Building a US company from outside the US? Here is the path, from a company walking it.

What this page is for: the path to a US company from outside the US, and a written review of your papers by email. Next step: Tell us what you want →

In August 2026 Opsbench was formed as a US LLC from abroad with no US address, no Social Security number and no visit, filed for its EIN by fax, and had products selling before the bank account existed. Every step, every form line and every trap is written down as it happens. The guide is being relisted. Send us your papers and we tell you by email what we would check and how, within two business days of them arriving.

Being relistedPDF, no payment taken now

The guide: A US company from outside the US

The path in six short sections with the numbers and form lines we used. Edition 1 covers formation through the EIN filing; the EIN reply and the bank opening are written from the IRS and bank sources and are rewritten from our own experience as they land. Every buyer gets every edition, free, and the price rises when edition 2 ships.

Which state, and why New Mexico for us
The two documents that contradict each other, and the free fix
EIN by phone or fax with no SSN: the exact lines on Form SS-4
Why you will never get the CP 575, and what to ask for instead
What Mercury and Wise publish as their requirements, and what we sent
The four dates that carry penalties, including the one nobody mentions

What you can do now: read the real review published on this page, free, and leave your email in the form below; a person writes to you the day the guide is back, and nothing is charged until then.

Tell me when it is back

By emailwritten, two business days from your files

Want it checked for you? The Founder Review

Send what you have; you get a written review by email within two business days of your files arriving, and one round of follow up questions answered. Name the subject in your first email, and read a real one before you pay:

Your formation papers: we read them against what Mercury and Wise publish as their requirements and against the lines on Form SS-4, and mark every line that would send an application to manual review. Facts and gaps, not legal or tax advice
Your first customer: ten named US prospects, each checked by a person against a live buying signal, and the first three emails written for you in your voice. Not an automated list: every name comes with the signal we saw and where we saw it, and a prospect we could not verify is left out rather than padded in
Your AI headquarters: the setup plan for running sales, site, email and books from one repository with a small team of AI agents, the way Opsbench runs, sized to your business

Ask about a review by email

The guide comes with the review. Payment is by card through Gumroad, Inc., the merchant of record. This is a company sharing its own experience and general information. It is not legal, tax or accounting advice, no attorney client or advisor relationship is created, and your own situation needs a licensed professional in your jurisdiction. We will not review or advise on your specific legal or tax position.

Not for you if you are a US resident with a Social Security number, or you want someone to file for you. It is the record of what one company did, what it cost, and where it is still waiting.

What the review looks like when it lands

Every review is written to the same shape, so you can see what arrives before you pay. It is an email you read on a phone in five minutes, under 900 words, with nothing to download and no call to book.

The first line: the one thing we would change first if this were our own company.
The findings, one block each: the item, what your paper says now, why it stalls with a bank or a client, and what a complete version of that line normally carries. We do not draft clauses and we do not tell you what your documents should say as a matter of law. Where a finding needs a lawyer, we say so and name the question to ask.
Three first moves, in order, with the minutes each one takes.
What we did not check, named, so you can see the edge of the review.
One round of follow up questions, answered after you have read it.

A real one: the review we ran on our own papers

On 21 August 2026 we read the three documents our own formation service had sent us, the same way we read yours: the state approval letter, the single member operating agreement and the first resolutions. The member name is removed. The address you will see below is our own registered agent, which is public and sits in the footer of this page. This is the findings section as it was written.

1. The member address in the operating agreement is the registered agent address

What the paper says now: Member address: 1209 Mountain Rd Pl NE, Ste R, Albuquerque, NM 87110
Why it stalls: That is the registered agent, not a place anyone lives. A bank reads the member address on the agreement next to the address on your passport or your utility bill. When the two do not match, the file stops and comes back asking which one is you.
What replaces it: The residential address you can evidence with a utility bill or a bank statement, in the member address field. The agent address stays only where the state requires it.

2. The capital contribution is blank in both places

What the paper says now: Article 2.1 [ ] · Schedule 1 [ ] · Ownership: 100%
Why it stalls: Ownership was filled in automatically, the contribution behind it was not. An agreement that never says what the member put in reads as unfinished, and it is one of the first fields compared against the resolutions.
What replaces it: One figure and one date, written in both places and identical in both. A small figure is fine. A blank is not.

3. The agreement is not signed and not dated

What the paper says now: Certification page: signature blank, date blank. Bank resolution: bank, account, meeting date, signature, all blank.
Why it stalls: An unsigned agreement is not evidence of anything, and on its own it is enough to send the whole file back.
What replaces it: Sign and date it by hand before anything else on this list. The four bank resolution fields stay blank until the bank is chosen; those are filled on the day, not in advance.

4. A conditional thirty day clock is written inside the approval letter and nowhere else

What the paper says now: If your entity status is Pending Initial Report, an initial report must be filed within 30 days of this letter. Letter dated 20 August 2026.
Why it stalls: Thirty days from that date is 19 September 2026. It is the only deadline in the pack, it is not repeated anywhere, and nothing reminds you of it. It is also conditional, and the condition is not in the letter.
What replaces it: Put the date in the calendar first, then open your own state account and read the entity status, because only the account can say. Ours read as organised rather than Pending Initial Report, so the clock never applied and the entry was closed. That is the point of the row: a conditional deadline is either closed by reading the status or it is live, and assuming either way is what costs a penalty.

The three first moves

Sign and date the agreement, and fill the two capital lines. Twenty minutes.
Replace the member address with the residential address. Ten minutes.
Read the entity status in the state account, and put the letter date in the calendar. Ten minutes.

What we did not check

The address exactly as printed on the state approval letter itself. That file carries an embedded font we could not read, and the state portal blocks machine reading, so it has to be read by eye or from the account itself. We read the agreement instead and said so.
The live entity status, which sits behind a login that is yours and not ours.
Your legal or tax position. We report what the papers say and what is missing from them. We do not advise on either, and nothing above is legal, tax or accounting advice.

We ran it on ourselves before selling it. That agreement was rewritten on 27 August after a four way review, and the corrected version is the one we work from now. To get yours read, write to hello@opsbench.co and reply to your receipt with your files, or write to hello@opsbench.co first and ask. The 48 hours start when your files land, and the reply tells you the hour they did.

Order

Nothing on this page takes payment right now. The Filing Pack and the written review are both by email while we finish them. Prefer to ask something first? Tell us what you want and where to reach you, and a person replies within one business day.

Who is on the other end

Opsbench is a small US company that runs ecommerce operations for direct to consumer brands. It was formed from outside the United States in the summer of 2026 and every step was documented as it happened, because the guides we found were either out of date or written to sell a $200 filing package. The company is run from one repository with a small team of AI agents that handle prospecting, the website, email and the books, which is why the third review subject exists. More on the about page.

Running a store already? The other side of Opsbench: one trained operator on your hours from $1,650 a month. See what a seat costs → Or want the full walk of your store, free? Leave the address and an email and it reaches you within two business days, no card, no account. Send us the address →