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Comment by ValentineC | Hacker News Reader

Piggybacking on this.

If I'm a non-resident alien looking to incorporate the cheapest US-based company so that I can open a business bank account for credit card churning, would a Colorado LLC still be the the best choice for me?

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You’ll need an SSN to open most credit cards, it’s very difficult to get a credit card without residency. The business banks that specifically cater to overseas founders (like Mercury) make banking easy but that doesn’t extend to churning credit cards.

Edit: put simply, it’s very unlikely that opening an LLC will help you in obtaining credit cards as a non-resident.

I assume ”non-resident” in this context means not a permanent resident, but still a SSN-holding resident otherwise. For example a TN or H1-B visa.

These visas don’t authorize you to work for a company other than the one officially sponsoring the visa, but you are allowed to own your own business. Perhaps that is the motivation for wanting to open an LLC, but I’m not sure what an LLC gets you in this situation that simply declaring yourself a sole proprietor doesn’t.

You're wrong. Non-resident alien means the person is at-best a tourist. Most likely the person is outside of the US and _maybe_ visits occasionally.

No, you are totally wrong. You should not comment on things that you have no understanding of. A non-resident alien is any person in the US who is not a citizen, green card holder, or passes the substantial presence test. There are millions of non-resident aliens on visas in the US.

Substantial presence test is applied by IRS only for tax residency. You can be on h1-b for 5 years, pass the SPT and classify as tax resident but still be non-resident alien in the eyes of DHS/USCIS/SSA.

In the United States, non-resident alien is someone who does not have a LPR or US citizenship. Students on F1 Visas and J1 visas for example, are categorized as Nonresident aliens.

H1B is a dual purpose visa on the other hand. LPRs and Citizens are obviously categorized as residents.

Completely wrong.

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