The government steps in forming a US company are slow and you cannot speed them up. The weeks lost between those steps are entirely within your control, and that is where most of the delay actually lives. Getting your LLC formation documents ready before you start is what turns a two-month setup into a three-week one.
A founder who stops halfway through the bank application to find a document, then waits four days for a translation, then discovers the company name on one form does not match another, adds a month to the process without any agency being involved. What follows is everything worth having ready before you begin.
Decisions come before documents
Four decisions determine what you need. Settling them first prevents the most common form of wasted effort, which is assembling documents for a structure you then change your mind about.
The state. This sets the filing fee, the annual cost, the registered agent you need and the timeline. It is worth deciding on the total annual cost rather than the formation fee, because you pay the former every year. The comparison is in Wyoming vs Delaware vs New Mexico.
The name. More consequential than it appears, because it propagates into every document afterwards and a change later is a filing, not an edit.
Single or multi-member. This changes the tax treatment, the filings and the agreement you need. Adding a member later is possible but is not a small administrative change.
What the business actually does, in one specific sentence. This sounds like marketing rather than paperwork. It is the single most-repeated item in the entire process, appearing on the bank application, the processor application and your website, and it must be the same sentence in all three.
The name, and the checks worth doing first
Before committing, run four checks. Each takes minutes and each prevents a problem that is expensive to fix later.
- The state business register. The name must be distinguishable from existing entities in that state. Most states offer a free search.
- Trademark conflicts. A name available on a state register can still infringe an existing mark. This is a separate search and a separate risk. The ordering question is covered in trademark or LLC name first.
- The domain. Check it before you file, not after. A company whose name does not match its website creates friction at every later verification step.
- Restricted words. Terms suggesting banking, insurance or education are restricted in many states and require approval or are refused outright.
Decide the exact form as well — whether it ends LLC, L.L.C. or Limited Liability Company, and whether there is a comma before it. Whatever you choose becomes the legal name, and it must be reproduced identically on the EIN application, the bank application and your invoices. Inconsistency here is a genuinely common cause of rejected applications.
LLC formation documents the state filing needs
Less than most people expect. Typically the company name, the registered agent's name and address in that state, a principal office address which may be your own abroad, the organiser's details, and the fee paid by card.
Note what is absent. Most states do not ask for your passport, do not require notarisation, and do not require anything translated. The formation step is genuinely light; the weight is in what comes after.
Your passport, and the scan that keeps failing
Not usually needed to file, and needed by every bank and processor afterwards. Prepare it properly once.
The scan should show the full photo page, in date, with all four corners visible and no glare across the machine-readable lines at the bottom. Flat, not angled. Colour, not greyscale. Ideally scanned rather than photographed, and if photographed then in daylight against a dark surface.
This sounds fussy and it is the most frequently rejected item in the whole process. A passport photographed at night on a desk, with the flash reflecting off the laminate, will be returned, and each return costs days.
Proof of address
A utility bill or bank statement in your name, showing your address, usually dated within the last three months. Your actual residential address, wherever in the world it is — a foreign address here is entirely normal.
The requirement that catches people is that the name and address must appear in the same document. A bill in a spouse's name does not work, and neither does a statement showing your name with the address truncated. If nothing you have satisfies this, a bank can usually issue an address confirmation letter on request, and it is worth asking for one before you need it.
The registered agent, arranged before you file
You need this in place at the moment of filing, because the agent's details go on the formation document. It cannot be added afterwards without a further filing.
Choose on how quickly documents are scanned and forwarded rather than on price, since the entire value of the service is speed when something arrives. The distinction between this and a mail address is set out in registered agent vs virtual address.
The larger list: what banking actually requires
| Document | When it is needed | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Formation | Bank, processor | The stamped PDF from the state, not the confirmation email |
| EIN confirmation letter | Bank, processor | The IRS CP 575 itself, not the number written down |
| Operating agreement | Bank | Signed and dated, even with one owner |
| Passport | Bank, processor | The scan described above |
| Proof of address | Bank | Under three months old, name and address together |
| Business website | Bank, processor | Never on the list, weighs more than most items on it |
| Terms and privacy policy | Processor | Naming the entity exactly as formed |
| Refund policy | Processor | Reduces disputes later as well as helping approval |
The row worth acting on is the website. It is assessed at every stage, it is never requested as a document, and it is the most common reason applications from perfectly legitimate foreign-owned companies are declined.
