How to open a US LLC as a non resident in 2026

A checklist showing the five stages of forming a US LLC from abroad, from state filing through to federal tax reporting

By Mariam Raouf. Published 2026-08-31. 7 min read.

No US state formation document asks about your nationality. Not Wyoming's, not Delaware's, none of them. You can sit in Lagos or Lahore or Lisbon, file the paperwork a founder in Austin files, and the state will process it the same way.

A small industry exists to make US company formation sound like an immigration problem. It is not. Learning how to open a US LLC as a non resident is mostly learning which steps are trivial and which ones stop people. Formation is trivial. Banking and federal tax filing are the hard parts, and almost nobody says so up front.

There is no citizenship or residency requirement

Delaware's own FAQ is direct about it. The state requires a registered agent inside Delaware, and that requirement applies to the agent rather than to you. Delaware explains it plainly: no member or manager has to live in the state or the country. Other states work the same way.

You do not need a visa or to have ever entered the country. What forming a US LLC does not do is give you the right to live or work there. Ownership and immigration status are separate.

The registered agent requirement, and why a PO box fails

Every US state requires an LLC to name a registered agent with a physical street address in the state of formation, available during business hours to accept service of process.

Service of process means somebody hands your company a lawsuit. The state needs a real human at a real door to receive it, which is why a PO box does not satisfy the rule. A box in a mail room cannot be served and cannot sign for anything.

Your agent is also your default US mailing point, so state and IRS post lands there. Choose one that scans and forwards promptly, because losing agent status can put the company into bad standing. I am not quoting a price for this. The market ranges widely, there is no official figure, and numbers in comparison articles are usually affiliate deals.

Which state should you pick

Short version: pick a cheap, quiet state unless you have a specific reason not to.

Costs genuinely differ. Delaware charges $110 to form and a $400 annual LLC tax due 1 June, which rose from $300 this year and which most articles still get wrong. Wyoming charges $100 and a $60 a year minimum. California charges $70 and then $800 a year in franchise tax, and the first year waiver everyone mentions expired after 2023.

The full breakdown is in our comparison of Wyoming, Delaware and New Mexico for LLC formation. Two things to add. A cheap state of formation does not exempt you from registering where you actually operate, which only bites once you hire or rent somewhere. And Delaware's advantages are real for venture backed corporations and irrelevant to a bootstrapped LLC selling services online.

Getting the EIN without an SSN

An EIN is your company's federal tax number, and you cannot open a bank account or file the forms further down this page without one.

Here is the correction that saves people months. You do not need a Social Security Number or an ITIN. The IRS instructions for Form SS-4 say, at line 7b, to enter "foreign" or N/A if the responsible party does not have and cannot obtain either. The IRS online application will still refuse you, because it is closed to applicants with no US legal residence, principal place of business or principal office. That is a limitation of one web form, not a rule about eligibility.

International applicants apply by phone on 267 941 1099, which is not toll free, between 6:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. Eastern, Monday to Friday, or by fax or post using Form SS-4. The EIN is free. The full walkthrough is in how to get an EIN without an SSN.

The bank account is the part that actually stops people

Formation takes a day. The EIN takes a phone call. The bank account is where founders lose weeks and sometimes give up.

The regulation is on your side. FinCEN's customer identification rule at 31 CFR 1020.220 says a bank may accept, from a person who is not a US person, a taxpayer identification number, or a passport number and country of issuance, or an alien identification card number. A passport is legally sufficient identification.

What blocks you is bank policy. Banks set requirements above the regulatory floor, and many want an SSN and a human standing in the branch. That is commercial, not legal, which is why identical paperwork gets different answers. Since no institution publishes a verifiable policy, I will not name one and tell you it says yes. What to prepare and what to ask is in opening a US business bank account as a non resident LLC owner.

