How to Form a US Company From India (or Anywhere): Step-by-Step

You can form a US company from India, or anywhere else, without a US visit, a green card, or a Social Security Number. The path is the same four steps for everyone: choose an entity and state, file your formation documents through a registered agent, get an EIN from the IRS by phone or fax, then open a US bank account and turn on the rails to actually get paid. Budget a few hundred dollars in year one for a Wyoming LLC, more for a Delaware C-Corp, and plan for at least one annual US filing even if your company never earns a dollar.

Can a non-resident actually own a US company?

Yes. There is no US citizenship or residency requirement to own a US LLC or to be a shareholder in a US C-Corp, and a single foreign person can be the sole owner.

The real constraints are not American, they are operational. You will need a US business address through a registered agent, a US tax number (an EIN), and a payment rail that moves money out of the US and into your home country cleanly. None of these is a blocker, but each is a step that trips up founders who treat formation as the finish line rather than the starting line.

Formation is the easy part. Getting paid and staying compliant is where the work is.

Step 1 — Which entity and state should you choose?

For most non-resident founders the choice collapses to two options: a Wyoming LLC or a Delaware C-Corporation. The deciding question is whether you plan to raise venture capital.

If you are a solo founder, a freelancer, or a bootstrapped service business, a Wyoming LLC is the cheaper, simpler entity and the right default. It has no state income tax, a $60 minimum annual report, and strong owner privacy. If you are on the VC track, US investors expect to fund a Delaware C-Corp, so that is what you form, accepting the higher cost and the second layer of tax in exchange for the structure investors and SAFEs are built around.

StableCorp forms Wyoming LLCs and Delaware C-Corps for global founders, and also sets up Indian LLPs and Pvt Ltds or onboards an entity you already have. For a deeper breakdown of the trade-off, see our LLC vs C-Corp for non-resident founders guide.

Ignore the noise about exotic "tax-free" states. Wyoming and Delaware win for non-residents because of registered-agent ecosystems and bank acceptance, not headline tax rates.

Step 2 — How do you file the formation documents?

You file your formation document with the state's Secretary of State, and you must do it through a registered agent because every US entity needs a physical in-state address to receive legal notices.

For a Wyoming LLC you file Articles of Organization; for a Delaware C-Corp you file a Certificate of Incorporation. The registered agent, which costs roughly $50-$200 a year, is mandatory and is the one US presence you cannot skip as a non-resident. You will also want an operating agreement (LLC) or bylaws (C-Corp), though those are internal documents, not state filings.

This is the step you can fully outsource. StableCorp files your formation documents, provides the registered agent, and prepares the EIN application in one flow, see pricing for what that costs.

Step 3 — How do you get an EIN with no SSN?

You get an EIN by faxing or phoning Form SS-4 to the IRS; the online tool requires an SSN or ITIN, so non-residents cannot use it. This is the single most misunderstood step, so be precise about it.

On Form SS-4, line 7b asks for the responsible party's SSN or ITIN. The IRS instructions say a foreign responsible party who is ineligible for an SSN or ITIN may leave line 7b blank or write "Foreign" (some write "N/A"), and the EIN still issues. In practice both work.

Submit the form by fax to 855-215-1627 (within the US) or 304-707-9471 (outside the US), and if you include a return fax number you should receive the EIN within about four business days. International applicants can also call 267-941-1099, a line reserved for filers outside the US.

For a full line-by-line walkthrough, including the responsible-party rules, see our how to get a US EIN as a non-resident guide.

Step 4 — How do you open a US bank account from abroad?

You open a US business bank account remotely after the EIN issues, because no US bank or fintech will open a business account without an EIN, and applications submitted without one are rejected. That ordering is non-negotiable: entity, then EIN, then bank.

Several fintech providers open accounts for non-resident-owned US companies without a US visit, though country eligibility and onboarding rules change often and some providers restrict certain countries. As of June 2026, verify the current policy of whichever provider you choose before you apply, since this is the step where a wrong assumption costs you weeks.

Have your formation documents, EIN confirmation, and passport ready before you start the application.

Step 5 — How do you actually get paid (and bring it home)?

This is the step nearly every formation guide ignores, and it is the one that decides how much money you keep. Once your US entity exists and the bank is open, you need a rail to receive client payments and move funds to your home country without bleeding fees.

You have two practical rails: traditional USD wires, and stablecoins like USDC. The differentiator most guides miss is the true cost of the round trip. The market's headline off-ramp fee looks like ~2.9%, but a hidden FX markup of around 2% pushes the effective cost to roughly 5% on every conversion, money that simply disappears between your US client and your home bank.

StableCorp is built for exactly this round trip. It settles USD and accepts USDC/USDT on Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon, and because Solana finalizes in about 400ms with sub-cent fees, payments clear in seconds rather than days.

For Indian founders specifically, the off-ramp to INR is where the "grey area" myth does the most damage. The risky path is a DIY direct-wallet or P2P sale with no paper trail. StableCorp off-ramps to INR through proper RBI purpose codes (P0802, P1004, P1005, P1006, P1007, P1009, others on request), which is the compliant rail, not the grey one. See pricing for the exact fees, or read receiving USDC in India under FEMA/RBI rules.

What does it cost to form and run, all in?

Your real budget is formation plus annual upkeep, not just the filing fee. A Wyoming LLC is the cheapest compliant US entity for a non-resident.

The numbers that surprise founders are on the tax-filing side, covered next.

What must you file after you form the company?

You must file with the IRS every year even if your company earned nothing, and missing one filing carries a brutal penalty. This is the trap that catches non-resident founders who assume "no profit, no filing."

A foreign-owned single-member US LLC must file Form 5472 together with a pro forma Form 1120 annually, even with zero activity. The penalty for a missed or late Form 5472 is $25,000 per form, it is due April 15 (a six-month extension is available via Form 7004), and it cannot be e-filed, you fax or mail it. A Delaware C-Corp files its own Form 1120 and pays 21% federal corporate tax on profits, with a possible second layer of tax when it distributes dividends.

On the BOI side, as of June 2026 a FinCEN interim final rule (March 2025) exempts US-formed entities and US persons from beneficial ownership reporting, so only foreign-formed reporting companies registered to do business in the US must file. This rule is still interim with litigation ongoing, so re-verify current guidance at fincen.gov/boi before you rely on it.

The cheapest mistake in this whole process is the EIN. The most expensive is forgetting that a $0-revenue LLC still owes the IRS a Form 5472 every April.

The fastest compliant path, end to end

Done in order, the whole flow takes days, not months. Pick the entity, file through a registered agent, fax the SS-4, open the bank account, and switch on a compliant payment rail.

StableCorp runs all five steps for you, formation, EIN, US bank account, then USD and USDC payments with a compliant off-ramp, so the entity you form is one you can actually get paid through. See pricing to start.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Compliance rules and provider eligibility change, so verify time-sensitive items (BOI/CTA status and bank-provider eligibility) against the primary sources before you act.

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