Forming as a non-resident: platform, specialist, or yourself
Every non-resident founder forms the same legal object — an LLC created by a state filing — but the work of getting there can sit in three different places. You can do it yourself, directly with the state. You can hand it to a general formation platform. Or you can use a service built specifically for founders who live abroad, which is what this membership is. This page compares the three routes on the same criteria and crowns no winner: the routes differ in who carries the work, not in the LLC they produce.
Route 1 — Yourself, directly with the state (the cheapest route)
Say it plainly, because it is true: filing yourself is the cheapest route. You pay the state's filing fee and nothing for a service, because there is no service. Every figure you need is in this site's Atlas, free: each state sheet records the verified formation fee, the ongoing duty, and the official state source it was checked against, and the state-picker ranks covered states on those same figures.
What you carry on this route is everything a service would otherwise carry. You prepare and file the formation document with the state office yourself. You arrange your own registered agent — a registered agent is a legal requirement in every state in this Atlas, and the agent needs an address in the formation state, which is the one piece a founder abroad cannot supply from their own home address. You run the EIN application yourself, including the without-SSN route — Form SS-4 by fax or mail, since the IRS online application is closed to applicants whose responsible party has no SSN or ITIN; this site's EIN guide walks that route in full. And you keep every deadline yourself, state and federal, from the first year onward.
For a careful founder with one standard formation, this route is entirely doable — the Atlas and the EIN guide are written so that it is. If that is you, the honest advice of this page is to take the free route and spend nothing here.
Route 2 — A general formation platform
The second route is a general formation platform: a service that prepares and files formation documents for customers generally, in exchange for its service fee, with the state fee charged on top. This page names no platform and states no platform's price, because platforms set and change their own terms; judge any specific platform on its own current pages, not on anything written here.
Described neutrally, what the route itself offers is filing work carried for you: you supply your details through the platform, the platform prepares the formation filing from them and submits it to the state, and the supporting pieces a formation needs are handled inside that platform's own process, each on the platform's own stated terms. What varies between platforms — and what no general description can settle for you — is exactly what a given price includes, what is charged separately, what renews and at what terms, and how the pieces a non-resident specifically needs are treated: the registered agent arrangement after the first year, and the EIN application when no owner has an SSN or ITIN. Those are the questions to put to a platform's own published terms before you pay: what is included, what is separate, what renews, and how the without-SSN EIN case is handled.
A platform is a general tool, built for the general case. If your case is the general case, that may be exactly enough. The difference the next route claims is not quality — it is specialisation: a service whose standard case is the non-resident case.
Route 3 — This membership: the non-resident specialist route
This service is a self-serve membership for founders who live outside the United States: $399/year, or $39/month with a 12-month minimum term, plus your state's filing fee passed through at cost — the state keeps its fee; it is not part of the membership price.
- Year one includes your formation filing in a covered state, the registered agent for year one, and your EIN — including the without-SSN route, run by fax or mail as the IRS requires for that case — for an entity this service forms.
- Each renewal buys three things, itemised: registered-agent renewal, the annual state filing service, and the compliance calendar. Nothing else is implied, and the full renewal and cancellation terms are stated on pricing and at checkout before any billing field.
- The work model is guided automation: filings are prepared by the service's guided process, you confirm each step, and the service transmits on your instruction. There is no dedicated human manager, no website or hosting, and no business phone line — the pricing page's comparison sets this self-serve lane beside the done-for-you hosted model in full.
- Mail handling is not included in this membership, in plain words.
- Coverage is 50 states + DC — at joining and at every renewal, Wyoming and Delaware included on the same terms as every other state. Their dossiers carry the verified fees and duties, and the Wyoming–Delaware comparison page sets the two side by side. Puerto Rico is not served.
The three routes on the same criteria
| Criterion | Route 1 — Yourself | Route 2 — A general formation platform | Route 3 — This membership |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service cost | $0 — the cheapest route. You pay the state fee only. | The platform's own service fee, on its own published terms, plus the state fee. | $399/yr or $39/mo (12-month minimum), plus the state fee at cost. |
| Who does the filing work? | You do — formation document, filing, and follow-up. | The platform prepares and submits the filing from the details you supply, on its stated terms. | Guided automation prepares each filing; you confirm it, and the service transmits it to the state on your instruction. |
| Registered agent | You arrange your own agent with an in-state address. | Handled inside the platform's process — check what the first year includes and what renewal costs, on the platform's own terms. | Included for year one; the renewal is one of the three itemised things each renewal buys. |
| The EIN, without an SSN | You run Form SS-4 by fax or mail yourself; the EIN guide on this site walks the route. | Ask the platform directly how the no-SSN case is handled and whether it is included or separate. | Included in year one, including the without-SSN route, for an entity this service forms. |
| After formation | Every state and federal deadline is yours to track. | Depends on what you bought — confirm what continues, what renews, and what ends at formation. | Each renewal keeps the agent, the annual state filing service, and the compliance calendar running. |
| Coverage | Any state you choose to file in yourself. | The states the platform itself covers, per its own terms. | 50 states + DC, Wyoming and Delaware included, at joining and at renewal. |
| Not included | There is no service to include anything. | Whatever the platform's terms exclude — read them before paying. | Mail handling, website and hosting, a business phone line, and a dedicated human manager. |
If your structure is genuinely complex — multiple ownership classes, US partners, a regulated activity — the specialist you need may be a US attorney or accountant you engage directly, on terms you agree with them; no route on this page is a substitute for advice on your own position, and this service is not a law or tax firm. For a standard formation, choose by who should carry the work: yourself for the lowest cost, a platform for general filing help on its own terms, or this membership if you want the non-resident case — agent, without-SSN EIN, and the annual cycle — carried as one continuing service.
Still deciding on the state itself? Run the state-picker first — it ranks all 50 states + DC only on verified fees and duties — Wyoming and Delaware rank on their figures like every other state.