Form 5472, and the $25,000 penalty nobody mentions

If your LLC has one owner and that owner is not a US person, the IRS treats it as a corporation for one narrow purpose: information reporting. You file a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached, whenever the company had a reportable transaction in the tax year.

Reportable transaction is broader than it sounds. It covers amounts paid or received in connection with the formation, acquisition and dissolution of the entity, including contributions to and distributions from it. Funding your own company's account counts, so a dormant LLC usually still has a filing obligation.

The penalty language is not ambiguous. A penalty of $25,000 is assessed on any reporting corporation that fails to file when due and in the manner prescribed, with a further $25,000 for each 30 day period beyond 90 days after IRS notification. Full detail is in Form 5472 and the $25,000 penalty.

BOI reporting is dead, and most articles have not caught up

Anything published before this year almost certainly tells you to file a beneficial ownership information report with FinCEN within 30 days of forming. Skip it.

FinCEN's final rule of 11 August 2026 permanently removes the requirement for US companies and US persons to report beneficial ownership information under the Corporate Transparency Act, and FinCEN will delete information previously reported by US persons. An interim rule in March 2025 had already suspended it.

One nuance. A non US founder forming a new US LLC is covered, because the exemption follows the entity. A foreign company registering to do business in a US state is still a reporting company, so check that separately if it applies to you.

What this actually costs

Published figures for the cheap states non resident founders pick, as of September 2026:

Line item	Wyoming	Ohio	New Mexico
State formation fee	$100	$99	$50
Recurring state cost	$60 a year minimum	$0, no annual report	$0, no annual report
EIN	$0	$0	$0
BOI report	$0, no longer required	$0	$0
Registered agent	commercial rate, varies	varies	varies
Form 5472 preparation	preparer fee, varies	varies	varies

Sources: Wyoming fee schedule, Ohio Revised Code 111.16, IRS on EIN cost. Wyoming's minimum is $60 or two hundredths of a percent of Wyoming assets, whichever is greater. Ohio's lack of an annual report is inferred from the absence of any such provision in the state code. New Mexico's is repeated everywhere but I could not confirm it from a state source, so treat it as likely rather than certain. Agent and preparer fees have no published average, which is why those rows carry no number.

The honest version

Forming the company is the easy day. You will do it in an afternoon and wonder what the fuss was about. Then you will spend three weeks on a bank account, and discover in month eleven that there is a federal form nobody warned you about with a $25,000 penalty attached.

Anyone selling a package that ends at the state filing is selling you the easy day. Do it in this order: registered agent, state filing, EIN, bank account, calendar reminder for Form 5472. Get a US tax preparer before the first filing is due, not after.

At Calpir we build the operational side of new companies, the systems and admin that come after the paperwork rather than the paperwork itself. If you want to talk through what your setup should look like, our free assessment is a place to start, and it is fine if the answer is that you do not need us yet.

Frequently asked questions

Can a non US citizen own a US LLC?

Yes. No state imposes a citizenship or residency requirement on members or managers, and Delaware's guidance confirms the only in state requirement is a registered agent. You can own 100% of a US LLC without ever visiting the country. What ownership does not give you is any right to live or work there.

Do I need an ITIN before I can form a US LLC?

No, and this is the most expensive piece of bad advice in the category. You do not need an ITIN to form an LLC or to get an EIN. The IRS instructions for Form SS-4 explicitly allow a responsible party with no SSN or ITIN to write "foreign" on line 7b.

How long does it take to open a US LLC from abroad?

State filing is usually days, faster with expedited processing, and the EIN can be issued on a single phone call for international applicants. The bank account is the unpredictable part and takes days or weeks depending on the institution and how clearly you describe the business.

Do I still have to file a BOI report in 2026?

Not if you are forming a US entity. FinCEN's final rule of 11 August 2026 permanently ended the requirement for US companies and US persons. The exception is a foreign company registering to do business in a US state, which remains a reporting company. Any article telling you to file within 30 days of formation is out of date.