Ask HN: Incorporating in USA (nonresident)

I'm on the same boat and I researched on it quite a bit. I'm stuck at point 5; bank account. from what I have found, its not possible to open a bank account without being physically there. IANAL however.

While mentioning Lawyers. I know one case when a Lawyer was appointed and he went to physically open a BA. There is one website which sells "open company in USA" kit, where it claims it has a video how to open Bank Acct. 100% online. I can't find it right now and am not sure how legit it is.

I would be very skeptical of such claims.

I researched this very briefly last year, and a Vermont Virtual company was quite interesting: http://gigaom.com/2008/06/17/vermont-oks-the-creation-of-vir...

I've been following this development but unfortunately, it's never materialized to the extent that is implied in the Gigaom article.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_business

In 2008, Vermont amended its laws governing corporations to accept electronic forms of legally required meetings, operating agreements, documents, signatures, and record keeping. A Vermont corporation (S-corp or LLC), while required to maintain a registered agent with a physical address in the state, can be started, operated and terminated without any of the principals ever being in each others' physical presence.

Since you can register in any other state via a registered agent, it doesn't really add much to the registration process - the difference here is Board meetings. The requirements for in-person vs. teleconferenced Board meetings are governed by each state.

Below is a (1999) compilation of various states' requirement. As you can see, there are NO states that explicitly require Board meetings to be in person and lots of states that provide for at least some form of teleconferencing.

http://www.muridae.com/nporegulation/documents/teleconf_defi...

So personally, I don't see what is so crazy special about Vermont. Anyone cares to explain?

Edit: Also, I am pretty sure the article references the wrong bill. If you look at the actual bill in the state database, you will see that the relevant bill is H-458, not H-888.

http://www.leg.state.vt.us/docs/legdoc.cfm?URL=/docs/2008/bi...

While the law is there it seems to have halted. I have tried to get information about this out of them on the state level. There is no services yet. But it might be an interesting opportunity for a startup.

wow, interesting.. haven't seen this yet. There are also some interesting links and details in comments.

I recommend you check out http://walkercorporatelaw.com/blog/ They have a good online presence and share on other sites from time to time. I don't have any experience working with them, but what they say makes sense to me.

5) You might be able to open a bank account if you grant someone power of attorney, but I am not a lawyer and recommend you speak to one if you want more information about power of attorney.

Thanks for the link. I will check them.

5) I have quite some contacts in US so this could go. I will further digg into it. Even if he would have to be part of the company it could if I manage to set it up.

Be very careful with taxes. Both your home country and the USA will want to tax you, and I am fairly sure (not 100% though) you'll have to file taxes in BOTH countries, using tax treaties to avoid paying double. This will mean you'll need to spend some money hiring a US accountant.

Question: what's the reasoning behind wanting to create the company based in the US? Is it for raising money? I assume you want to raise VC (since you're opening a C-corp, not an LLC)?

There is a tax treaty between us and our country. I plan on having an accountant in US too yes. I talked to one guy which has one in NY and pays aprox $400 yearly for a more or less pasive company.

Q: It's not because of raising money primarily. Primarily it's so I get access to better payment options (google checkout, merchant's account, ..) and because product is focused on US market. I would want to open separate company for this project anyway, so I don't hold all projects inside my main company.

Thanks. Why do you not want to hold projects within your main company? Doesn't that increase your costs?

1) i used one of these online services and got company package for like $900-1k. it works well, be sure to indicate that you need international package 2)Delaware is pretty common and works ok for web stuff 3) From zero if you do ething urself up to few k if you are working over lawer. I'd suggest to pick a good legal firm since the beginning. 4) depends, you need to talk to them. as usual dont offer to much.also options can be better in most cases bcs of tax reasons- (disclaimer -thats just my experience and i am not tax adviser) 5) you need visit bank yourself. or one of the founders. no way to open bank account remotely.

anyways i suggest you to come to US, trip cost is << than your other expenses in this venture and you obviously need to talk to many ppl here.

Might it make sense to open an Ltd in the UK? Those are fairly cheap and might be easier for you to deal with as a European.

I was already filling the form for UK formation, when colleague from UK appointed me that "fast fwd bank account" means only that they will pass papers to them, not that I get BA. Then I started calling banks in UK, I called 4 of them, answers were different, but bottom line you can't open account if you don't have UK passport (even if company is in UK). Only one answer was that I could open it, but if I come to one of their offices.