Build the website during the wait, not after
The EIN takes weeks from abroad and nothing can be done to hurry it. That period is the best opportunity you will get to build the things assessed later.
A site that passes review has a clear statement of what you sell, real pricing or a clear explanation of how pricing is determined, a contact route that works, terms and a privacy policy naming the legal entity, a refund policy that is easy to find, and the entity name in the footer.
None of that requires the company to exist. All of it is assessed once it does. Founders who build during the wait apply on the day the EIN arrives; founders who wait passively start writing terms of service while customers are already asking to pay.
Records to start on day one
Two habits, both trivial at the start and painful to reconstruct.
The transaction log. Every movement of money between you and the company — date, amount, direction, one-line purpose. The state filing fee paid on your personal card belongs in it. This feeds an annual filing obligation whose penalty is substantial, explained in the penalty most foreign LLC owners never see coming.
The document folder. One place, sensibly named, holding everything above. You will be asked for a specific document at short notice more than once.
The realistic timeline
- State formation — a few days to a few weeks depending on the state and whether expedited filing is used.
- EIN — several weeks from abroad, and the largest single wait.
- Bank account — days to two weeks after the EIN, faster if documents are ready.
- Payment processing — days after the bank, assuming the website is finished.
Two to three months end to end is realistic. Preparation does not shorten any government step. It removes the weeks that otherwise disappear between them, which in practice is most of the difference between a two-month setup and a four-month one.
Mistakes that cost the most time
The name written differently on different forms. Punctuation and the entity suffix must match exactly everywhere.
A vague business description. "Consulting and digital services" cannot be verified against anything. A specific sentence can be.
Applying for banking with an unfinished website. The application is assessed against what the reviewer can see, and a placeholder page tells them nothing.
Using a personal payment account meanwhile. It solves a short problem and creates several longer ones, set out in accepting card payments before your EIN arrives.
Leaving the operating agreement until asked. It is then written in a hurry and looks it.
What you do not need, despite what you will read
A fair amount of anxiety in this process comes from requirements that do not exist, and clearing them away saves both money and weeks.
You do not need to visit the United States. Every step described here is completed remotely. Nobody has to appear anywhere in person, and services offering to arrange a trip for the purpose are solving a problem you do not have.
You do not need a US partner or nominee. A non-resident can own a US LLC outright. Arrangements involving a local person holding an interest on your behalf introduce real legal and tax complications in exchange for solving nothing.
You do not need an ITIN to form the company or to get an EIN. The EIN application accommodates applicants without a US tax identification number, which is why it goes by fax or post rather than online. An ITIN is needed for some purposes and is not a prerequisite for either of these.
You do not need apostilled documents for the US side of the process. Apostilles are occasionally needed to use US documents in your own country — opening a local bank account in the company's name, for instance — but that is a separate exercise, needed afterwards and only sometimes.
You do not need a US phone number to form the company, though one is genuinely useful later for verification with some providers, and is inexpensive to obtain when the time comes.
A pre-flight check
Before you file anything, you should be able to answer all of these without looking anything up: the exact legal name including punctuation, the state, the registered agent and what they cost annually, your one-sentence business description, where the website will live, whether it is single or multi-member, your residential address as it will appear, and where the document folder is.
If any answer is uncertain, settle it now. Each unsettled item becomes a pause in the middle of a process that is already slow, and the pauses are what turn a three-week setup into a three-month one.
The full order of operations is in opening a US LLC from outside the United States. If you would rather have the sequence handled with the documents assembled correctly the first time, that is our formation service.
If you would rather have this handled for you, our US LLC formation service covers it end to end. For the official position, see U.S. Small Business Administration.