People often ask two questions as if they were one. Do you need a visa to own a US company? No. Does owning a US company get you a visa? Also no. A company exists on paper and says nothing about where its owner may live or work, so this guide keeps the two questions apart.
Owning and running the company from abroad
No state asks about immigration status when it forms a company, and the IRS issues EINs to companies with foreign owners. Mercury opens accounts for owners in most countries, and Wise Business and Payoneer cover many of the rest. Stripe and PayPal accept US companies with foreign owners, after their own review. You can form and run the company from another country without a visa or a visit.
What the company doesn't do
Owning a US company doesn't give you any right to enter, live or work in the United States. It isn't a route to residency, and it doesn't change how a consular officer looks at your visa application. Be wary of anyone who suggests otherwise.
Visiting on business
To meet clients, attend a conference or negotiate a contract in the US, you travel as a business visitor: with an ESTA if you're a citizen of a Visa Waiver Program country, or on a B-1 visa if you aren't. Business visitors can attend meetings, negotiate and consult. They can't work, meaning perform paid services while in the US, and running your company's day-to-day operations from inside the country for weeks at a time can cross that line. Keep trips short and about meetings.
Visas connected to a business
- E-2 treaty investor, for citizens of treaty countries who make a substantial investment in a US business they'll run. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Türkiye, the Philippines and the United Kingdom are on the list; India, Nigeria and Brazil aren't.
- L-1 intracompany transferee, for someone who has worked for at least one continuous year, within the last three, at a company abroad with a related US company.
- O-1, for people with extraordinary ability in their field, which some founders can show.
- H-1B, an employer-sponsored work visa. A founder's own company can sponsor one, but it needs a genuine employer-employee relationship and goes through the yearly lottery like anyone else's.
Each has its own requirements, timeline and lawyer. Forming a company is sometimes one step in the process, never all of it, and we don't advise on any of them.
Working in the US for your own company
Doing paid work while you're physically in the United States requires work authorisation, even when the employer is your own company. It can also give the company a US trade or business and make part of your income US-source, which changes the tax picture. If you plan to move to the US, sort out the visa first and the company second.