I am a UK based IMer and I want to have a US incorporated business. The primary goal is to have a US payment processing presence but I like the idea of a US subsiduary. Rather than just picking a name from google I was wondering if someone could refer me to a good incorporation agent? Also, any gotchas or hard lessons that you've learned that would save me time, hassle and prison lol! Cheers AJ
AJ, LegalZoom is a pretty large company that handles incorporation services. As well, incfile dot com. There are basically three parts to forming a corporation: 1) Legal Entity based in the US - your branch must be located in a particular state 2) Registered Agent - Each business much have a registered agent to receive legal notifications. incfile includes this service. Not sure about legal zoom. Typically, this costs about $100-200 per year 3) Registeration service - file with the state of your branch and then file for an EID with the federal government for tax purposes
Sorry to say you won't likely be able to get a US payment processing system without being a US citizen or at least having a US SSN. Without a US credit score to tie to your person/business rating you can't get it.
I understood that the business can get an EID and that is all the company needs to get a merchant account.
Last time I started an LLC, I needed the EID to get a checking account at a bank, but I think fathom is right. You'll need a US SSN on the incorporation forms.
Right, okay. I perhaps have been misinformed. I was led to believe that using a nominee service the company can get the EID (the corp. equiv of a SSN).
Well you can only get an EID after you have formed an LLC, I believe (but am not certain) that to form the LLC, you'll need to include the members or owners of the company, their associated addresses and probably SSNs.
I'm in Canada with a Canadian company (and Canadian merchant services)... I have 2 US companies - both easy to setup and neither could get merchant services through two different banks... because of Homeland Security.
To register company in USA you do not to be either a citizen or resident of USA. You have to choices to register company in USA. If your company is registered in UK then you can create a foreign entity in the USA of your UK company to conduct business in USA. But for this process additional documentation are required and may cause a delay in process to register your company in USA. And Second choice is: If you want to use same shareholders', members and existing entity name of your UK corporation then you can register your new company instead of creating a foreign entity of your UK corporation to conduct business in USA and it will serve the same purpose.
if you check out http://www.coddan.co.uk you can get a Delaware LLC Formations from £100.00 http://www.coddan.co.uk/s-7C-delaware-llc-formation.html
Great information. I was looking for some agents in USA. This is really helpful. I think registered office holds special importance.