For founders outside the US
You can own a US company from anywhere. Banking is the part that depends on where you live.
You can own a US company without being a US citizen, a US resident, or holding an SSN, and without flying anywhere. Prolify forms the entity, gets the EIN on the non-SSN track, and runs the filings that follow. Banking is the part that depends on where you live.
- No SSN
- Required to form, or to get the EIN. Line 7b takes "Foreign"
- No trip
- Formation, EIN and identity verification all run remotely
- $25,000
- Penalty for a missed Form 5472, which applies in a year with no revenue
Forming is open to almost everyone. Banking is not, and that gap is the whole subject.
Formation is open to almost everyone. Banking is not. Providers gate on the country you personally live in, and forming in Wyoming does not change that, because a residence gate asks about you rather than about your company. Any service that sells you an entity without telling you this is selling you the easy half.
What is actually true. With the rule behind it.
No SSN?
Not needed. The EIN application takes "Foreign" on line 7b where the responsible party has no SSN and cannot get one, and an ITIN is not a prerequisite. Without a US principal office the online route is unavailable, so it goes by fax, and the realistic wait is one to three weeks.
No US address?
Not needed to form. Prolify provides a US business address that satisfies the state and the IRS. It does not reliably satisfy a bank or a payment processor, which is a different question and gets its own answer below.
No trip to the US?
Not needed. Formation, the EIN and identity verification all run remotely. Nobody has to appear anywhere in person.
Never heard of Form 5472?
Most people have not, and it is the expensive one. A foreign-owned single-member LLC files a pro forma 1120 with Form 5472 attached even in a year with no revenue, and the penalty for missing it is $25,000.
Where the answer is no. Above the pricing, not below it.
This is the section the rest of this market leaves out, so it goes above the pricing rather than below it.
- →US banks and fintechs gate on the country you live in, not the state your company is registered in. Mercury and Relay both work this way. A Wyoming LLC does nothing for a residence gate.
- →Several countries with large founder populations are excluded by provider policy, and that is a decision the provider made about risk, not a rule Prolify can appeal. If yours is one of them, you will be told before you buy, not after.
- →Prolify prepares the document set an application asks for. It does not submit or route the application, because no provider allows a third party to do that. Any service implying otherwise is describing document preparation.
- →Nobody can promise approval, and Prolify does not. Stripe says the same about its own formation product.
- →The addresses that satisfy a state and the IRS are frequently the same addresses that cause trouble in bank and processor review. Treat a mail-forwarding address as a known risk, not a solved problem.
Why there is no country list on this page
What you get. And what you do not.
Included
- →Formation in Delaware, Wyoming, New Mexico or Florida, with a written recommendation of which one fits your business before anything is filed
- →EIN prepared on the non-SSN track, with the line 7b position a non-resident owner needs
- →Registered agent for the first year
- →A US business address that satisfies the state and the IRS
- →Operating agreement prepared for your structure
- →The document set a bank application asks for, and an honest read on which routes accept someone resident in your country
- →Payment-processor readiness review
- →An operating calendar carrying every deadline the entity owes
- →Form 5472 and pro forma 1120 tracking on Growth and above
- →Founder dashboard, document vault, and an assistant that reads your company's live status before it answers
Not included
- →Opening, submitting or routing your bank account. That is yours to file, with the package prepared.
- →Signing or filing a US tax return.
- →Month-to-month bookkeeping. Setup and categories on Growth, partner coordination on Elite.
- →Payroll, contractor payments, sales-tax registration and cap table support. Not built yet, and not sold as though they were.
- →Any immigration benefit. Owning a US company confers no right to enter or work in the United States.
Formation is filed in Delaware, Wyoming, New Mexico, Florida. Plans start at $397 for the first year, plus the filing fee your state charges, which goes to the state rather than to Prolify. Full pricing at /pricing.
Questions founders ask. Answered in the open.
Can a non-US resident own a US LLC?
Yes. No citizenship, residence, SSN or US address is required to own one. What you do need is a registered agent, a US address for filings, an EIN, and for most foreign-owned LLCs an annual Form 5472 attached to a pro forma 1120.
Do I need an SSN to get an EIN?
No, and you do not need an ITIN either. The application takes "Foreign" on line 7b when the responsible party has no SSN and cannot get one. Without a US principal office you cannot use the online route, so it goes by fax and takes one to three weeks in practice.
Which bank can I actually get?
That depends on the country you live in, and for some countries the honest answer is none of the ones you have heard of. Prolify prepares the package and tells you the realistic order to try before you apply. It does not submit the application, and it does not promise approval.
Is my country supported?
Formation, almost certainly. Banking, not always. Ask before you buy and you get a straight read on your specific country, including the cases where the answer is no.
What taxes will my US LLC owe?
Whether US tax is owed turns on your entity type, your ownership and where the income is earned, and that determination belongs to a licensed preparer. What is not conditional is the filing: many foreign-owned single-member LLCs owe an annual Form 5472 and pro forma 1120 even with no US tax due, and every state charges an annual report or an annual tax.
Does forming a US company help me get a visa?
No. Owning a US entity gives you no right to enter, live or work in the United States. Anyone suggesting formation is an immigration route is describing something Prolify does not sell and cannot deliver.
Ask about your country before you buy. The answer is free, and sometimes it is no.
If banking will not work from where you live, that is worth knowing now. Tell us the country and you get a straight read on it.