Has anyone tried opening a remote company in the US?
I have applied for a remote company in Wyoming. It got successfully registered but I am struggling to open a bank account there.. 2 major banks denied me don't know why. I am assuming the reason they might overlook my company as an indie maker/solo freelancer selling software subscriptions and services.
I have heard somewhere that US banks don't prefer this kind of business model.
Any help or experiences?
https://wise.com ?
Wise is not a bank, even if they do provide business cards you'd still need an existing business bank account
Wise is the actual bank that's how I do business with my US company.
Wise is not a bank but a banking facilitator that helps in money transfers. It has tie-ups with many banks across the world that's why it can give you the actual working account.
That's my point. You can do business with it without any issues.
you just have to google 'wise is not a bank' to see their own documentation declaring that they are not a bank.
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If I remember correctly, there was a company from someone here on IH that had a similar service, but I can't exactly remember the name.
I've also heard about ireland having a program for foreign owned llcs, might be worth taking a look.
I had a company registered in US (Delaware); but decided to close it down. I'd highly recommend using a service like Stripe Atlas. They help with everything along with bank account.
Instead of Silicon Valley Bank, I'd recommend going with Mercury. SVB kept charging $25/mo just to keep the account active; while Mercury is free. I think their international wires are free too.
It's possible and it's almost painless. All the best.
Does Stripe Atlas only help you set-up the company or do they also provide support after the fact? I'm curious, how do you handle accounting, taxes and other obligations the company has? That seems a lot more important to me than just the setup process.
I've used Stripe Atlas, it is pretty good, but it's also a bit annoying because they just palm you off onto loads of third party accountancy, bookkeeping and legal services and are probably making a commission from doing that.
Have you tried out https://mercury.com/?
Yup they rejected.
how do they know you're a freelancer/indie/solo maker?
Try looking into Singapore/Estonia if possible
They have a long onboarding process where you got to share everything. I've done whole process via firstbase.io as they handle most of it... but bank is not in their control. do singapore offer such remote company setup?
Reach out to them https://osome.com/sg/
I used Osome for my company set up in SGP, fully remote. Bank account with Aspire ( swift) and OCBC ( 2 months, verifcation via Skype). Highly recommended.
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Hi Rajan. Can you share how you got your EIN?
Whole process was handled by firstbase.io
Ok. That's quite a heavy sum to pay and then not be able to open an account.
I'm looking into Mercury.com, but it looks like they didn't accept your application.
Perhaps it may make sense to start with Wise.com [or similar alternative]. It works with Stripe so you can start business and then pivot later if it makes sense?
Firstbase didn't helped you to open a bank account? Last time I talked they said they will help in banking too.
They have tied up with banking partners. so you can directly apply for a bank account from their portal only. but if the bank rejects they can only put you in reconsideration rest is the bank's decision which they can't alter as per them.
Although the way the customer representative was mailing me, sounds arrogant. I asked them to at least tell me the way to apply to other banks which are not on your portal. no help was provided.
Did you tried mercury?
I did this in the past using Stripe Atlas, and banking with Mercury.
Both services are okay, if incorporating in the US is legitimately important for your business.
I personally found US incorporation, and all the associated business and legal admin afterwards, to be incredibly stressful and it ended up feeling pointless as an EU-based company. I can imagine it's different in other countries as the US might seem like a better environment within which to establish yourself.
I used firstbase.io to incorporate and open banking at Relay financial. https://relayfi.com/
Their support(I mean Relay's support) is great and I could open a bank account just 1 day after I submit all the required documents.
Same as Stripe Atlas, Firstbase.io offers many rewards to registered companies.
Even I have used firstbase.. and my application is pending on reayfi since May.. and no one is responding. Firstbase simply denied they can't do anything if the bank rejects. What is your business model may I know? can i see the website?
You can send an email to support. I actually registered in May and had the same issue. I think there was a glitch with the Firstbase and Relay integration at the time.
https://www.shareloapp.com/
This is the website, it is a regular SaaS and since there's no banking, there's no revenue yet.
have you tried https://www.novo.co/? I heard they are more open to solo/freelancers
I, too, thought of opening US LLC (from India) however, after discovering Paddle.com, I don't see a point in opening a company in the US.
https://www.svb.com/startup-banking ?
what is your country of residence/citizenship?
India
you can try one of the branches of indian banks operating in usa like this one https://www.icicibankusa.com/ . They would be more comfortable in dealing with you however you would need to deposit some amount approx 20-25k USD.
If you just want to take money from customers and do not want actual banking i.e. loans/deposits etc. you can do so with paddle or fastspring. They will take care of taking money on your behalf and there would be a single transaction every month for you from them and it could be to yuor indian bank. You will be charged something for currency conversion or if you have fcnr account you can take money directly in usd without currency conversion.
OMG... thanks a lot. never knew about these services before.. the problem i assume with this approach is that i won't be able to receive those payment on my US company's name.. as that won't be the company's account ... am i right ?
you can but it is complicated. You will first have to notarize your documents from US company and open indian bank account for your US company in india than you can take money using it unfortunately your company will become foreign company resident in india and laws are quite complex for this kind of structure.
It would be easier for you to just close US based company and start new company in your country of residence. If you don't want to open a new company you can do something like sole trader/propriteorship (search for it) and get separate tax id for your company. I am assuming you are selling simple products if you plan to sell cryptocurrency/blockchain etc. than please take advice from some professional.
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