Question 1

Can I form a US LLC as a non-resident?

Accepted Answer

Yes. None of the five states requires the member to live there or to hold a visa, and no travel is needed: the formation is filed with your passport and your real address. No SSN or ITIN is needed for the EIN either. The IRS online flow asks for one, but it is not the only route: the application goes by Form SS-4, which has its own procedure for applicants without a US tax number, and we hand you the original CP 575 letter. Forming a company grants no residence right, does not let you work in the United States and does not change your immigration status. If your case has an immigration side to it, that is for an attorney licensed there to assess.

Question 2

How long does the whole thing take?

Accepted Answer

Formation takes one to five business days, depending on the state. The EIN is what sets the pace: the IRS takes two to six weeks to issue one for applicants without an SSN. With the EIN in hand, we hand you the file you apply for the account with on the same day. The state and IRS timings are theirs and they are their own estimates. We reproduce them; we do not promise them. What we do commit to is our part: filing as soon as we have your details and telling you the moment anything moves.

Question 3

What does the first year include, and what does renewal cost?

Accepted Answer

The first year: formation in the state you choose with its fees, twelve months of Registered Agent, the EIN application by Form SS-4 and delivery of the CP 575 letter, the Operating Agreement, the business address with the mail scanned, the Bank-Ready file, the deadline calendar and the ProjektRepublic PRO license. The renewal covers what repeats — Registered Agent, Form 5472 with its pro-forma 1120, and the calendar — and its price is published next to the first-year one in the states table. There is no BOI report: FinCEN permanently ended that requirement on August 11, 2026. The Form 5472 is filed even if you have invoiced nothing: it does not depend on profit but on there being transactions between you and the company, and putting in the capital or paying the Registered Agent already counts. It is inside the fee. The BOI position is the regulatory one as of August 11, 2026; if it changed, you would see it in your deadline calendar before anywhere else.

Question 4

Do you guarantee the bank account or getting into Stripe?

Accepted Answer

No, and be wary of anyone who does. Opening an account is the bank's KYC decision and getting into a gateway is its risk team's: both come after their own verification and neither is in our hands. What is: handing you the complete file you apply with — a US legal domicile, your real physical address with its utility bill, the EIN, the CP 575 letter and the Operating Agreement — staying with you if the institution asks for more and, if you are turned down, reviewing it and running the process again with the alternative institution at no extra cost. The business address inside the fee is a managed mailbox: it receives and scans your mail, and it is the one on the public record and at the IRS. It does not stand as an operating address for a bank — Mercury publishes that it accepts neither PO boxes nor virtual addresses, and that a Registered Agent address will not do for that — which is why the file rests on your real address with its utility bill. KodiakBase plays no part in a bank's admission criteria and cannot appeal a refusal on your behalf.

Question 5

What will I owe in my country of residence?

Accepted Answer

We cannot tell you, and anyone who would without seeing your numbers should not either. The objective part is this: forming an LLC does not, on its own, end your tax obligations in the country where you live or run the business. A single-member non-resident LLC is a disregarded entity for federal tax purposes and files a Form 5472 with a pro-forma 1120 every year, which is an information return and is not the same as paying tax. Whether the company owes anything in the United States depends on whether it has Effectively Connected Income, and that is settled by where the activity takes place, not by the type of company. Working out whether your activity generates Effectively Connected Income, whether a double-taxation treaty applies to you and how you declare the result where you live is the job of a licensed US CPA and of a licensed tax adviser in your country of residence. KodiakBase does not give tax advice and does not interpret anyone's situation.

Question 6

What happens if I leave or close the company down?

Accepted Answer

You can cancel the renewal with notice before the charge date, with no phone calls and no retention process. The LLC is still yours: we hand over the complete file — Articles of Organization, EIN, CP 575 letter and Operating Agreement — and you take it to another provider or dissolve it. What we do not do is renew you quietly and charge you for a year you did not want. Dissolving a company is a state filing, with its own fee and its own timing, and it is not inside the yearly fee. For as long as the company exists it keeps its annual obligations, invoices or no invoices.

Paperwork is not your job. It is ours.

Five doors an LLC opens

Applying for a dollar bank account

What's included Eight things, and not one of them an extra

Four steps, and only the first one is yours

You tell us who you are and what you do

We file the Articles of Organization

We get the EIN and build the bank file

We keep the calendar

Pick a state. The service is the same.

The file you apply for the account with

What the folder holds

US legal domicile

Your real physical address

A utility bill in your name

EIN + CP 575

Valid passport

An LLC does not change where you pay tax

How the work splits

Your tax residence does not move

The US side is ours to carry

Your side is for a licensed professional

Who provides the service

Build it and see the price

What people ask before they sign up

Form the LLC and forget the calendar