I focused back on US because one of advisors is from US and bizfillings seems to have nice prices / service. UK also had few nice online services for company formation.

you can't open account if you don't have UK passport (even if company is in UK)

That's complete BS. I (and others) run a Ltd company in the UK and none of us have UK or EU passports. Our company has a bank account with HSBC.

We are all residents in the UK though, which may be what's different for your situation.

That was the wording used by one nice lady on the telephone. (and I think you had to be member of some small biz uk "community")

- Another one asked if any officer in firm is from UK.

- Third said I can open account if I came to their office.

- Fourth I don't remember but was one of the above

I didn't call to HSBC, I saw on some forum someone opened account with them and later got some problems (that was in US) so I didn't look at them yet.

If you go through an accountant in the UK to create a company they used to be able to help arrange bank accounts - that may no longer be valid. If no one is resident in the UK (you certainly don't have to have a passport, I have 2 personal bank accounts and 3 business accounts and no passport) then you may have a problem.

I have only just started looking into this, but you may find you can open a company in Jersey or Isle of Man. I think you can do this remotely and get a bank account etc. Also if you are an EU citizen then you might want to try Ireland.

I'm sure you can appreciate why countries don't make it easy for non residents to do these things, and you may find it a lot easier to set up in your own home country until you can actually afford a presence in another country.

> you may find it a lot easier to set up in your own home country

It's often ridiculously expensive to have a real, limited liability company in many continental European countries. For instance, in Italy, you're supposed to have 10K euro of capital (although you can get away with less), not to mention pretty much mandatory fees for accountants, notary public, and so on.

I am Canadian and I incorporated (C Corp) in Delaware with Delaware Intercorp. The process was super easy, cheap and everything worked out for the best. I hired a lawyer for my bylaws and stuff, however. I didn't want to rely on their defaults. I guess I did everything the right way since this has never been an issue when a public company incorporated in DE acquired us.

I opened a bank account with RBC in Virginia (they also have branches in Florida). It was easy for Canadians, not sure about Europeans.

I've just concluded a deal with bizfilings.com, and have been completely impressed. They're the best bang-per-dollar and very professional. It takes around 24-36 hours to get the approval going (they do the name check and then manually review your papers to make sure nothing is amiss). One - two weeks later, you'll have scanned PDFs of your approval available online + hard copies via snail mail coming your way.

How much did it cost?

It's different depending on

a) the state

b) the type of corporation

I registered a non-profit in Illinois (cheap plug: NeoSmart Technologies @ neosmart.net)

Illinois is a bit more expensive than others. I paid 170 for the basic package without the rush processing.

Thanks.

I am a nonresident and I have incorporated in the US. I live in Chicago, however, on an F1 student visa (did my master's here), so some things were easier for me. Opening a bank account is not a problem, the problem is obtaining an EIN. Read this very carefully: http://danashultz.com/blog/2009/11/30/foreign-company-alert-...

TL;DR: opening a bank account is easy with an EIN, and obtaining an EIN is very easy if the foreign company looking to start up in the U.S. includes, among its officers, at least one who (a) controls, manages, or directs the corporation and the disposition of its funds and assets and (b) has an SSN.

FWIW, I did C-corp in Illinois through MyCorporation. Total cost was about $200 and it took almost a month (chose non-express option).

You will need an attorney or accountant to help you open the bank account if you are not around to to do it. It may be more economical for you to to simply visit the US and take care of that while you are here, since you'll be able to identify yourself and sign in person, which will be simpler than temporarily issuing power of attorney to a lawyer who you have never met to do so on your behalf.

Some bank sites allow you to open an account online. Doesn't that count?

I haven't found any like that. Do you have any names / links?

Just an example: https://online.citibank.com/US/JRS/pands/detail.do?ID=Checki....

This only applies to individuals. Business accounts don't have this option.

Hm, it seems to really be online. At some UK banks there was a online form but the second step was to go into one of their offices.

here: "To apply online, you must be 18 or older, a U.S. citizen or resident alien, and have a U.S. address. You also need a Social Security Number and U.S. driver's license or state-issued ID."

will check about business accounts.

Please let me know when you figure this out, I too am interested in this. My email is in my profile.

How about Ally Bank - http://www.ally.com/ - they are online-only and extremely internet/technology-savvy.

I don't see anything like business accounts there unfortunately.

There is one option you have not considered.

Name the US advisor as corporation treasury person, hence they would than open the US bank account in corp's name