US LLC for Non-Residents: Formation, EIN Without an SSN, Form 5472 and a Bank Account

The gold dome of the Wyoming State Capitol in Cheyenne against a blue sky

Forming a US company from abroad is the easy part. A Wyoming LLC can be filed online in an afternoon for a USD 100 state fee, and nothing in Wyoming law asks where its owner lives. The trouble comes afterwards: an EIN application the IRS website will not take without a Social Security number, a bank that turns the application down because the address on it belongs to the registered agent, and a tax form that is due every year whether or not the company earned anything.

This guide follows the order in which the work actually happens, and at each step says what a founder living outside the US can and cannot do. It describes the rules as they stood in October 2026. It is not legal or tax advice, and we are neither a law firm nor a tax preparer.

Why a single-member Wyoming LLC

Wyoming has no state income tax. The Articles of Organization cost USD 100, online or on paper, and the yearly report fee starts at USD 60 (Wyoming Secretary of State fee schedule). The LLC Act sets no citizenship, residency or visa rule for members or managers, and the company's principal office may be outside the state.

One owner keeps the tax side simple. The LLC is disregarded for income tax, and what it owes the IRS is an information return, covered in step 5.

Delaware is the better choice for a corporation that plans to raise venture capital. For a founder who needs a company to invoice through, sell through and be paid through, Wyoming does the job for less.

Two things the LLC is not:

It is not anonymous. The public filing names no owner, but Wyoming requires the registered agent to hold the managers' names and addresses and the details of a named contact person (W.S. 17-28-104(d)). Every bank identifies the owner as well.
It is not beyond foreign-policy rules. Since 1 July 2025 Wyoming can forfeit an entity owned or controlled by a government that the US Commerce Department lists as a foreign adversary, a list that includes the People's Republic of China (HB0069). On its face the rule reaches those governments and the persons listed, not private citizens of those countries.

Step 1: Formation and the registered agent

The filing names the company and its registered agent. The agent needs a physical street address in Wyoming and someone present there to accept legal papers; a drop box is not accepted. Filed online, the company exists as soon as the filing completes. On paper it takes up to 15 business days.

Next comes the operating agreement. Wyoming does not ask for it, but banks do, and it is where a single-member LLC records who owns it and who may sign for it.

The registered agent's address is for legal mail. It is not your business address, and step 3 explains why that matters more than anything else in this guide.

Step 2: The EIN without an SSN

The IRS online EIN application requires the responsible party's SSN or ITIN, so without one it is closed to you. The phone line for international applicants is still published, but IRS manual updates since late 2025 tell staff to treat a US-formed entity as domestic and to point the caller to the other methods.

That leaves Form SS-4, by fax or by mail (IRS). Two lines on it matter for a foreign owner:

Line 7b. Since the December 2025 revision of the instructions, an owner who has no SSN or ITIN, and cannot get one, writes "foreign". No ITIN is needed.
Line 9a. A single-member LLC with a foreign owner ticks Other and writes "Foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity-Form 5472".

The IRS states about 4 business days for a faxed application and about 4 weeks for one sent by post, and warns that high volumes cause delays. Stripe reports 10 to 30 business days for its own founders without an SSN.

The owner signs the SS-4. A third party can be named on it as designee to receive the number, but the IRS does not accept a nominee applying in place of the real responsible party.

Step 3: The bank account, and why applications fail

Every US business account provider we checked refuses a registered agent, virtual or mail-forwarding address as the place where the business is run. They want the real one. For a founder in Shenzhen, Bangalore or Belgrade, that address is in Shenzhen, Bangalore or Belgrade, and saying so is what gets an application through, not what stops it.

