Does a US LLC Give You Residency or a Visa?

Owning a US company does not change your immigration status, and it does not make you a US tax resident. The LLC is a legal person of its own. It can hold an EIN, open a business bank account, sign contracts and sell to American clients while you continue to live exactly where you live now. If a visa or residency is part of the plan, it comes from a separate path, for which the company can be one ingredient but never the whole recipe.

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01What does a US company give me, if not residency?

A presence. That is the precise word for it, and it is worth more than it sounds:

• A company formed under the law of a US state, able to own assets and enter into contracts in its own name
• An EIN, the federal tax number banks, platforms and clients ask for
• A US business bank account and access to US payment processors
• A US address of record through its registered agent

None of this requires you to live in the United States, or even to visit. Our guides on forming an LLC without travelling and opening a US business bank account as a non-resident cover each step.

02Can an LLC help me get a visa?

It can be the vehicle, not the visa. Three paths matter most to owners, and in each one the company is evidence, never an entitlement:

• E-2 treaty investor: for a national of a treaty country who is investing a substantial amount of capital in a genuine US enterprise and is entering solely to develop and direct it, shown by at least 50% ownership or operational control. Only nationals of countries on the State Department's treaty list qualify.
• L-1A intracompany transferee: for an executive or manager who has worked for a company abroad for one continuous year within the last three, moving to a related US company. A new US office must have secured premises, and the first stay is limited to one year.
• EB-5 immigrant investor: permanent residence for an investment of $1,050,000, or $800,000 in a targeted employment area or infrastructure project, that creates 10 full-time jobs for US workers.

An LLC formed online, with no capital deployed, no operations and no staff, supports none of these. What an immigration officer looks for is a real business, documented. Our note on what an E-2 or L-1 business plan has to prove covers that side.

03Does owning a US company make me a US tax resident?

No. For an individual, US tax residency follows a green card or physical presence in the United States, not ownership of a company. A foreign owner of a single-member LLC remains a nonresident, and the company files its own information returns. If you do become a US resident later, a great deal changes, which we set out in what happens to your LLC when your tax residency changes.

Formation

Establish your LLC.

The flexible structure most founders choose, set up for your state.

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04Can I work in the US through my own LLC?

Not on the strength of owning it. Working in the United States, including for a company you own, requires an immigration status that authorizes that work. Ownership and authorization are separate questions, and the second is answered only by a visa or a green card.

05Why do families keep a presence without residency?

Because they are two different decisions. Residency is a decision about where a family lives, where it pays tax on its worldwide income and where its children go to school. A US company is a decision about where a business can operate, bank and be trusted. Many of the families we advise keep the two deliberately apart, and choose the second without the first. We wrote about that choice in why established families still choose a US company.

Prodezk forms and maintains the company. When a visa is part of the plan, our advisors work alongside your immigration counsel so the business behind the petition is documented from the first day.