Questions, answered from the record

No. Every state in this Atlas allows a non-resident, non-citizen to own and form an LLC without living in or visiting the United States. What you need is a registered agent with an address in the formation state — included in Formation Complete for year one — and, for the EIN, the fax/mail SS-4 route described on the EIN guide.

The state where your business actually operates, if it has a physical footprint; otherwise the state whose total five-year cost and duty pattern fit how you will really run the company. The Atlas exists because “everyone forms in Delaware” is marketing, not analysis: Delaware and Wyoming are served here by specialists, and for many founders a no-report state (Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico) or a low-duty state beats both once the five-year table is read.

Because dedicated specialist businesses — Wyoming For Foreigners and Delaware LLC For Foreigners — serve exactly those states for foreign founders. We route you to their waitlists rather than selling you a generalist version of a specialist’s job. It costs us sales; it is still the honest structure.

Yes — through the Form SS-4 fax or mail route, writing “foreign” on line 7b for a foreign responsible party with no US tax number. The online EIN assistant is closed to you; the fax route returns an EIN in about four business days per the IRS’s published guidance. The EIN guide walks every line.

No. An ITIN is an individual’s tax processing number, issued on Form W-7 for a person; an EIN identifies the entity. You do not need an ITIN to get an EIN for your LLC, and an EIN never substitutes for an ITIN where a personal US filing duty exists.

Under FinCEN’s interim final rule of March 2025, US domestic reporting companies are exempt from beneficial-ownership reporting; the BOI duty now falls on foreign companies registered to do business in the US. A domestic LLC you form here is therefore not filing BOI reports under the current rule. Rules in this area have moved repeatedly — check FinCEN’s current guidance before relying on this, and we update this answer when the rule changes.

The formation filing in your chosen state, the registered agent for year one, the EIN application including the without-SSN route, and your duty calendar in writing. The state fee is additional, passed through at cost. From year two, agent renewal is $149 a year. The pricing page lists it task by task.

No. Nothing here is sold as lifetime access. The package is a one-time formation service; the agent renewal is an annual service you can end by moving your agent.

If you are the single foreign owner of a disregarded US LLC, yes: Form 5472 attached to a pro-forma Form 1120, every year, reporting transactions with you including your own funding of the company. The penalty for a missing filing starts at $25,000. Multi-member companies file Form 1065 instead. The EIN guide covers both.

No. An LLC is a business entity; it confers no immigration status whatsoever. Anyone who bundles “LLC + visa” into one promise is selling you two unrelated things as one. Take immigration advice from an immigration attorney.

An EIN and filed Articles are the documents banks ask for first, and some banks and financial platforms onboard non-resident owners remotely while others require an in-person visit or decline foreign-owned applicants entirely. No honest formation service can guarantee an account: the bank’s own risk decision is the bank’s. We supply the documents; we do not promise the outcome.

No. The registered office is a legal service address for process and state mail. It is not your trading address, your office, or evidence of physical presence, and presenting it as such — to a bank, a marketplace, or a tax authority — is a misrepresentation we will not help with.

An agent is a legal role: a named person or service at a physical address in the state, available in business hours to receive service of process. A virtual office is a mailing product. Some services sell both; only the agent role satisfies the statute.

You generally must foreign-qualify the LLC there: a second registration, agent and duty set in that state, on top of the first. Forming in a cheap state while operating in an expensive one does not move the expensive state’s taxes or duties — it adds the cheap state’s on top.

Yes — an LLC can hire both. US employees bring payroll registration, withholding and state unemployment accounts; foreign contractors are simpler but still documented (Form W-8BEN from the contractor is the standard paper). Employment duties are separate from formation and are not part of the $399 package.

Yes, foreign-owned LLCs commonly hold US real estate. Expect FIRPTA withholding on a later sale, state-level transfer and property taxes, and lender diligence on the foreign ownership. It is a legitimate use; it is also one where taking US tax advice before the purchase, not after, is worth real money.

A treaty between the US and your country can change withholding rates and tie-breaker residency, but it does not remove the LLC’s filing duties — Form 5472 is an information return, not a tax, and treaties do not switch it off. Treaty positions are claimed on returns, with advice.

The state-specific answer is on your state sheet — late fees, then administrative dissolution or revocation if the default runs. A dissolved LLC can usually be reinstated within a window for back fees and penalties; outside the window, the entity and its liability shield are gone while its contracts and debts are not.

By filing articles of dissolution (or the state’s equivalent) in the formation state, settling its taxes and duties, and closing the EIN account with the IRS by letter. Dissolution is a state filing with its own fee; keep the agent in place until the state confirms the dissolution, or the final notices go nowhere.

Our selling company forms first, then its bank and payment accounts, then one paid test order is walked end to end before the first public sale. The launch list is the honest route in until that test order is proven: one email when formation opens. Anyone charging you before their company exists is asking you to fund their paperwork.

No. This is a formation service and formation information. We are not a law firm or a tax adviser, and nothing on this site is advice about your situation. Where the site states a rule — a fee, a penalty, a deadline — the official source is cited on the page.

Yes. The Atlas, the dossiers and the EIN guide are public and complete; plenty of founders do it themselves with them, and the DIY row on the pricing page says so plainly. The package exists for founders who would rather the filings, the agent and the calendar were someone else’s job.

Some countries regulate residents owning foreign entities or holding foreign accounts, with reporting duties at home. That is your home-country advice to take before forming; a US LLC does not override it.

Because this business does not form there and will not sell around that fact. Puerto Rico LLCs are a separate regime under Puerto Rican law; if that is what you need, you need a provider whose business it is.