Form a US LLC from Saudi Arabia

You do not need a US Social Security Number to get an EIN (Employer Identification Number), and you do not need to visit the US. As a non-resident with no SSN or ITIN, you file Form SS-4 by fax or mail (the IRS does not allow non-SSN holders to apply online) and list 'Foreign' as your identification type. Processing by fax typically takes 4-7 business days once the IRS confirms receipt; mail can take several weeks. This is the single step where Saudi founders lose the most time, mainly because the SS-4 form's 'responsible party' field is easy to fill out incorrectly for a foreign national -- get this wrong and the IRS mails back a rejection rather than emailing it, adding weeks to your timeline.

Wyoming and Delaware are the two states Saudi founders ask about most, usually because they have seen both names in Gulf startup circles. Wyoming keeps ongoing costs low ($60 annual report, no franchise tax) and asks nothing about your business publicly. Delaware costs more to maintain (up to $400/year under the state's 2026 franchise tax schedule) but is the default choice if you are building toward outside investment, since US and international VCs are most comfortable with Delaware C-Corps and, for LLCs, Delaware's well-tested case law. If your business is an e-commerce brand, a SaaS product with no near-term funding plans, or an agency serving international clients, Wyoming's cost profile usually wins. If you are building something you expect to pitch to a16z or Sequoia within 18 months, register in Delaware from day one -- converting later costs more than starting right.

Saudi Arabia does not tax personal income. There is no US-Saudi tax treaty either, because there has never been a need for one -- Saudi Arabia has nothing to offset. That combination catches a lot of Saudi founders off guard. If you have only ever filed with GOSI and never touched an income tax return, the idea of the IRS taxing a company you formed 12,000 kilometers away can feel like it should not apply to you. It does. A US LLC is a US legal entity regardless of where its owner lives, and the IRS taxes US-source income (and, depending on your structure, worldwide income if you are a US person) whether or not your home country taxes anything at all. The absence of a treaty means there is no bilateral mechanism to offset double taxation between Saudi Arabia and the US -- but for most non-resident Saudi founders using a single-member LLC taxed as a disregarded entity, that rarely matters in practice, because Saudi Arabia was never going to tax that income anyway. What it does mean is that you cannot lean on treaty language to reduce US withholding rates the way a founder from a treaty country might; your LLC's tax position rests entirely on US domestic law (primarily Effectively Connected Income rules and IRS Form 5472 reporting), not on any bilateral agreement.

Wyoming requires an annual report and $60 fee by the first day of your formation anniversary month. Delaware's annual franchise tax (up to $400 for most small LLCs under the 2026 schedule) is due June 1 regardless of formation date. Form 5472 and the pro-forma 1120 are due April 15 (or October 15 with an extension) -- these are federal deadlines, unaffected by which state you formed in. Keep a simple calendar with all three dates; missing the state deadline risks administrative dissolution, and missing the federal one risks the $25,000 penalty.

A single-member LLC owned by a non-resident is a disregarded entity for US tax purposes by default. If the LLC has no US trade or business and no US-source income beyond routine services delivered from outside the US, there may be no US federal income tax owed -- but the LLC still owes annual information reporting via IRS Form 5472 and a pro-forma Form 1120, regardless of income level. Missing this filing carries a $25,000 minimum penalty, which is disproportionate to how easy the form itself is to complete. Because Saudi Arabia has no personal income tax, there is no foreign tax credit to claim and no treaty tie-breaker rules to apply -- your US filing obligations exist independent of anything happening on the Saudi side.

GCC founders generally have an easier banking experience than founders from countries with stricter KYC flags, but a Saudi-issued ID alone will not open a US business bank account without a US address and EIN in hand first. Mercury and Relay both accept Saudi applicants once the LLC and EIN are formed, and neither requires a US visit. Stripe Atlas users report the smoothest onboarding since Stripe pairs company formation with Stripe payment access, though Stripe itself is not a bank. For receiving USD payments from Saudi or GCC clients, most founders route through Wise or Payoneer alongside their primary US bank account rather than using SADAD or a SAMA-licensed Saudi bank for US-side transactions, since SAR is pegged at 3.75 to the dollar and freely convertible -- moving USD in and out of Saudi Arabia carries no exchange control friction the way it would for a founder in, say, Argentina or Ukraine.