Where an owner living abroad stands, as of October 2026:

Provider	Owner living outside the US	What to watch
Mercury	Accepted from most countries	Publishes a list of countries whose residents it cannot take, by residence rather than citizenship. The version we read was edited on 6 October 2026
Wise Business	Accepted if your trading address is in a country where Wise supports businesses	The trading address must be a physical place
Airwallex	Eligibility follows where the company is registered	May ask for extra evidence when the business is largely run outside the US
Relay	Not realistic	Every owner needs a physical US address
Brex	Not realistic	Requires US operations and a US physical address

These lists change, and they decide more than anything you can prepare. Check the current version for your country before you form the company.

The rest is consistency. An application that fails usually fails on a mismatch: a business description that says one thing while the website says another, an address that does not match the documents, or money whose origin the application never explains. Before applying, make sure the description, the website, the terms of service and the source of funds tell the same story, and that the person applying is the person who owns the company. The identity check, by video or selfie, is yours and cannot be delegated.

Step 4: Stripe

Stripe accepts US-registered businesses that are run from abroad, with conditions (Stripe). It asks for the physical location where most of your business activity happens, does not accept a PO box, and says a representative without an SSN can give a home-country tax ID instead. Its own formation service, Atlas, states that it cannot guarantee approval.

In practice a company run entirely from outside the US gets more questions than one with US activity, and Stripe treats some countries, China among them, as higher risk. Apply once the bank account is open, and tell Stripe the same story the bank accepted.

Step 5: Form 5472, every year

This is the step people skip, and the expensive one. A US LLC wholly owned by one foreign person is treated as a corporation for the purposes of section 6038A. It files Form 5472, attached to a pro forma Form 1120, for every year in which it has a reportable transaction with its owner (IRS instructions). Money the owner puts in to form and run the company counts, so the year of formation already needs a filing, with or without income.

When: by 15 April for a calendar year, extendable by 6 months with Form 7004.
How: by fax or by post. A foreign-owned disregarded entity cannot e-file Form 5472.
Penalty: USD 25,000 for each failure to file. A substantially incomplete form counts as a failure, and a further USD 25,000 applies for each 30 days the failure continues beyond 90 days after an IRS notice.

Keep a record of every transfer between you and the company. The return is built from them.

Step 6: Wyoming's annual report

Each year the LLC files an annual report and pays a license tax of USD 60 or 0.0002 of its assets in Wyoming, whichever is more, due on the first day of the month in which it was formed. A company that has not filed within 60 days of that date is dissolved administratively. Keep the registered agent paid as well: losing the agent is another route to dissolution.

There is no federal beneficial ownership report for a US-formed company since FinCEN's final rule took effect on 14 August 2026 (FinCEN). The exemption is a regulation and could be reversed, but today there is nothing to file.

If you live in mainland China

The US steps are the same. What differs is the Chinese side, and it governs how the company may be funded from China.

A mainland company investing in a US subsidiary makes outbound investment (ODI) filings before any money moves: with the provincial development and reform commission, with the provincial commerce department, and a foreign exchange registration at its bank.
An individual falls under SAFE Circular 37, and SAFE has said that outside a Circular 37 structure a resident individual cannot make a direct investment abroad. State Council Order 837, in force since 1 July 2026, now names resident individuals as outbound investors, but the detailed rules for individuals are still in draft.
The personal foreign exchange quota may not be used for capital items, and investing abroad is one.

None of this stops a Chinese citizen from owning a Wyoming LLC under US law. It does mean that funding the company is a question for a PRC lawyer before it is a question for a bank.

The order of events

Formation, the same day when filed online.
EIN, from about a week to several weeks by fax.
The bank application, once the EIN has arrived.
Stripe, once the bank account is open.
The first Form 5472, by 15 April after the year of formation.
The first annual report, on the first day of the month of formation, one year on.

Getting help

We do not form companies or act as registered agent ourselves. Under EU anti-money-laundering rules those are regulated company services, and they belong with a provider that does them under the rules that apply to it. What we do is read your request and tell you within one business day whether a US bank on the current lists takes residents of your country and what it will ask. If you want to go ahead, we introduce you to a US formation firm and tax preparer, who quote and contract with you directly. The request is free, on the US LLC page, or book a call.