Questions founders ask before they start.

Yes. No US state requires owners or managers to be citizens, residents or visa holders, and you never have to travel. You need a registered agent with a street address in the state, which is included, and an EIN, which we get for you without an SSN.

Usually, yes. Stripe looks at where the business is registered, not where you live. With a US LLC, its EIN and a US business bank account you can apply for a US Stripe account and accept cards worldwide. Stripe reviews every application itself, so nobody can guarantee approval.

You can apply for them as a US company: Amazon US seller accounts, Shopify Payments, PayPal Business and many app store payouts are built around US businesses with a US bank account. Each platform makes its own decision.

Yes. The IRS issues EINs to foreign-owned LLCs; it just cannot be done through the IRS online tool. We handle the application for you as your designee: you sign once on your order page, and the EIN letter usually comes back within a few business days.

Within 48 hours of payment every form is filled in and submitted. State approval times differ per state and are shown on each state page. The EIN application goes to the IRS the moment the state approves.

For an online or service business owned from abroad, Wyoming, New Mexico, Delaware and Florida are the usual choices. If you will have staff, an office or property in a specific state, form there. We are not a law firm and cannot advise on your situation.

No. The registered agent's street address in your state is the LLC's US address: the state and the IRS send their mail there, including your EIN letter, and it is scanned to your order page. At Mercury it can be the company's US address, while the address where you actually run the business is your own, anywhere in the world. Mercury mails the debit card to your own home or office address abroad; most countries are served and delivery takes up to about 10 business days.

Nobody can guarantee an account, but we make the route easy: with your approved articles, EIN letter and operating agreement you apply at Mercury through our introduction link on your order page. Mercury works with non-resident founders of US LLCs and mails your debit card to your own address abroad, so you do not need anyone in the US. Relay and Wise Business are alternatives.

A single-member LLC owned by a non-resident is usually 'disregarded' for US tax: it files Form 5472 with a pro-forma 1120 every year (penalty for missing it: $25,000) and often owes no US income tax if it has no US-connected business. This depends on your business and your country; talk to a tax adviser. CORA, our bookkeeping tool, prepares the 5472 filing.

You do, and CORA makes that easy. CORA is bookkeeping built for foreign-owned US LLCs: it prepares Form 5472 and the pro forma 1120 from your books and sends them in one click, keeps every IRS and state deadline on your dashboard, books your bank transactions and your Shopify, WooCommerce, Square and Stripe sales automatically, and prepares payments for your Mercury account. You can add it when you order; it is $30 a month with the first 14 days free.

Since March 2025 US-formed companies no longer file beneficial ownership reports with FinCEN; only foreign-formed companies registered in the US do. Wyoming asks its registered agents to hold owner details privately, which we collect at order.

$40 for our work, once, with the EIN application free. The registered agent is $45 a year, passed on at cost, and the state fee is whatever your state charges. After the first year only the agent renews; annual reports and franchise taxes are paid to the state, and we remind you.

Yes. Prices are in US dollars; at checkout you can choose euro or pound and we convert at the day's ECB reference rate plus 1.5%, fixed at the moment you order. Euro payments also allow iDEAL and Bancontact.

Yes, through an amendment with the state. Contact us and we quote the state fee plus a small handling fee.

Order data is stored encrypted in the US, access to your order runs over a private link, and the SSN or ITIN of a responsible party is only used on the IRS application.