Opening a Foreign Company Is Not Difficult — But Banking Is

Opening a foreign company is not just possible — in many cases, it is surprisingly simple.

Below is a brief overview of several popular jurisdictions for start-ups: the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Georgia.

The prices and conditions in this article should be checked and updated before the website goes live. Company registration costs, banking requirements, tax rules and compliance expectations can change quickly.

United States

A comfortable way to open a company in the United States costs around $500. One option is to use Stripe Atlas, a service offered by the well-known payment provider Stripe.

In addition to standard company registration services, such as incorporation in Delaware and obtaining a tax number, Stripe provides additional benefits such as AWS credits, payment acquiring, a set of documentation and guides, and access to a large partner network of investment funds and accelerators.

Registered agent support, which is mandatory for companies registered in Delaware, costs an additional annual fee.

If you simply need to register a company without additional bonuses, it may be possible to do this more cheaply through a Delaware registered agent service.

The real problem is usually not company formation — it is opening a bank account.

At present, opening an account for a company with a Ukrainian citizen as founder may be difficult, depending on the bank, the founder’s residency, the company’s business model and compliance risk profile.

United Kingdom

A company in the United Kingdom can be registered independently online, quickly and cheaply. This is one of the reasons why the UK remains one of the most attractive countries for doing business.

However, if you do not live in the UK, you will need an address. For company registration purposes, a virtual office can often be sufficient.

The main questions begin with the bank account.

Unlike in the United States, the citizenship of the company’s owners is usually not the main issue in the UK. What matters more is the director’s place of residence, the company’s actual connection to the UK and whether there is genuine business substance.

If you do not have at least one UK-based director and a practical presence in the UK, opening an account with a traditional UK bank may be very difficult.

In that case, one option may be to try opening a bank account for the UK company in another country, or to work with suitable EMI/fintech providers, depending on the structure and risk profile.

Ireland

In Ireland, the process is generally similar to the United Kingdom. A company can be registered online relatively easily.

However, banking may again be the limiting factor. In practice, the availability of a local or EU-based director, business substance and a clear operational connection can be important for opening and maintaining a bank account.

Georgia

Georgia can be attractive for IT companies because of its relatively low tax burden and business-friendly environment.

The cost of opening a company may include local legal support, document preparation, travel and accommodation. In practical terms, it may be possible to register a company and open a local bank account within a short period, provided the documents are prepared correctly.

There are generally no strict citizenship requirements for owners or directors, which makes Georgia flexible for international founders.

The real conclusion

Opening a foreign company is often the easy part.

The difficult part is creating a structure that actually works: banking, tax logic, substance, director residency, payment providers, compliance documentation, contracts, accounting and long-term maintainability.

A company can be registered in a day. A reliable international structure takes much longer to design.