Questions founders ask before they start.

Yes. No state requires owners or managers to be US citizens or residents. You need a registered agent with a street address in the state, which is included.

Yes. The IRS issues EINs to foreign-owned LLCs through Form SS-4 with 'Foreign' on line 7b. It cannot be done online, so we fax the signed form to the IRS from our own fax line and receive the EIN letter back by fax, usually 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 SS-4 is faxed 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 address is used with the state. Your mailing address can be anywhere in the world. For banking or marketplaces you may need a separate US mailing address; we can point you to mail-forwarding options.

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. 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.

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, 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.