state's yearly charge: Wyoming's annual report on the first day of the month you formed in, or Delaware's LLC tax on 1 June. And Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120, due 15 April for a calendar-year company, which every foreign-owned single-member LLC files even in a year with no income. Missing it can bring a $25,000 penalty. The year after formation.

Yes. Every state lets a person anywhere in the world own an LLC, and the IRS issues EINs to companies with foreign owners. What a state does insist on is a registered agent with a street address inside it, which you hire. Owning the company is also separate from living or working in the US: that needs a visa, and the company doesn't give you one.

• Your home address abroad, which goes on the operating agreement, the EIN application and the bank's form.
• A sentence on what the company will do.
• Two or three possible names.
• How ownership is split, if there's more than one of you.

The bank asks for more once the company exists, listed in step 8. Keep those documents in one place, because Stripe, PayPal and Wise ask for the same set.

The state's fee is the one cost every route shares. Wyoming charges $102.40 to file online and $60 a year after that. Delaware charges $110 to file and $400 a year in LLC tax. On top of the state, every LLC pays someone to be its registered agent, and most founders pay someone to handle the EIN. Here's three years with each, at today's prices.

Launch includes the registered agent, the EIN without an SSN, the operating agreement and the compliance calendar. It doesn't include Form 5472, which you or an accountant file each year; a call with a US tax specialist is $149. Every state's figures are in LLC fees by state, and the LLC cost calculator adds the extras.

The state filing is quick. The IRS sets the pace for everything after it, so start well before you need the account.

Usually nothing on income from work done outside the United States, but something is always filed. For income tax, a single-member LLC is a disregarded entity: the IRS looks through it to you. The US taxes a foreign owner on income effectively connected with a US trade or business, and on certain US-source passive income, such as royalties, dividends and interest. Selling services to Americans from a desk in another country doesn't, on its own, make a US trade or business. The full test.

• Form 5472 with a pro forma Form 1120, every year, by 15 April for a calendar-year company, even with no income. The penalty for missing it can be $25,000. How to file it.
• Form 1065 instead, if the LLC has two or more members.
• No state income tax in Wyoming.
• An FBAR, only if the company holds more than $10,000 in accounts outside the US at any point in the year.
• Your own country's tax on the profit. Its rules decide how and when, and each country guide covers yours.

Two things you'll see sold that you don't owe. Since 14 August 2026, a company formed in the US files no beneficial ownership report with FinCEN. And most owners of a foreign-owned LLC never need an ITIN. When you do.

Where you live decides more than where the company is formed. Mercury and Wise go by the founder's country, so a US company doesn't change their answer. Stripe goes by where the business is registered, so a US LLC with an EIN and a US bank account can apply for a US Stripe account from almost anywhere, and Stripe still reviews you. Stripe, Mercury and Wise by country has the answer for 100 countries, and the bank guide has the alternatives.

• A Delaware LLC that will never raise money. It costs $400 a year against Wyoming's $60, and investors who want Delaware want a corporation, not an LLC.
• Missing Form 5472. It's due in a year with no sales, because the money you paid to form the company counts as a reportable transaction.
• Paying company costs from a personal account. The form reports what moved between you and the company, and a record that starts on day one is a short job at year end.
• Letting the annual report or the agent lapse. Leave the state's charge unpaid long enough and the state dissolves the company.
• Paying for filings you don't owe. The beneficial ownership report, and an ITIN bought as a formation step.

Anyone patient with access to a fax service can do every step above. A filing agent keeps the steps in order, chases the IRS, prepares documents the way banks want them and keeps the calendar, so the yearly dates aren't missed. With us, the state fee is shown at cost, you're emailed before anything renews, and you'll hear which state and which bank suit you before you pay. The pricing page works through the first year.