Short answer
A non-resident can register a US company entirely from abroad: no citizenship, no SSN, no US visit. The process is six decisions in sequence: pick the entity (an LLC for most, a Delaware C corporation if you are raising US venture capital), pick the state, file yourself or through a service, get the EIN by fax or mail without an SSN, give the company a US business address, then open banking and set the yearly compliance calendar. Each step has a deep guide on this blog; this page is the map that puts them in order.
Key takeaways
- Nothing in US law requires a founder to be a citizen or resident to own a US LLC or corporation, and the whole registration can be done remotely.
- The classic sequencing mistake is opening a bank application before the EIN and address exist. The application asks for both, and a half-finished application just sits in the review queue while you backfill.
- An S corporation is the one entity a non-resident alien cannot use: its shareholders must be US citizens or residents. The realistic choice is LLC or C corporation.
- A foreign-owned single-member LLC files Form 5472 with a pro forma 1120 for any year money moves between owner and company, which in practice is nearly every year, and the penalty for missing it starts at $25,000.
Search for “US company registration” from outside the United States and you get two kinds of pages: formation services selling a package, and checklists written for Americans that quietly assume you have a Social Security number and a home state. Neither matches your situation.
You have no home state anchoring you, no SSN, and a different tax position than the domestic founder standing next to you in the search results.
The good news is structural: nothing in US law requires an owner to be a citizen or resident, and every step can be done remotely. The bad news is sequencing. The six decisions below each depend on the ones before them, and the expensive rework in this category (abandoned EIN applications, bank applications stuck in review, a state filing that has to be amended) comes from taking them out of order.
This page is deliberately a map, not an encyclopedia. Each stop has a dedicated guide that goes deeper than we could here, and we link it rather than repeat it.
Decision 1: LLC or C corporation
For most non-resident founders the answer is a single-member LLC. It is the simplest structure to run from abroad: one owner, no board, no share ledger, and by default the company itself owes no separate federal income tax. The tax picture flows through to you, and what you personally owe depends on treaties and on whether the business has US operations, which is a conversation for a tax professional, not a blog.
The C corporation, almost always in Delaware, is the answer to one specific question: are you raising money from US venture investors? US funds overwhelmingly invest in Delaware C corporations, and if that is your path, forming anything else means converting later. If it is not your path, the C corporation buys you a board, double taxation, and franchise-tax mechanics you do not need.
The one door that is closed: an S corporation requires its shareholders to be US citizens or residents, so it is off the table for a non-resident alien owner. That narrows the choice to two, which is genuinely helpful.
Decision 2: Which state
A founder living in Texas forms in Texas, because operating from Texas creates obligations there either way. You have no such anchor, and that is why the state question, mostly settled for Americans, is genuinely open for you.
In practice non-residents cluster in three states: Wyoming, New Mexico, and Delaware. Wyoming and New Mexico keep owner names off the public record and keep annual costs low; Delaware is the default for the C-corporation path and the state investors expect. Our 50-state comparison walks the fees, taxes, and privacy rules side by side, and the free State Checker turns your answers into a suggestion in about a minute.
One caution that saves people from a persistent myth: forming in a no-income-tax state does not, by itself, lower your taxes. Your tax position follows where and how the business actually operates, not the state on the certificate.
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Decision 3: File it yourself or use a service
The filing itself is a short state form (Articles of Organization for an LLC) plus a registered agent with a street address in the state, which is a legal requirement everywhere and the piece you genuinely cannot do yourself from abroad. That makes the real choice narrower than the marketing suggests: you are choosing who provides the registered agent and how much hand-holding comes with it.
Filing directly with the state and hiring a standalone registered agent is the cheapest route and entirely workable. Formation services bundle the agent, the filing, and usually an EIN application into one package at a markup. Which bundle makes sense depends on your situation; our doola vs Stripe Atlas comparison covers the two services non-residents ask about most, and the Stripe Atlas vs DIY cost breakdown prices the do-it-yourself route honestly against the package.
Whichever route you take, note what the registered agent is for: receiving legal service of process. It is not your business address, and treating it as one is the classic address mistake non-residents make; more on that two decisions down.
Decision 4: The EIN, without an SSN
The Employer Identification Number is the company's federal tax ID, and you need it for essentially everything downstream: banking, payment processors, tax filings. The persistent myth is that you need an SSN or an ITIN to get one. You do not.
A founder without an SSN applies on Form SS-4 by fax or mail; the online application is the one route closed to you, because it requires the responsible party to have a US taxpayer ID. The paper routes work, they are free, and the main cost is calendar time. Our EIN without an SSN guide walks the form line by line, including the responsible-party section that trips people up. If you are unsure whether you even need an ITIN, the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, the answer for most owners is not yet, and sometimes never.
Sequencing note: the SS-4 asks for a mailing address. A foreign address is allowed, but if you plan to use a US business address for the company anyway, setting it up before the EIN application keeps the IRS record, the state record, and the bank application pointing at the same place from day one.
Decision 5: The US business address
This is the step where the registered agent shortcut breaks. The agent's address exists to receive lawsuits. At the big agent services it is shared with thousands of other companies, it shows up that way in the public record, and that is what makes it a poor fit for bank and know-your-customer (KYC) paperwork. Our guide on why a registered agent address is not a business address covers the mechanics.
What the company needs instead is a commercial street address it can put on the EIN paperwork, the bank application, and the invoices: one that receives real mail and forwards or scans it to wherever you actually are. That is the product save office sells, so read this paragraph knowing that. Our seven addresses are commercial buildings and USPS classifies all seven as commercial; two of the seven are also registered with USPS as mail receiving agencies, a split we publish rather than round off. You can verify any of them (or any competitor's address, or the one your formation service gave you) with the free address checker before you pay anyone. No provider can promise a given bank will accept a given address, and we do not. What we publish instead is a guarantee: if a bank or government agency denies you because of the address or documents we provided, email us the written denial letter within 30 days and we refund 100% of what you paid for that address.
If you are still sorting out what kind of address product you even need, the three tiers sold under one name untangles the vocabulary, and the five founder situations includes the from-abroad case specifically. For the mail logistics of running a US company from another continent, see international mail forwarding for a non-resident LLC.
Decision 6: Banking, payments, and the yearly loop
With the formation certificate, the EIN, and the address in hand, you have everything a bank application asks for, which is why banking is last and why starting it earlier produces the stuck-in-review stories. Non-residents usually start with the fintechs built for remote onboarding; policies differ by institution and change without notice, so our non-resident business banking guide stays current on the landscape rather than promising outcomes here.
Then comes the part the formation services rarely mention at signup: the yearly loop. A foreign-owned single-member LLC files Form 5472 attached to a pro forma 1120 for any year it has reportable transactions with you or a related party, which in practice means any year money moves between you and the company. The penalty for missing it starts at $25,000, which makes it the single most important date on the calendar. Your state wants its annual report and fee. Payment platforms will eventually ask for a W-8BEN-E. And one genuine piece of relief: under FinCEN's 2025 interim final rule, US-formed companies are exempt from beneficial ownership (BOI) reporting, one filing you can cross off.
The order matters more than the speed
None of the six decisions is individually hard. The failure mode is starting at decision six, opening a bank application because that feels like the finish line, and then backfilling the EIN and address under deadline pressure while the application ages in a review queue.
Taken in order, the whole sequence is measured in weeks, most of it EIN processing time you can spend setting up everything else. Start with the entity, end with the bank, and let each record (state, IRS, address, bank) point at the same company at the same place.
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