Forming a US LLC from Bangladesh: what the guides leave out

Most people researching this find the same article fifteen times: pick a state, file the articles, done. That describes about a fifth of the work, and it is the fifth that is least likely to go wrong.

Here is the part that actually takes the time, in the order you will meet it.

Yes, you can own a US LLC from Dhaka

There is no citizenship or residency requirement to own a US LLC. You do not need a visa, a US address of your own, or a US partner. This is the question we are asked most often, and the answer is genuinely the simple one.

What you do need is a registered agent with a physical address in the state you file in — a legal requirement in every state, not an upsell — and a US business address for the things that will ask you for one later.

The EIN is where it slows down

The EIN is your company's tax ID. Everything downstream wants it: the bank, the marketplace, the payment processor.

The online application requires the responsible party to have a Social Security Number or ITIN. If you have neither, that route is closed — but the application is not. On Form SS-4, a responsible party who has no SSN or ITIN and is ineligible for one can enter "foreign" on line 7b. The IRS instructions then give international applicants three routes:

• Phone — international applicants can call the IRS directly on +1 267-941-1099, Monday to Friday, 6:00 to 23:00 Eastern. That is 17:00 to 10:00 the next morning in Dhaka, so it means a late call.
• Fax — the IRS states an EIN generally comes back within four business days.
• Mail — the IRS states approximately four weeks, and advises applying four to five weeks before you need it.

Those are the IRS's own published figures, checked in August 2026. Real queues move at their own pace and nobody controls them, which is why we quote our own turnaround for preparing and submitting the form, and not the government's for processing it.

The bank is the real gate

This is the step that fails, and it fails for reasons that have nothing to do with you: a partner tightening its policy on a whole country in a given quarter, a document standard changing, an application queue closing to new non-resident accounts.

Anyone who guarantees you a US business bank account is telling you something they cannot know. What can be done is preparing the application properly, knowing which partner currently accepts applicants from Bangladesh, and going to a second one when the first declines.

The filing almost nobody mentions

If a single-member LLC is wholly owned by a foreign person, the IRS treats it as a corporation for one narrow purpose: information reporting. That LLC has to file a pro forma Form 1120 with Form 5472 attached, every year, even if the company earned nothing.

The penalty for not filing it is $25,000, per the IRS instructions for Form 5472.

That is not a scare figure invented to sell a compliance package. It is the published penalty, it applies to dormant companies, and it is the single most expensive thing a founder can not know about a US LLC. If you already have a US LLC and this is new to you, stop reading and speak to an accountant this week.

Bizmo is not a law firm and not an accountancy practice, and nothing here is tax advice. What we will do is tell you the obligation exists before you file, rather than after you have missed it.

What an LLC does not do

Worth saying plainly, because the internet is vague about it:

• It does not get you a visa, or any right to enter or work in the US.
• It does not by itself make you a US tax resident, and it does not by itself exempt you from tax either — that depends on where your income comes from and where you live, which is a question for a professional in your jurisdiction.
• It does not guarantee a bank account, a Stripe account, or a marketplace approval.
• It does not end after year one. There is an annual report or franchise tax in the state, a registered agent renewal, and the federal filing above.

Which state

We file in Wyoming, Florida and Texas, and only those three. Filing in a state we work in every week is faster and less error-prone than filing in one we do not.

The differences between them are smaller than the internet suggests. State filing fees differ, and each package on our services page states the fee it covers. If you have a specific reason to need another state — a physical presence, a licence, a partner's requirement — that is a conversation rather than a package, and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.

What it costs, including year two

Every package and price is published on the services page. There is no "contact us for pricing", because that mainly exists to price the customer rather than the service.

The number that matters more is the second one. Every US company has recurring costs after year one, and the most common way founders get caught is a renewal invoice they never saw coming. We put your recurring costs in writing before you file. If a provider will not give you that number up front, that itself is the answer.

If you want to talk it through, book a free consultation. Thirty minutes, no obligation, and if what you want is not possible we will say so on the call rather than after you have paid.